Every year near the end of August I do a baseball trip with my son Brady around the time of his birthday 25 August. This year we went to Tampa and Miami to check out the Buccaneers (pre-season football game) the Marlins and the Rays.
The Tampa stop included their Monday night game at Raymond James Stadium with the Bengals. Here are some photos I nicked from Brady’s FB page:
Great seats but guess I need to work on my selfie poses.
On Tuesday we, mostly Brady, drove down to Miami for the Marlins – Pirates game at Marlins Park. Great facility, fairly new but nearly empty attendance-wise reflective of the Marlins being in last place. (However, they won that Tuesday that we were there.)
On Wednesday we returned to Tampa/St. Pete area to watch the Rays in their Tropicana Dome.
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Covering over 700 miles, we hit three games in three days in three different cities. I enjoyed every minute of it but did have one minor, not-so-cool-experience as follows.
With some time to kill in St. Pete, we drove round trying to find the moving company where Doug Courtney and I worked the summer of 69 following our high school graduations. Brady and I tracked down the old warehouse only to learn that the moving company that Doug and I worked for had relocated elsewhere and that the building is now being used to fabricate brewery equipment. Building was run down and nothing like what I remembered it looking like. Same old story “Don’t look back.”
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| Formerly Blocker Van Lines and Storage |
We met a guy in the warehouse parking lot who offered to give us directions to the moving company’s new address but opted instead to hit St. Pete’s number one sports bar and restaurant – Ferg’s.
Whenever I am in Florida, always think of Tom Petty who was born and raised in Gainesville, Florida.