A FIFTH WINTER LIVING AND WORKING IN SARASOTA

We headed to Sarasota after Christmas to begin our 5th year working in the Baltimore Orioles spring training ticket office staff.  We took some time to set-up our RV for our 3-month stay at Sun-N-Fun RV Resort in Sarasota.  We added a third neon sign to our dashboard display.  Can you identify which sign is new?

Correct, the baseball player on the left was Paul's birthday present.  Thank you, Ann.  The
neon signs are a distinctive way we can personalize our RV after dark.

We also purchased a screen room so we could eat outside more often without the pestering Florida bugs that seem to arrive at dinner time.

After spending the first 3 weeks processing season ticket holder requests and mailing tickets to our season ticket holders, the excitement of "On Sale Day" arrived.  "On Sale Day" is the first day individual game tickets are sold to the general public at the stadium.  

Fans lined up as early as 4 am to get the best seats to the biggest games of the spring.  The Orioles provided coffee and donuts for the early arrivals--a nice fan-friendly touch.  This past January "On Sale Day" was a windy, rainy day, so we moved the line inside the stadium.  This is the view of the line just before we opened 7 ticket windows at 10am.  The line stretched nearly 200 feet along the 3rd base concourse.

After the players arrived to begin workouts, the media started arriving to cover all that happens.  First there was the video game production crew and their bus.  Blue sky with very few clouds, the warm sun shining brightly and palm trees--can it get any better than this?

Soon thereafter the crew from ESPN showed up to do live lookins during Sportscenter.

Each spring a new spring training logo gets painted on the wall along the 3rd base concourse.  Here is the logo for 2015.

Just prior to the first game, the O's logo gets painted behind home plate, and we are ready to "PLAY BALL"!

There were 16 spring training games scheduled, with one being rained out.  Of the 15 games played, nine of the games went to "standing room only".  The Orioles capitalized on their success during the previous regular season as American League East Division Champions by having another spring with record fan attendance.

After the last game of spring training, the crowd was rewarded with a fan-pleasing 10-minute fireworks show.  The line near the bottom of the photo is the wire supporting the screen behind home plate.