(Note from Ron: Other blogs... y'know, the ones that make money... send their writers here and there to cover major events. Here at SB, where we're so broke we can't even come up with a decent analogy, we just take advantage of our commenters' vacations. Enjoy!)

Hi from Florida, where the family and I spend about 10 days a year in March, 5-6 of those at one of three spring training facilities: Space Coast Stadium (Nationals), Tradition Field (Mets) and Dodgertown (Dodgers). Ron has asked me to give a little game review/team insight while I'm here, and I'm happy to oblige, so here we go:

Game 1: Baltimore Orioles at Washington Nationals
Space Coast Stadium, Viera, FL
March 3, 2007

A Little Ballpark History: Space Coast Stadium used to belong to the Florida Marlins until they turned it over to the Nationals in 2005. Wayne Huizenga, the owner of the Marlins, spared no expense in building the park--up to a point, anyway. The park as owned by the Marlins was an intriguing mix of state-of-the-art and cheap-bastard cost-conserving. Most places give you full-color programs for $5, which include all the info about their team, a scorepage for those who like to keep score during the game, and lists not only their roster (stats included), but gives the rosters of all the teams they're scheduled to play. At Space Coast, you get two pieces of paper, a scorepage and the roster list for the home and visiting team, for $3. The facility itself is modern and up-to-date, but the scoreboard appears to have come out of the early days of baseball; lights indicate balls and strikes, but the scoreboard is updated by the use of manually-loaded steel plates hung on hooks. The scorekeeper has to walk out along a wooden walkway to place the needed plate on its hook. I'm not sure if this was done as a poor attempt at retro, or Huizenga deciding he'd spent enough at that point. Since moving in, the Nationals have replaced the teal-and-purple Marlins color scheme with their own red, white and blue, but everything else has pretty much remained the same.

If You Build It: Space Coast was literally built in the midst of a cow pasture; according to one old Marlins fan we talked to, the cows used to come up to the fence that surrounded the original park and would watch the action until they heard the National Anthem play, then they would take off. The town of Viera has actually been built around the park; when we first started coming to Space Coast in 2000, the town consisted of the ballpark and a few government office buildings. Today, there are condos, schools and malls there, many of which have only been built in the past year or so.

Best Thing About It: The food. Space Coast has some of the best food you could ever want to eat at a ballpark. Besides the usual hamburgers, fries, pizza and chicken tenders that you can find at any spring training park, they have one item that you wouldn't imagine ever being served at a baseball game: turkey legs. Big ol' make-you-think-you're-sitting-at-the-Thanksgiving-table turkey legs, hot from the fryer and wrapped in foil--a little on the messy side, but damn, are they good. Being a diabetic, eating at any game can be a problem for me, but at least I know that when I'm at a Nationals game, I can get something to eat that's not going to make my blood sugar go off the charts.

Okay, on to the game...

It's way too early in spring training to really get a good view of how a team is going to do during the season, (and some might say spring training in and of itself is no indicator of how a team will perform), but at the moment, and considering their respective performances last year, it doesn't look like much of anything has changed for either team.

The Weather: overcast, with threats of rain and possible isolated thunderstorms.

The Attendance: about one-third to one-half capacity, 4,000 would be generous. Whether this was due to the weather or the fact that it was the Orioles playing the Nationals, I have no idea. The crowd was an equal mix of Orioles and Nationals fans, with a few non-partials (such as myself) thrown in as well.

Star Power: Not a lot of huge names out on the field, but the Nationals did have Don Sutton off the field as their newest color commentator.

Orioles' starters: Rudy Yan, LF; Brandon Fahey, SS; Nick Markakis, RF, Aubrey Huff, 1B; Jay Payton, CF; Terry Tiffee, 3B; Jason DuBois, DH; Freddie Bynum, 2B, Adam Donachie, C; Daniel Cabrera, P.

Nationals' starters: Felipe Lopez, 2B; Christian Guzman, DH, Ryan Zimmerman, 3B Austin Kearns, RF; Ryan Church, LF; Robert Fick, 1B; Josh Wilson, SS; Nook Logan, CF; Jesus Flores, C; John Patterson, P.

DH? : In spring training, you often get NL teams playing AL teams, so when that happens, the rule is that the use of a DH (or not) must be agreed upon before the game starts. This early in the year, you'll most likely see the DH used simply because managers want their pitchers getting used to throwing first and not dealing with hitting.

Non-Roster Appearances I noticed: Tony Womack for the Nationals, trying to prove that he still had something to offer a team. Unfortunately, what he served up at the plate (a strikeout and a pop-up) and his performance on the field didn't exactly do much to tell me his services would be needed, even by the Nationals.

Best Hitting: It was a good day to hit in the three-spot; Ryan Zimmerman (Nats) went 2 for 2 with two singles, and Nick Markakis (O's) went 3 for 4 with two singles and a double. Aubrey Huff and Jay Payton each singled for the Orioles, and Felipe Lopez and Austin Kearns did the same for the Nationals.

Best Fielding: Both teams performed relatively well in the field. The one player worth noting, however, was Nook Logan, Nationals CF, who showed a really nice range of field, running down and catching two balls that would easily have been extra base hits, one of which I was sure he had no chance of getting.

Starting Pitching: Both starting pitchers did well enough, although Cabrera had the better day, with only one hit and two Ks over two innings.

Other Pitching: Lots of pitching on display today after the starters were done; Nationals brought out six pitchers, Orioles had five. Worst of the bunch: Joel Hanrahan (Nats), who managed to earn himself five runs off three hits and three walks in 1/3 of an inning before being replaced by Steve Traber, who turned in a far better performance than his predecessor with one hit, one walk and three Ks in 2 2/3 innings.

Final Score: Orioles 7, Nationals 2

Overall Report: If anyone can make the Orioles look good, it's the Nationals. Since it is too early to really be harsh with them, I'll give both teams a C+ for the moment.

Next Game: Indians at Mets, coming tomorrow!