Spring Training, pt. 1 - "Pimp My Ride"

Thursday, March 23, 2006 - Left my house in NE Florida and headed south to pick up my good friend, David Wooten, who is executive pastor at Riverbend Community Church in Ormond Beach. Our destination: Dodgertown in Vero Beach to see a spring training game between the two most storied baseball franchises in the National League. I was excited to see a game in what is reportedly the best spring training complex in baseball.

I met David at his church. I was planning on driving, but David insisted that he drive. So I parked my car in the church parking lot, got all my game gear out, and walked with him over to his "new" car (new meaning new to him). Now when someone says, "I got a new set of wheels" I usually assume that they are now driving a different vehicle than before. But when David says that he got a new set of wheels, he is speaking a different kind of language...he's using street talk...he's being fly or dope or cool or whatever the latest word is for that.



Now you need to understand something, while David and I have a lot in common, we also have some distinct differences. First, I am from rural Southern Illinois. David is from Memphis. There just aren't as many cool cats in Franklin County, IL as there are in Memphis. Second, David has teenagers. I have preschoolers. David is all about being cool around the kids. I'm all about being climbed on by the kids.

So I slid into the passenger seat of this pimped ride of David's to find myself in the cockpit of ultra-modern jet fighter, at least that is the decor I think the designer's were going for. Everything was silver and black. As we roared away from the church and jumped on I-95 South we immediately passed the Daytona Int'l. Speedway on our left and as David worked the stick shift in this pimped ride we were in, I thought for a second we were in the 500.



I am not making this up. After we had been on the road for a little over an hour a very strange phenomena occurred: someone actually passed us. And then, no joke, as this other sports car passed us, the lady in the passenger side (probably in her mid to late 40s) turned her head as far as her neck would let her so that she could look at David's wheels. She never looked at us and never looked at the rest of David's car. She was totally fixated on the wheels. Too bad it wasn't night, I'm sure she would have loved seeing David's blue neon lights under the car.

We arrived in Vero Beach about 70 minutes before the first pitch, easily found our way to Dodgertown, parked and entered the left field gates.



What immediately struck me was how many Cardinals fans were there. Once we got into the ballpark, I estimated that there were more Cardinal fans present than Dodger fans. My suspicions were confirmed by the noise level after plays once the game got started. Of course, to be fair to the Dodger fans out there, the Dodgers didn't have a whole lot to cheer about.

We got to see Jose Oquendothrow a little batting practice, although they finished their warm ups just a few minutes after we arrived. It was great to see a healthy looking Scott Rolen doing some running with Jim Edmonds.



Just ten minutes after we got to Holman Stadium, we hooked up with my old buddy Tim Ellsworth. Tim was fresh off interviews that morning with Bill Mueller and J. D. Drew. Tim does an excellent job in his weekly column for Baptist Press Sports. Look for the fruit of his spring training trip in future editions. My buddy David, an aspiring blogger himself, was deeply moved and honored to finally meet the blogging legend in person. Here are the three of us at the game:



The last time I had seen Tim was last summer when we had been at a wedding in Atlanta while he was there to see the Braves. We connected for lunch at the world-famous Varsity, just across from the campus of Georgia Tech.

Tim was able to sit right behind us for a few minutes, but by game time he was bumped by the folks who purchased the seats. So, it was nice to visit with him before the game, but unfortunately a packed out ballpark prohibited him from sitting with us during the game.

Next post: the game