Brandon in PSL: Spring Training wrap-up

Well I’ve been in Port St. Lucie for a week now, and I think it’s safe to say I’ve explored the city enough. We’re going to be here for one more day, but tomorrow there are no games. So the plan is to chill out by the pool, play a little golf, and go down to the bowling alley to watch some Mets bowl. So here were my favorite features of the city, and some of my favorite baseball moments.

Lodging:

Well we only stayed in one place for the week, which was at the Castle Pines Golf Villa. For people who like to golf, I highly recommend this place. You can get a nice room with beds for a very reasonable price, and you’re a two minute drive from a PGA course and a driving range. I’m not very good at golf, so I didn’t want to embarrass myself on the course, so I stuck to the driving range. I thought it would have been nice if they offered some sort of discount for the people staying at the Villas, but it still wasn’t that much for a bucket of balls.

Restaurants:

Almost every place we eat at was nice. My favorite was the Spice Thai Restaurant, which had great food at affordable prices. Second, I’d put Hokkaido Hibachi, which had the best miso soup I’ve ever had in my life. Being a vegetarian, they didn’t have too much for me to choose from, but most of you won’t run into that problem. Other places we eat at were Spiro’s Taverna (Greek), Mi Pueblo (Mexican), Chili’s, and Tutto Fresco (Italian; the owner is from Long Island). I’d recommend any of these places, especially Tutto’s for lunch.

Entertainment:

Golf, pool, and baseball. That’s pretty much all we did for a week, and I couldn’t really complain. We went on a couple walking trails in Port St. Lucie, and took a boat tour along the St. Lucie River. On the tour we saw a bunch of Florida Alligators, turtles, and a few different birds. The people going the tour were very knowledge and it was interesting to see a different side of Port St. Lucie. The other place to visit for some fun is Superplay U.S.A and Duffy’s. Superplay has bowling, mini golf, batting cages, lazer tag, and arcade games. This is the place that the Mets go on Sunday nights to have their bowling night. At Duffy’s they have a lot of good deals on drinks and seemed like the most popular bar in town.

Baseball:

We went to five games while we were down here; four games in Port St. Lucie and one game in Jupiter. On Sunday we saw the Mets against the Marlins, which was rained out after the 5th inning. Monday we traveled
to Jupiter to see the Cardinals take on the Braves. Tuesday the Cardinals came to PSL to take on the Mets. He had to wait a few days until the next game at PSL, which was Friday when the Tigers came to town. On St. Patrick’s Day we saw the Braves again, but this time they were taking on the Mets.

Stadiums:

Digital Domain Park was actually very nice. No matter where you are sitting you feel close to the action. It’s a very relaxed atmosphere, even with fans from visiting teams cheering against the Mets. One thing I was kind of surprised with was the price of the food and drinks. They weren’t outrageous, but I thought for a minor league park during Spring Training they would be cheaper. As far as the other fields we weren’t able to check them out. You could come before 9:30 AM to watch the players warm up and stuff, but we like sleeping in
when we’re on vacation. We also went to Roger Dean Stadium, which is the Spring Training home of the Miami Marlins and the St. Louis Cardinals. I personally liked Digital Domain Park more. I felt like Roger Dean Stadium was a really nice high school ballpark, while Digital Domain felt more like a minor league park.

Game Highlights:

It was nice to see Johan Santana pitch twice. Just seeing him on the mound and healthy gives hope for the season. It was also cool to get close to the pitchers as they are warming up in the bullpen, because it’s right next to the stands. In Jupiter our seats were right behind home plate, and when Carlos Beltran was up I yelled out “Hey Carlos, you missing New york yet?” and he just looked behind and smiled. Not sure if he saw I was wearing a Mets shirt or not.

Overall:

I think being down there for a week was a bit too long because we kind of ran out of stuff to do. It also would have been nice ot see the Mets play a little better and win a game, but it’s Spring Training, so
the losses really didn’t bum me out too much.