LAKELAND, Fla. — Bright sunshine. Warm breeze. Birds chirping. And a baseball game in Joker Marchant Stadium.
Ahhhhh, yes please, more of that.
It’s like a magical elixir for the soul.
Yes, it was only an intrasquad scrimmage of Detroit Tigers minor leaguers. But it was something, and right now, at a time when MLB is killing itself with stupidity, I’ll take anything. Just two days after MLB owners canceled Opening Day because of a labor dispute, I was standing in Joker Marchant Stadium, the home of the Tigers — when they aren’t being locked out by greedy owners — watching the young hopefuls warm up.
“You playing for steak?” I yelled to Parker Meadows, one of the Tigers prospects.
“Steak and hot dogs!” he replied.
A small group of fans entered for free. It was a smart move by the organization to open up this scrimmage and inject some life into this minicamp.
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But this is not the group of fans that MLB should be worrying about. Most of these fans will return to baseball, even after a lockout. If you are going to a minor-league intrasquad scrimmage on a Thursday morning in early March, you are probably:
1. A diehard baseball fan, and those are becoming rarer by the day;
2. A snowbird from Michigan, who travels I-75 every year and longs for the days of Tram and Lou, or even Kaline and Ernie;
3. A relative of one of the players;
4. Infielder Cristian Santana’s jeweler wanting to see him wear some more bling;
5. Can’t find your Netflix password and said, “Ah, heck, let’s go watch some ball”;
6. On vacation but have run out of money because Disney is so freakin’ expensive;
7. A sports columnist trying to squeeze a Long Island ice tea out of spring training filled with lemons — yeah, I gave up trying to make lemonade.
But what about the young folks? The Instagram generation?
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The crowd was small but there were five college kids sitting in the stands, watching this scrimmage. They are Calvin College students on spring break and were dragged to this scrimmage by their friend, Ethan Slot, 19.
Think about that. In a group of five college students, one is a big baseball fan. Good old Ethan.
Or 20%.
“Do you know that baseball is shut down and there is no Opening Day?” I asked Evan Triemstra, 18, a freshman at Calvin.
He smiled.
“I had no idea,” he said. “Ethan told us.”
And this is somebody watching a minor-league scrimmage.
Quick note to MLB owners: That should give you chills. That should be a wakeup call.
As you squabble over a relatively small bit of money, unafraid to lose the excitement of Opening Day, seemingly willing to give up a month of the season, trying to keep every possible nickel from the players, you are hurting this game.
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I found myself telling these Calvin kids about some of the prospects.
How Jackson Jobe and Izaac Pacheco are roommates and faced each other in an at-bat — Jobe got Pacheco to hit into a double play.
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The Calvin kids looked intrigued.
Baseball does such a horrible job of marketing its players. Shoot, it does a horrible job marketing its game, much less growing it. Then again, it’s hard to market a game that is shut down.
And that’s sad, considering this group of Tigers minor-league players is actually fascinating.
You have the star prospects at the top, guys like Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene, Dillon Dingler and Ryan Kreidler.
But after that? There is another wave of talented players relatively new to the organization, including some young pitchers and talented international infielders.
Which brings us to Santana, who has turned into my favorite player at this camp.
I love everything about him.
How smooth he looks at shortstop. How he swings his bat — he has some impressive pop.
But mostly, how he plays with so much swagger and personality.
You gotta love a kid who is so confident he shows up at a minor-league minicamp wearing a thick, $4,000 gold necklace. He wears it almost all the time.
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He met with a small group of writers on Thursday and was asked about playing in this scrimmage and adjusting to pro ball.
“He doesn’t really feel anything is difficult for him,” a Tigers interpreter said. “He just feels good, so nothing difficult at all.”
That about sums him up. Nothing looks difficult for him.
His bat is electric and he’s just so smooth on the infield. He’s got some techniques to work out, subtle changes to how he fields ground balls. But he’s got so much potential that it’s fascinating.
It’s not hard to imagine that he could be playing shortstop in Detroit someday.
Baseball: So close, but so far away
Here comes Alan Trammell, walking down the aisle.
“I have to get a picture with Alan Trammell,” Slot said.
Mr. Hall of Famer graciously stood for a photo with the Calvin student who dragged his friends off the beach.
“Thank you so much,” Slot said.
As the scrimmage ended, the players walked toward their clubhouse and the fans headed for the exit.
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I was left with conflicting feelings. There is so much to love about this sport, just being in Florida watching games.
But I get a pit in my stomach thinking about this labor dispute. I get mad at this whole situation. I hate it and it makes me sad. MLB is being so idiotic and shortsighted. This labor dispute is going to hurt the game long term, in ways we can’t even see right now.
MLB doesn’t deserve these fans. Not the way it’s treating them.
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.