by PKMitchell

Created on: April 08, 2009

Shortly after the glow of the World Series is over and the first signs of winter arrive, true baseball fans yearn for warm spring days as thoughts of baseball once again stir in their head. If you are a true and faithful baseball fan, by early December you are anxiously awaiting the release of the tentative spring exhibition schedule. The true fan knows that real exhibition games, or "preseason" games as some call them (the new term stolen from the secondary sport of NFL football), are only played in Florida.

The week between Christmas and New Year's is critical in your planning process. How are you going to see the games? Will you follow our favorite team? Will you pick a central hotel location and make daily drives to the games? Will you be on the west coast or the shrinking number of sites on the east coast? What week will you go? Will you think of doing anything else besides seeing the games? The answer to the last question for any true fan is a resounding No!

The baseball teams add to the intrigue of planning a spring training vacation. Tickets for some teams go on sale the first week in January while others wait for the second or third week. Do you go ahead and purchase tickets during the first week or wait until the third week for the tickets you really want? Doing so may cost you the opportunity to see first week ticket sales teams as those may well be gone by the third week.

As the true fan proceeds, you bring out the road maps, or in today's computer world the Internet, to calculate time and distance between sites. More questions have to be answered. Can you see a day game in Dunedin and have time for the 6:00 evening game in Lakeland? How about a day game in Clearwater and a night game in Sarasota? Do you make the long trek to Ft. Myers knowing that it is impossible to combine with another game that day?

Planning a great spring training vacation involves answering a myriad of questions. Do you go the first week of games and only see the regulars for three innings? Most true fans know that the maximum time the starters will play is during the third and fourth week of games. The first two weeks are to work on their tans, do light warm-ups, and schmooze with the old timers such as Sandy Koufax, Whitey Ford, and Yogi Berra, while the last week is to rest any minor ailments prior to the start of the real season. Do you go to the classic old style fields like McKechnie Field in Bradenton and Knology Field in Dunedin or to the modern Cracker Jack Stadium at Walt Disney World or Steinbrenner Field in Tampa?

Decide who you want to see and where you want to see them, plan your route, and line up your itinerary. Buy your tickets, make your hotel reservations, and plan a warm and wonderful spring training vacation that you will satisfy your yearning until the regular season begins!

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