Thursday, February 22, 2018

Atlanta Braves will play first spring training game tomorrow in Florida

Tradition Field at Port St. Lucie, Fla.
Alabama and Auburn opened their baseball seasons on Friday with three-game series at home, and if their performances in those games are any indication, the Tide and Tigers may have big seasons ahead of them.

Alabama played host to Valparaiso, a college in Indiana, and swept all three games of the season-opening series in Tuscaloosa. Alabama won, 16-2, on Friday, 6-5 on Saturday and 12-6 on Sunday.

Auburn played host to Longwood, a college in Virginia, and also swept all three games of their season-opening series in Auburn. Auburn won, 6-0, on Friday, 25-1 on Saturday and 3-0 on Sunday. Yes, you read that correctly: Auburn outscored them, 34-1, over the course of three days.

Now, I know as well as the rest of you that Valparaiso and Longwood are not juggernauts in the college baseball world, but you know that Alabama and Auburn were happy to get their seasons started with clean sweeps at home. Tougher competition lies ahead, so fans of both teams are left with the hope that their favorite team will build on this early success.

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Clint Hyde stopped by the newspaper office a few days ago and asked if I was going to watch any of the Major League spring training games this year. I’d love to go in person some day to watch a real-life, spring training game, but I probably won’t make it down there this year. For me, this is a “bucket list” type item, so maybe one day I’ll find my way down to Florida to watch a “Grapefruit League” game.

I probably will watch a few of these games on television. I get the MLB Network on my TV at home, and they show just about all of the spring games leading up to the start of the real season. This is one of the best stations on TV if you’re looking for good, clean programming – plus it’s 24-7 baseball.

The Atlanta Braves will play their first spring training game tomorrow (Friday) when they play the New York Mets at Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Play is set to start at 12:10 p.m., and it’ll be interesting to see how the Braves perform against their division rivals.

Spring training games are actually pretty interesting to watch. Even though you’ve got some big money players who know they’re going to make the team, you’ll also see a lot of guys who are trying to make the 25-man roster. You’ll really see guys playing their hearts out trying to get out of the Minors and into the Big Show.

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Before I close this thing out again for this week, I feel that I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that it’s always around this time of year that I get the itch to play fantasy baseball. I haven’t heard of anyone locally getting a league going this year, but if you need someone extra to play, let me know. If you’re worried that I may bust up the game, don’t worry. I’ve yet to ever win a fantasy baseball league, and I don’t foresee myself breaking that streak any time soon.

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