Good morning!
During the last two weeks I’ve been hopscotching between three spring training ballparks that are located off a 50-mile stretch of I-95 in South Florida.

The oldest and least appealing of the three is Clover Park in Port St. Lucie where the Mets have trained since 1988. On March 9, I met my cousin Pete Weiss outside the box office for a Mets game against the Washington Nationals and parked a half-mile away at Duffy’s Sports Grill to avoid the $15 parking fee plus tax because Florida taxes everything.

The stadium was sold out so we paid $29 each for SRO tickets and stood against the concourse wall between first and second base and watched fans in jerseys with Wright, Seaver and Alonso on the back look for their seats.

They’d been waiting for this since Francisco Alvarez made the final out of the NLCS against the Dodgers, but you know those Long Islanders always smile and now it was time to Party Like It’s 1986.

Mets management was happy to oblige them with $10 popcorn, $15 beer and $6 spins on the twirl-a-rama two win a softee ball, head wig or coozie — prizes not worth a book of green stamps.

Juan Soto wasn’t in the lineup, but the Mets didn’t need him to make quick work of the Nationals. After Clay Holmes pitched a scoreless top of the first, Mark Vientos hit a two-run homer off Nats starter Jake Irvin but the Mets weren’t done. Pete Alonso singled, Jeff McNeil doubled, Luis Des Los Santos walked and Jakson Reetz hit a two-out grand slam for a 6-0 lead and eventual 7-6 win.

The journeyman catcher has just two hits in 17 at-bats but could still make the opening day roster in the wake of Francisco Alvarez’s broken hand.

Fans of all stripes

Pete was speaking with a Washington fan who was was waiting for the sun to move over the roof so he could sit in the shade. A Nats season ticket holder — $400 to simply get in the park — he’d driven his Mustang convertible from Alexandria, Virginia, and rented an Airbnb in Jupiter. “I’ve watched five games in five days,” he said.

A Minnesota native, he’d retired from his job in D.C. where he’d been an attorney for the Farm Credit Administration. “I got my ‘Fork in the Road’ letter. I’m not upset by it, administrations change.”

The ballpark was hot and uncomfortably crowded. Lines of people stretched out of the men’s and women’s bathrooms, and the outfield berm was elbow-to-elbow with fans who’d lathered themselves in sunscreen to protect their skin on the cloudless 83-degree afternoon.

I heard a slight commotion and looked to see the guy next to Pete had fainted. We got him onto an usher’s stool, a cop gave him a bottle of water and an EMT checked his blood pressure and bandaged his scraped arm. He assured everyone he was all right, and the EMTs took away the stretcher.

After they left he was quiet, and I asked him if he was really OK. He nodded and said he wanted to watch the game. “I’ve been to every major league park,” he said.

“Which ballpark did you like most?” I asked.

“Baltimore,” he said. “Camden Yards.”

And the worst?

“Tampa,” he said.

Last fall, Mother Nature did the sport a favor when Hurricane Milton ripped the roof off of Tropicana Field. Consequently the Rays will play at Steinbrenner Field which seats 11,000 and has the same outfield dimensions as Yankee Stadium — 318 feet to left, 314 feet to right and 408 feet to straightaway center.

They were the only AL East team I saw play. On Sunday, they whipped the Nationals, 11-5, at CACTI Park. Tanner Murray was 3-for-5 with a home run and is batting .385 this spring, Jake Mangum hit two home runs and 250-pound first baseman Robert Seymour and right fielder Josh Lowe both went deep.

Closer Antonio Menendez struck out the side in the ninth and hasn’t allowed a run in four appearances, and in the eighth rookie righthander Ben Peoples hit 100 mph on the radar gun.

Peoples pitched to catcher Kenny Piper, thus a Peoples-to-Piper pitching battery. At this writing Peoples had fanned 13 batters in seven innings with four walks and a 2.57 ERA.

“I like Tampa’s rotation,” New York Times baseball writer Tyler Kepner told Sirius XM’s Loud Outs, “and I kinda like the idea of some of their offensive guys with the Yankee stadium dimensions.”

Agreed. It was only one game, but the Rays showed they have the coaching, the talent and the motivation to prevail over the Red Sox and Yankees and win the AL East.

Next Week: CACTI Fever, South Florida’s Premier Park

Recently in this space I reminisced about when the Red Sox trained at Chain O’ Lakes Park in Winter Haven, prompting Northampton’s Mike Noonan to share his own experiences.

“My first trip was in 1974 and one of the first things I saw was Yaz homering over the right field fence into the orange grove. … Ted never said no when I handed him a baseball. Clemens, Barrett, Boggs, Hurst, Gedman, Dave Henderson and Bob Stanley were always friendly, Fisk and Rice were not.

“One night in 1983 Kevin Goggins and I were drinking beers at the Holiday Inn next to Christie’s Sundown Restaurant and in came Tony Armas, John Henry Johnson and Julio Valdez. Nobody else but us.

“Armas had just been traded to the Sox. He kept buying us beers and wouldn’t let any of us pay. He planned on having a good year in Boston. He talked about playing in Oakland with nobody hitting behind him, just Wayne Gross and Mickey Klutz and he never got any pitches to hit. He laughed and said, ‘How am I going to get a pitch to hit with those guys hitting behind me?’”

No wonder Armas was buying the beers, his prediction rang true. During the next two seasons he hit 79 home runs and had 230 RBIs.

Sitting under the scoreboard in West Palm Beach watching Framber Valdez throw long toss on Saturday, I tuned into the D-5 hoops final in time to hear PA announcer George Miller introduce the Pioneer players and Jeff Tirrell and Shawn Hubert call the 49-28 blowout against Hopedale.

“The best defensive team I’ve seen in 50 years of watching/broadcasting high school basketball,” Tirrell emailed.

Congrats to coach Scott Thayer, assistant coach Fred Redeker and the Pioneer players for staying true to their school.

The school and towns’ great moment was tempered by the unexpected passing of Dave Quinn, a Pioneer alumnus and stalwart in the Northfield community. Not enough can be said of Quinn’s civic contributions. When he left a part of the town left with him.

SQUIBBERS: At the risk of ticking off my friend Todd Boynton, kudos to the Greenfield Community Preservation Committee for shooting down funding for pickleball, a popular but noisy and overrated pastime that even a rhinoceros could play. … Analyst Greg Cosell to Ross Tucker on college handicapping 101: “Quarterbacks that get sacked a lot in college get sacked a lot in the NFL.” … BSJ’s Greg Bedard on Patriot changes under Mike Vrabel: “This whole defense is predicated on speed and wreaking havoc, and (linebackers) Jahlani Tavai and Ja’Whaun Bentley ain’t it.” … Rocker getting Rocked: One-time phenom Kumar Rocker has allowed 11 earned runs in 4⅓ innings with the Rangers this spring. … The further we get from Cale Makar, the more we realize how fortunate UMass was to have him. Canada coach Jon Cooper said of having Makar on his Four Nations roster: “You have the best players in the world and still he’s faster than all the others, but what’s even greater about Makar is his humility.” Indeed, the time for Makar’s statue to go outside the Mullins Center is past due.

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com