No Baseball on Sunday

Despite the best laid plans I could come up with today, I didn't see a minor league baseball game - but it wasn't for lack of trying.

Checking the schedules this morning I saw that the Brevard County Manatees were playing the Sarasota Reds in Cocoa Beach at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon. This looked like a perfect excuse to dash over to the east coast, get the stadium, buy a Manatees baseball cap and watch the Reds lose another game. One out of three wasn't bad.

I left home about 10:45 headed up I-75 to I-4 and dashed through the menagerie that is Orlando following the Beachline toll road past the airport and on toward I-95 and the east coast. All was going well and I arrived at the stadium at 2:15 where I planned to hang out, work on my Brevard County bird list, buy a ticket, get a cap, have a beer and watch a game. With a 4:00 p.m. start I figured I would be on the road headed home by 7:00 at the latest and here by 10:00.

One slight problem - I never factored in that I would misread the damned schedule and arrive as the game was ending. Actually that is what I did. The game started at NOON!!! and I was there at 2:15. By now there was no way I could purchase a ticket to prove that I had been in that stadium and the Manatees gift shop was closed so I couldn't buy a baseball cap. And as to be expected the Sarasota Reds lost. I was, to borrow a word, screwed.

Swallowing my pride and accepting all the gas I had just wasted getting to this side of the state, I got back in my car, turned on Radio Margaritaville, and headed back to the west coast arriving here in the remarkably fast time of 2 hours 40 minutes. Next time I will double check and then triple check the schedules and maybe call ahead to quadruple confirm the starting times.

Oh well, c'est le vie.