Rays at Jays

I have, over the years, grown to like this ballpark in Dunedin, which is now called Dunedin Stadium.

Where do they get these names?

They spruced up the place in 2002. It's cozy. The pretzels are usually great and they serve decent pizza. Not as good as the pizza at McKechnie Field in Bradenton. Nothing is as good as that 'za, but pretty darn close.

The best part about this ballpark was the guy who sold baseball cards and other baseball trinkets under the third base stands.

You could buy just about anybody's rookie card that as worth buying, and he always had some neat stuff on the old ball players.

I'm not much into rookie cards. In fact, I'm not into them at all.

But he had some cool Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth cards. Not real cards, but replicas he managed to put together in three-piece sets.

He also had this miniature jerseys of Ken Griffey Jr., and Babe Ruth and Derrick Jeter. Those I really like.

I spend a small fortune each spring buying odds and ends sold at the other ballparks.

I bought an old St. Pete Cardinals hat at Al Lang Field in 1999. Seemed one of the Rays workers stumbled upon a box of them in a corner of the old stadium.

Bought a book on Bob Feller in Winter Haven for 10 bucks and later found it was autographed by the man himself.

Anyway ...

The baseball card guy is not at Dunedin Stadium this spring. Probably retired on all the stuff I bought over the years.

Here are the lineups ...

Rays
Jason Bartlett SS
Carl Crawford LF
Gape Kapler CF
Carlos Pena DH
Dioner Navarro C
Chris Richard 1B
Morgan Ensberg 3B
Ray Sadler RF
Adam Kennedy 2B
Matt Garza P

Blue Jays
Russ Adams LF
Jose Bautista SS
Alex Rios RF
Vernon Wells DH
Kevin Millar 1B
Jason Lane CF
Rod Barajas C
Brad Emaus 2B
Kevin Ahrens 3B
Brad Mills P