Mascot Name-Dropping

At the Reds-Phillies game on Saturday, Mr. Red was everywhere. The cherubic mascot for the Cincinnati Reds was the hardest-working humanoid in Ed Smith Stadium. He was a constant presence in the stands, running from section to section, posing for photograpsh with young and old. When he was in our section, Carp and I had our picture taken with him. Later, we sidled up to the Sarasota Alligator for a photo, and were surprised when--Mr. Red again, jumped into the frame, putting his hand on Carp's shoulder.

Our seats were down the leftfield line, and with no covering from the sun, they were baked pretty good by gametime. Neither Chris or I had sunscreen, so our forearms and knee caps got burned--plus my forehead. Nothing horrible, but every time the sun kisses my arms, I feel the burn. The Reds' starter was Bronson Arroyo--traded last year from the Red Sox for a fourth outfielder (Willy Mo Pena). Arroyo is now the Reds' #1 starter--a trade that has yet to pay off for the Sox. After struggling with his control in the first inning, he settled down to throw five shutout innings. The local papers here are calling him a "magician." On the strength of back-to-back homers from Adam Dunn (3-run dinger) and Brandon Phillips, the Reds skated to an easy 7-0 win. Chad Moeller added a homer with two outs in the eighth--adding fuel to his comeback bid.

A couple players of interest from this game were Joey Votto, Ryan Freel, Josh Hamilton (all of the Reds), and Fabio Castro (Phillies). Votto is a young player late of the Chattanooga Lookouts (who I watched live in 2005)--just trying to make the team. Freel is a 31-year-old who hit .271 last year for the Reds, and I found Castro a curiousity--with his unique name, his diminutive size (5'7"), and his 1.54 ERA with last year's Phillies club. Josh Hamilton was the top pick of the Devil Rays in 1999, out of the game for two years with drug problems, Hamilton is making a comeback as a 25-year-old outfielder (he batted just .260 in single A ball for 15 games last summer).

Carp and I had three seats for the game--one was purchased for Ben, our some-time Man Trip compatriart, who couldn't get away for this year's trip. Next to me was a couple from Philadelphia, taking in some spring training games on their way to a cruise out of Miami. Philly-boy bailed me out on a debate I was having with Carp over Tom Seaver. I insisted that I had seen Seaver win his 300th game in a White Sox uniform while Rod Carew notched his 3,000th hit in the same game. Granted, it was on television in my family's Roseville, Minnesota dining room--but it's a pretty neat bit of trivia. Carp insisted that Seaver only played for the Mets, Reds, and Red Sox--but Philly boy vouched for me. Actually, he was quite a fount of knowledge, adding color commentary to a few of my conversations with Carp. He ended up filling in some of my questions about a few of the players we were watching, and is solely responsible for my scouting report (above) on Josh Hamilton.

We were one of the last to leave the stadium, milking in the time we had to wander about and see all the nooks and cranies before we were kicked out. Later, we struggled to find our hotel--the Sarasota Cay Club, which we expected to be our best booking as it was on a marina. Sadly, it was a far cry short of the Courtyard by Marriott, with the tub filling up with water during our showers and the chain on the toilet tank snapping in the night.

We had dinner in downtown Sarasota, which ended up looking a lot more inviting than did our section of town--off by the airport and the bail bondsmen. Downtown was nice, we ate at a New York pizzeria called Bravo at Joffrey--where an authentic New Yorker worked the oven. He was clearly a retiree, and delighted us with his rich Bronx accent. We shopped in the Main Bookstore across the street--a two-level discounter that instantly rose to be one of my favorite all-time independent bookstores. I payed about 12 bucks for a copy of Helen Keller's biography, Ernest Hemingway: The Final Years (book 5 in a series I'm collecting), and The Phantom of the Opera.

We caught a movie at the Hollywood 20, it was called Reign Over Me, and it's the new Adam Sandler flick. It was really good--Sandler plays a 9/11 widower who has chosen to block out the past to live in the moment. He's befriended by an old college roommate (Don Cheadle) who needs a friend as much as Sandler does. It's a realistic, lived-in kind of film that both Carp and I are giving an A-.

We finished out the night with a search for aloe (for the sunburn), but all the CVS and Walgreens stores were shut up tight at 10:30. After a walk through the docks of the marina where we read the boat names and places, we retired for the evening.

Next: Red Sox, game one