Baseball has fun in Florida sun

A game-winning home run from a former “The Bachelorette” contestant. Senior citizens strolling the bases. A heckler on a first-name basis with the home-plate umpire.

Throw in the palm trees and tropical weather, and it’s tough to beat baseball’s spring training for sports entertainment.

But the fun isn’t reserved only for the fans.

When a persistent heckler survived a brush with park security in Clearwater, Fla., and returned jubilantly to his third-row seat to continue badgering a Toronto pitcher last Monday, even home-plate umpire Jerry Crawford couldn’t hide his amusement.

The heckler immediately directed his pleas to the on-field authorities.

“Jerry, they’re trying to throw me out!”

Crawford, standing along the first-base line between innings, waved goodbye.

“Jerry, they’re saying I used foul language! I ain’t said a bleep yet!”

Crawford waved again, a wide grin on his face.

At this point, even Phillies manager Charlie Manuel doubled over in laughter.

The first-year skipper also would have enjoyed the festivities at the home of his former team, the Cleveland Indians.

After select home games, the Indians invite fans in the 60-and-up age group to participate in “Senior Stroll Days,” an opportunity to take a trip around the bases at the same speed as David Ortiz.

The elderly walks epitomize the laid-back attitude of springtime in Florida. Players, for example, don’t only run sprints in the outfield between innings — they run them during innings.

But after the recognizable names retire to the locker room, the intensity of young players fighting for roster spots creates an energy unique to the spring season.

The Boston Red Sox, for example, removed their regulars in a Tuesday afternoon contest against Tampa Bay and promptly squandered a 5-2 lead. But outfielder Justin Sherrod blasted a ninth-inning home run to center field to win the game for the Red Sox.

That hit alone demonstrated more poise on the part of Sherrod than his brief stint on “The Bachelorette.” The 27-year-old outfielder didn’t survive the first round of cuts when he tried to win Meredith Phillips’ heart on the ABC reality show in 2004.

But watching would-be television stars take aim at the major leagues is just one of the many quirks of spring training.

Among other highlights from three days in the Grapefruit League:

• Hounds who consider free autographs and souvenir baseballs inalienable rights alongside — and possibly ahead of — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and will shout a few four-letter words when snubbed.
  
• The degree to which concessions reflected the quality of the franchise. The Devil Rays offered no options but hot dogs and beer, whereas the perenially spectacular Yankees offered unbeatable five-dollar turkey legs at Legends Field.
  
• The ingenuity of the ticket scalpers. One Winter Haven vendor, when offered one of three tickets along the third-base line, countered with an offer that netted him all three seats and left the holders of the original tickets in a pair of box seats directly behind home plate.

The complicated trade epitomized the spirit of spring training — no one is quite ready for the season to start, but a little creativity can maximize the benefit of everyone’s time in the sun.

Even Jerry can’t disagree with that.

Contact Brian MacPherson at brimac@email.unc.edu.