First things first. Why didn’t someone tell me about the chaos that is the Orlando Int’l Airport? On the weekend? Yikes. Somebody shoot me. People and lots of kids everywhere. Yes I know. Disney. Enough said. This place was unreal. I am fast forwarding to next year, and I will be doing things differently. The lines for the rental cars were snaking around, so I was so glad that we were staying at the Hyatt that night (which happens to be in this airport/mall.) Staying at this place was both convenient and chaotic. Obviously, it was nice to avoid the pressure of getting to and from the airport. On the other hand there is the craziness that unfolds once you step away from the elevators at the Hyatt.  As soon as you walk around the other side of the elevators you see lines of people on each side trying to get through security. In retrospect, the jury is still out on recommending this Hyatt. With that being said, the facilities were very nice.

On to the trip to KISS. I sure love having a GPS. This takes away a lot of the stress that comes with driving in an unfamiliar area. You add some rain to the mix, and that makes me love the device even more. 
 Once we arrived at the stadium it started to let up. IT’S
GAME TIME. We sat next to some Canadians who had come down to watch the only team they have there. They were very friendly people, they even let us use their towels to wipe down the rain off our seats. This guy asks me who our star player was. I automatically said “Berkman.” He didn’t understand me at first, so I repeated it. Then he asked what position he played, and I said 1st base. Well, low and behold who trots out to play first base??? Not Berkman. Once I saw this, I turned to the guy and said, “Well, you never know who is going to play in Spring Training.” No offense to Darin, but what a buzzkill this was. The star player wasn’t playing. I gave him a back up just in case. “Carlos Lee is next in line.” I read later on Alyson’s blog that Berkman’s shoulder was bothering him. Now, I’m hearing that he’ll be fine. We’ll see.  It was nice to see Pudge behind the plate.
 He doesn’t have the skills he had when he was a young buck with the Rangers, but he is an upgrade at the catcher position here. Most definitely. Not a lot of action until Mr. Double Mint hit a dinger. Then, there was the unfortunate situation of having the bases loaded and nobody out in the 6th inning, but no one could deliver. That was frustrating. Pudge was the last one up to come away with nothing.  Lee was galloping around out there and even managed a hit. This Romero for the Blue Jays had some good stuff today, but it wasn’t this dog’s day. I was hoping the Astros would get another chance to show us something after that dismal display in the 6th inning and they did. Pence came through with an RBI that tied it up in the 7th and Louuuuu Santangelo tattooed one in the bottom of the 8th to put us up for good. What? It’s premature for the Looouuu call? Here are a couple of pics of the stars of the game. Here is Pence with a sweet swing.

                                                 Here is the Looouuuuu…….

Winning Spring Training games DOES matter (if you’re there watching.)  I also must thank my lovely wife for taking the pictures, and then resizing them.