FIELD OF DREAMS, FLORIDA-STYLE

I have been the Prosecuting Attorney for Cape Girardeau County since 1987, but my roots as a St. Louis Cardinals baseball fan go back much further. As an 8th Grader I got hooked on "Our National Pastime" when Bob Gibson and Lou Brock led the Redbirds to the World Series against Denny McLain and the Detroit Tigers.

Going to Spring Training in Florida has always been a dream of mine. One of those things you mean to do but keep putting off until next year.

Well, this past week, "next year" finally arrived.

The briefcase emptied, the desk cleared of urgent matters, the computer and pager turned off and extra work shamelessly dumped on assistants and secretaries, I headed for Florida with my wife and two daughters.

It was fan-tastic. We saw six games in seven days.

The Cardinals train at the Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Fla., on the Atlantic coast just north of Palm Beach. The stadium only holds 7,200 people, so if you're a fan like me, used to sitting in the nosebleed sections of Busch Stadium, the seats are better than usual, no matter where you sit.

The weather was in the 70s and 80s all week. Although we had the occasional five-minute rain shower, it was bright and sunny during most of every day.

The players were more relaxed and accessible than during the regular season. Several signed autographs after the games; some even signed between innings.

Although it varies from day to day which players will saunter over to visit with the fans, during our six-game stay we saw more than 20 players, from stars like Mark McGwire to minor leaguers like the unfortunately-named and much-razzed Stubby Clapp (an infielder who hit .260 for the Cardinals' farm team at Memphis last year), take the time to autograph balls, programs, hats or baseball cards for the fans.

Catcher Eli Marrero, pitcher Dave Veres, catcher Mike Matheny, outfielder Eduardo Perez, infielder Placido Polanco, pitcher Alan Benes, pitcher Matt Morris and minor league catcher Henry Mercedes were the MVP's in fan-friendliness during the games we attended.

Marrero, Veres, Matheny, Perez, Mercedes and Polanco each was the last player to leave the stadium on at least one afternoon, staying to sign balls until the last fan who wanted an autograph got it.

Alan Benes probably signed more autographs from the bullpen during the games than any other player.

Matt Morris signed lots of autographs and even gave bats to two 10-year-old boys.

Star outfielder Eric Davis particularly impressed me when, instead of remaining in the shade of the dugout with other veterans on a day he didn't play, he came over to the bullpen bench and sat in the sun for two innings during the game, signing autographs for gleeful children perched behind him.

The autograph most sought, of course, was that of firstbaseman Mark McGwire. The single-season homerun king smacked three homeruns while we were in Jupiter. Each day he was taken out of the game after about five innings. He would pack up his bat bag and stroll down the rightfield line from the dugout to the clubhouse, swinging his massive forearms and waving at fans who were cheering and beseeching him to stop and talk. On more than one day, he paused and signed autographs for kids until the game resumed.

One teen-ager with ingenuity attached a ball and a pen to a 10-foot-long strap and lowered them to McGwire after he had quit signing and had resumed his trek to the clubhouse. The star rewarded the youngster's creativity by stopping to sign the ball.

Sitting closer to the field carries certain risks, some obvious (foul balls) and some not so obvious (foul mouths). Actually, I only encountered one instance of the latter.

By mid-week we were enjoying the games so much we traveled to Ft. Lauderdale for an "away" game the Cardinals were playing against the Baltimore Orioles. Expecting only general admission tickets, our request for "best available seats" ended up putting us in the fourth row behind the Oriole dugout. We were pleasantly stunned.

This fan, accustomed to seats where binoculars are a necessity rather than a luxury, watched with delight as Cal Ripkin, Jr., and other Orioles came out of the dugout, took practice swings less than 20 feet from us, then stepped up to the plate. I am convinced we were closer to the batters than was the pitcher.

From that vantage point, late in the game, we watched as a backup Oriole firstbaseman named Calvin Pickering raced into foul territory right in front of us, trying to catch a popup. The ball hit Pickering's glove and bounced out.

I am not used to sitting in seats where what you say to the players can have consequences. Hence, my temporary lack of good judgment.

"Hey, there's a hole in that glove!" I yelled, oblivious to the fact I was only 20 feet from Pickering and that he stood 6'5" and weighed 278 pounds.

He glared at me and uttered a personal explicative of the sort so frequently deleted from the Richard Nixon tapes.

I glanced at my daughter.

"Don't worry, Dad," she said. "I've heard that word before."

Pickering was still smoldering and mouthing menacing things to me.

"Be sure to take his picture as he beats me up," I whispered, handing her the camera.

Pickering's attention was then diverted to another fan who was suggesting to him that Rochester (where the Oriole minor league team plays its summer games) is "a nice place to spend the summer." In hindsight, it occurs to me that while my comment to Pickering did not display great sensitivity, he will either need to improve his fielding or develop a thicker skin. Surely, based upon the fielding ability he displayed, my comment was mild compared to what he has heard in the past and will hear in the future.

About those foul balls. The Florida wind makes every fly ball an adventure and carries lots of them into the stands.

Unafraid to look like a dork in a town where nobody knew me, I carried my mitt with me to the games early in the week, convinced I would have my grand moment of leaping into the air and snagging one. Maybe even my wife would get a picture!

The law of statistics did not favor my chances, in that a foul ball has never landed even remotely close to me in over 20 years of attending Cardinal games. I wore it, nevertheless.

I quit wearing it after our second game, when our 13-year-old daughter, who does not own a glove, much less wear one, caught a foul ball after it ricocheted off another fan. She had been sitting in the grassy area behind the bullpen pitchers, working on getting autographs. She caught it without even really trying!

She was tickled and held up the ball for me to admire from a distance. I tried to be happy for her, but suddenly carrying that glove seemed sort of pointless and pathetic. I left it at the hotel after that.

Both daughters, ages 13 and 6, kept journals during the trip. Making the entries each night was time-consuming, but I suspect it was time well spent.

My parents took me on "theme" vacations on three consecutive summers during my grade-school years. One was to Civil War battlefields, another to Revolutionary War sites, and a third to "Old West" landmarks from the Alamo to the O.K. Corral to Zane Gray's home, where I bought and read my first Western at age 9.

The trips gave me memories not only of the locations and their history, but of my parents and their love for each other and for their children.

For a baseball fan, a Spring Training "theme" vacation is hard to beat.

As Jack Buck says, "That's a winner!"

Morley Swingle is Prosecuting Attorney of Cape Girardeau County.

Cardinal Spring Training

Where They Play

Roger Dean Stadium

4751 Main Street

P.O. Box 8929

Jupiter, FL 33468

www.rogerdeanstadium.com

Ticket Information:

(561) 775-1818, Ext. 239

Ticket Prices:

Field Box $17.00

Loge Box $15

Grandstand $10

Bleachers $6

Grass Berm $6

(Behind bullpen near rightfield)

Seating Capacity:

7,200

Schedule:

Spring Training begins the first week of March and continues for the whole month. In 2000 it went from March 3 to March 30.

Hint:

Tickets go on sale in late November or early December. They should be ordered as soon as possible because the games are often sold out. The grass berm tickets are sold only on the day of the game, though, so a procrastinator still has a chance of getting tickets even if waiting to get them until actually in Florida.

Getting There:

Jupiter is 20 minutes from the West Palm Beach airport and 2 1/2 hours from the Orlando airport. It is a 21-hour drive from Cape Girardeau.