The Wandering Disciple

Port Charlotte, Florida: As the start of the short season schedule is getting closer, the players are fine tuning their game in extended spring training in Florida. On a sunny Memorial Day, the Rays team hosted a squad from the Red Sox in two exhibition contests on the back fields of Charlotte Sports Park. The squads were comprised of players that will be playing in short season ball once the season began. The players on the Rays squad will be making up the rosters of the Hudson Valley Renegades, Princeton Rays and GCL Rays. The players on the Red Sox squad will be playing for Lowell Spinners and the GCL Red Sox. The players were split into two teams that played on adjoining fields. The emphasize of extended spring training is player development, no scores or stats are maintained. Click on the photo above to view the gallery from the Rays/Red Sox extended spring training game.

Sarasota, Florida: Hop aboard a safari tram for a trip into the wilderness of Myakka River State Park. Learn about the history, ecosystems and residents that make up one of Florida’s last few remaining true wilderness experiences. The one hour tram rides takes you into some of the backcountry of the park. You depart the paved road at the Power Line Trail and begin your off-road adventure. Here you will travel along the old rail bed that was once a main line into Sarasota. It is along here that you witness first hand the importance of prescribed burning on maintaining the growth of plants. It is hard to believe that at one time, this thick field was once a vast wide open prairie. As you turn onto the next trail, the ecosystem continues to change. Gone are the wet floodplains of the river. We are now in an ecosystem of pine trees, oak trees and the animals that call this area home. This is the part of Florida that was the hunting ground for the Florida Native American tribes. Th...

Sarasota, Florida: We decided to spend today exploring Myakka River State Park, just a short drive from the house in Eastern Sarasota County. We visited the park a while back and explored some of the popular trails, but today we decided to head back and try a wildlife tour. When we arrived at the park, we headed to the concession area to reserve a spot on the tour. The tours are operated by Myakka Wildlife Tours, not the state park system and are an independent fee in addition to the park admission. Myakka Wildlife Tours operates an airboat tour and a tram tour. We did not have enough time for both tours and the airboat tours were pretty full so we chose to do the tram tour and were booked on the 1:00 trip. We had about forty-five minutes to explore the park before our tour begun so we headed out to the area behind the Outpost building where the dam is located. When we got to the water, we found a few wading birds by the water’s edge including a juvenile Yellow-Crowned Night He...

Sarasota, Florida: With the regular season in full swing, a handful of players still remain in camp preparing for the 2011 short season schedule which begins in mid-June. On Friday afternoon, two groups of these players from the Rays and Orioles organization got together for exhibition games at Twin Lakes Park in Sarasota. The rosters from each team were comprised of players that are in the early part of the career or minor leaguers recovering from injury. These players spend time in Florida continuing to work on refining their game prior to the start of the short season. Then in mid-June they will make up the rosters of each clubs Rookie and Short Season A rosters. The players representing the Rays will become the GCL Rays, Princeton Rays or Hudson Valley Renegades. The Orioles players will become the GCL Orioles or Aberdeen Iron Birds. The focus of these games are strictly player development. No official scores or statistics are recorded during these exhibition games. Click o...

Port Charlotte, Florida: The Stone Crabs surrendered a four run to lose to the Lakeland Flying Tigers 6-5 on Sunday afternoon. The Stone Crabs gave up all six runs via four home runs leading to their fifteenth loss this season after leading the game. Lakeland struck first in the first inning. Tony Plagman hit a solo home run with two outs to give them a 1-0 lead. The Stone Crabs battled back to tie the game in the second. Greg Sexton led off the inning with a single to center. Sexton advanced to second on a errant pick-off throw. He then advanced to third on a ground out by Mayo Acosta. Sexton then scored on a passed ball to tie the game 1-1. The Stone Crabs then took their first lead of the game in the bottom of the third. Chris Murrill and Matt Hall delivered back to back singles to get things started. They both advanced on a double steal to put runners at second and third with one out. Brett Nommensen drove home the first run of the inning with a single to left that scored Murrill....

Lake Buena Vista, Florida: In the corner of Disney’s Hollywood Studios there is a place where the art of Disney animation comes alive. Pass through the gates of the Animation Courtyard and follow the story of Walt Disney and his characters through the years. Animation Courtyard is also home to the characters of Playhouse Disney as well as two live stage shows. As you enter the courtyard, the first attraction you encounter is the Voyage of the Little Mermaid. This seventeen minute stage show combines live actors, special effect and more to tell the story of Ariel, the Little Mermaid. Enter the theater and quickly take a trip under the sea and follow the story inspired by the film The Little Mermaid. Directly across the courtyard is the other live stage show, Playhouse Disney Live on Stage. The twenty two minute stage show is geared towards the younger audience. It features characters from the Playhouse Disney cartoon shows like Handy Manny, Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and ...

Lake Buena Vista, Florida: Today was our final day of the birthday trip and we decided to go to Disney Hollywood Studios and Epcot. We had originally reserved a spot on the 9am bus to Hollywood Studios but since we were going home after visiting the parks, we felt it would be easier to drive to the park. We arrived at Hollywood Studios shortly after park opening and we still grabbed a second row parking spot and the crowd was so light, we walked right up to the gate without a line. Once inside the park, we headed straight towards the new Toy Story Mania ride. As we turned the corner behind the Great Movie Ride, we immediately hit a large line of people coming from Pixar Place, the home of Toy Story Mania. But this wasn’t the ride line yet, this was the line to get a Fast Pass for the ride. As we got closer to the ride, we then encountered the ride line which was already in excess of 40 minutes. So we skipped Toy Story Mania and headed to the Backlot Tour. I am not sure if it w...

Lake Buena Vista, Florida: As you cross over the bridge, you are quickly immersed in dense tropical foliage and sounds of excitement in the distance. No you have not traveled to a distant jungle, you are in Adventureland at the Magic Kingdom park. Split into two areas, the Arabian Plaza and the Caribbean Plaza, it is home to some of the park’s popular attractions. One of the original lands of the Magic Kingdom, Adventureland opened in 1971. While it has evolved a bit over the years, it is still home to two of the parks original attractions, the Jungle Cruise and the Swiss Family Treehouse. Originally designed for Disneyland, the popular Jungle Cruise attraction was adapted for the Disney World and opened with the park on opening day. Here you embark on a journey on some of the most famous rivers in the world. The steam ship operated by the Jungle Navigation Company takes you through the Amazon River, Congo River, Nile River and the Mekong River before returning back to the dock. Along...

Lake Buena Vista, Florida: An early morning rise got us ready for the second day of our trip. Today we were going to the Magic Kingdom, the best park in Walt Disney World for kids. The day began with a bus ride to the Magic Kingdom. We booked the 8am bus ride on the complimentary bus that ran from the resort to Disney. The bus shared the route with the Animal Kingdom park as well but despite this being the first bus of the day and both parks opened at 9am, the bus was pretty empty. The bus dropped us off at the Transportation and Ticket Center and then we took the monorail from the TTC to the Magic Kingdom. We made it to the park in time for the opening ceremony as we watched Mickey and Minnie arrive to the Main Street Train Station with all his friends to open the park to all the guests that have accumulated at the park entrance. One the ceremony was over and the rope dropped, we headed straight to Tomorrowland. Our first goal once we reached Tomorrowland was to ride the To...

Orlando, Florida: A short drive from all of the major central Florida attraction lies a resort that is an attraction in itself. Whether you want to have fun in the sun or kick back and relax by the pool one thing is certain, at Nickelodeon Suites Resort the entire family will have the slime of their life. The 24-acre all suites resort was opened in June 2005. Located off South International Drive, the resort is a short drive to Disney, Universal and Sea World. The resort features 777 suites ranging from a one bedroom to three bedrooms. The one and three bedroom suites feature a full kitchen while the two bedroom has a kitchenette. The two and three bedroom Kids Suites feature a separate kids room that has Nickelodeon themed rooms featuring SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer. The rooms are located in fourteen buildings that surround the two water parks, the Lagoon and the Oasis. The highlight of the resort is the water park areas, which there are two of. The main wate...

Orlando, Florida: We decided to utilize our Disney season passes to celebrate our son's sixth birthday by taking a three day trip to Disney World. For the first time in many trips to the mouse of the mouse, we decided to stay off-site at the Nickelodeon Studios Suites off International Drive. We checked into the hotel early and our room was already available. The check-in was simple and the staff was very polite. They gave us a complimentary upgrade from a standard room to a pool view room. We were assigned room 152 of the oasis building, a fifth floor unit overlooking the oasis pool. The room is a two bedroom suite with a kitchenette consisting of a microwave, fridge and coffeemaker. The master bedroom has a queen size bed while the second bedroom had 2 twin beds. After we moved our bags into the room, we headed out to explore the resort. We toured the ground and then headed to the lagoon activity area where we played some basketball and mini golf. Afterwards we headed to...

Port Charlotte, Florida: The Stone Crabs gave up an early lead to lose 6-2 to the Bradenton Marauders on Sunday afternoon at Charlotte Sports Park. A couple of errors and a few bad hops kept the Stone Crabs from sweeping Bradenton. The Stone Crabs took the lead in the bottom of the first inning. Hak-Ju Lee tripled to right to lead off the inning. Lee then scored on a ground ball to give the Stone Crabs a 1-0 lead. The Stone Crabs extended their lead in the bottom of the second inning on a solo home run by Anthony Scelfo to put them out in front 2-0. But Bradenton bounced back to tied the game in the fourth. Robbie Grossman doubled to left to lead off the inning. Jarek Cunningham followed with a triple to right, scoring Grossman. Cunningham would later score on a grounder by Evan Chambers to tie the game 2-2. The Marauders took their first lead of the afternoon in the bottom of the sixth Cunningham and Chambers delivered back to back singles to lead off. Then both runners advanced when...

Port Charlotte, Florida: The Stone Crabs fell to the Fort Myers Miracle 5-3 on Sunday afternoon at Charlotte Sports Park. Despite jumping out to a three run lead in the first inning, the Stone Crabs went scoreless the remaining eight frames to drop the contest. It was a season high four errors and eighth walks that helped put the Stone Crabs in a hole that they could not climb out of. The Stone Crabs took the lead in the first inning. Hak-Ju Lee doubled to left to lead off the inning, extending his hitting steak to fourteen games. Matt Hall was then hit by a pitch on a bunt attempt to put a second runner aboard the bases. Anthony Scelfo moved the runners ahead a spot with a sac bunt. Greg Sexton drove home the first run of the game with a single to left. Then Brett Nommensen drove home Hall with a sac fly. Sexton later scored on an RBI triple by Mark Thomas to give the Stone Crabs a 3-0 lead. Fort Myers pulled to within a run of the lead in the third. Aaron Hicks walked with one out. ...