Saturday, March 20 1999

Good morning and welcome to Day 1 of the 6th Annual Spring Training Trek 1999!

The Gregorian year begins January 1st. The modern Jewish New Year begins in the Fall with the holiday of Rosh Hashanah. But in old times, the beginning of Spring was considered the birth of the new year, following the cold of Winter. Likewise, Spring signals the rebirth of the Baseball season. Today is the first day of Spring, and the first day of my 1999 Spring Training Trek. And so I find myself transported from my normal mundane life in Atlanta to a new world, a Disney World, where the appearance of reality supersedes the truth of it.

Tonight, the Braves will compete against the New York Mets in the first of 8 Spring Training games I will attend over the next 9 days. Some of these games will be carried by Fox SportSouth or the opposing team's broadcast operations. But that is not the purpose of this posting.

Rather, I hope to provide some incite into the experience of Spring Training. True, Spring Training the Disney way is not the norm with by to measure standard Spring Training for other teams. But I am not here to discuss reality; I am here to talk baseball and the Braves.

Flying in to Orlando, as the AirTran jet began its descent, I was looking out of the window and noticed something. There were a lot of baseball fields below. Some were clustered together, others were near the track and football fields that signified a school. Some were cleanly trimmed diamonds, and others were less manicured. It occurred to me that baseball is ingrained into our culture, that no matter what the owners and players do to the game, the children will ensure that baseball will survive as America's favorite pastime.

I checked into the Port Orleans Resort, a guest community designed to reflect the style and atmosphere of the bayou. Since the game did not start until 7pm, I decided to get my shopping done early at Downtown Disney's Marketplace. This probably will prove to not be a good idea; having already purchased what I wanted, I will be vulnerable to window shopping for what I wish for, which can become very expensive very quickly. I picked up my ticket for Cirque du Soleil's La Nouba, and sat down for lunch at the Wolfgang Puck Cafe in Downtown Disney's West End.

After snacking on assorted fresh breads and a Chicken Tortilla soup with Feta cheese, I jumped into the main dish of home made pumpkin-stuffed ravioli with toasted garlic and pine seeds. Sounds hoity poity, but it was actually rather good and rather reasonable.

Disney provides water taxies from selected resorts the Downtown Disney area which includes the Marketplace, West End, and certainly not least, Pleasure Island where every night is New Years Eve! A 10 minute ride on the Southern Belle, one of the boats of the Sassacoula Steamboat Co. through Disney's network of canals and water ways connects the Port Orleans Resort with a world of entertainment, shopping, and dining.

Sound like a travel guide? I just want you all to get a picture of the appearance that will be my reality for the next week. Theoretically, you can travel by boat from/to any Disney location within the property by navigating the network of water ways through which Disney manages the water table.

Ok, on to the game. Disney transportation dropped me off right in front of the Disney Wide World of Sports complex. If that sounds a little like ABC's Wide World of Sports, duh. Disney owns ABC along with ESPN, a frequent theme in merchandise and decoration. The main ballpark built for the Atlanta Braves is absolutely spectacular, with a Floridian design and features that resembles no less than a Major League ballpark scaled down for 7000 guests. And there I sat in Aisle 114, Row B, Seat 3. Just to the left of home plate, so close you can't help but flinch when a ball is fouled back to the screen. Spring Training baseball is more intimate than those games you share with 50,000 of your closest friends.

Top of the first, Bruce Chen started for Atlanta by giving up a home run to Mets outfielder Jermaine Allensworth. Robin Ventura lined into Center, followed by a fly-out to center by Mike Piazza. Mike Kinkade grounded to short, Piazza out at 2nd, but the through to 1st pulls Klesko off the bag preventing the double-play. Mariano Duncan was at the plate when a Piazza attempt to steal 2nd ends the inning.

Otis Nixon led off the 1st inning by striking out. Bret Boone followed as Mets pitcher Hideo Nomo had the Braves flustered early. Chipper Jones lined to center field for a base hit, followed by a walk to Brian Jordan to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Javier Lopez lined into right field to score Chipper. Klesko walked to load the bases for Andruw Jones, who started the game hitting only .192 for the Spring. Nomo, suddenly losing the control that mystified Nixon and Boone, walked Jones scoring Jordan. Walt Weiss ground out to 1st to end the inning, with the score Braves 2, Mets 1. In the 2nd inning, Chen got his first of two strike-outs in the game.

In the bottom of the inning, Chen walked and Otis Nixon sent one up the first base line. Nomo tried to lunge at Nixon as he ran by, but missed giving Nixon 1st on an error. Boone struck out a second time before Chipper Jones lined a double into right field to load the bases. Brian Jordon lined down the 3rd base line to score Nixon, leaving Jones at 3rd and the bases still after Lopez drew a walk. Klesko grounded to 1st, but the throw home pulled Piazza off the plate. The umpire called Jones out, and received a round of boos for the effort. Andruw Jones then lined into right field scoring Chipper and Lopez. Walt Weiss popped out to end the inning.

And that was pretty much the game until the the Mets get another run off a Pedro Grifol single off Micah Bowie in the 8th inning. The Braves got the run back in the bottom of the inning with a lead-off homer launched by Randall Simon. John Rocker came on to close it in the top of the 9th, striking out two and finishing off the Mets. Totals were Braves 7 runs, 12 hits, 1 error; Mets 2 runs, 7 hits, 1 error.

Ok, so I got tired and skipped some stuff. If you want box scores, you can read the newspaper, and I couldn't keep up with all the substitutions. But I can say Chen looked stronger in his latter innings than in the 1st, and the Braves looked good taking advantage of Nomo's early problems without the long ball. Rocker was throwing hard in the 9th, but Seanez owes a round to his infield. In general, the pitching was strong and the offense was hot. But then again, this was the Mets and tomorrow is another day.

Fuskie