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Number Of Teams In Tampa Area Makes Spring Training A Deal

Photo by ALLYSON JACKOVICS

Spring training for less than $50 in a day includes stopping by the Tampa Bay Rays' downtown Tampa store, where a spring training rally monkey with Rays logo goes for $19.26.

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By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 4, 2009

If you'd like to see eight Major League Baseball games at eight different ballparks this summer, you can sign up for an 11-day summer tour package that costs nearly $2,000 for a baseball adventure from Chicago to Boston, with tickets, accommodations, bus travel and breakfasts included.

If you choose the 12-day Florida baseball spring training package you could see 13 games at 13 ballparks for about the same price.

Then again, if you are fortunate to live in the Tampa Bay area, you could get souvenirs at merchandise stores for three teams, have lunch at a baseball hangout and buy a ticket at a game, all in less than three hours. The price would be about $100. Without souvenirs it drops to less than $30.

The Bay area remains the spring training baseball capital of Florida, with the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies and Toronto Blue Jays playing spring home games at Tampa, Clearwater and Dunedin, respectively.

Add the Detroit Tigers at Lakeland, Pittsburgh Pirates at Bradenton, Cincinnati Reds at Sarasota and the Tampa Bay Rays' new camp 100 miles south of Tampa in Port Charlotte, and seven of the Grapefruit League's 16 teams are nearby.

The good news for thrifty fans: The high-end tickets cost less than in the regular season, and seats in good locations are more readily available.

And despite some pricey souvenir merchandise, there are some deals, like a 60 percent-off rack at the Rays' Tampa shop or items the Blue Jays sell at their ballpark for a little less than the other locally based teams.

Living up to a heritage of being created as a tourist draw for Florida in 1914 and 1915, when Al Lang enticed the Phillies and St. Louis Browns to train at St. Petersburg, spring training is a blend of big business with some bargains for the fans mixed in.

The money is spread around from nearly 1.6 million fans who attend Florida games. The Phillies will provide more than $8 million in direct spending in 2009, the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce reported. About 65 percent of spring training attendees are tourists and winter residents with an average stay of nine nights.

This year, as a promotional reward, the Blue Jays flew five planeloads of season ticket holders from Toronto to Dunedin for games at the opening of spring training.

Tickets are available for most teams' games, except some high profile match-ups, and cost from $9 to $31 at the Bay area ballparks.

That compares with tickets for Rays' regular-season games priced as low as $10 in the outfield and upper deck to $270 right behind home plate.

T-shirts and caps at the team stores generally cost $25 and up.

But one way to save a little money is to take in the local fare at a restaurant known for its affinity for baseball: Lenny's, a breakfast and luncheon restaurant that's been spring headquarters for Phillies fans since 1980.

This spring, Lenny's owner Dan Farrell hired an artist from Gibsonton with a circus background to create a montage to celebrate the "Home of the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies" with renderings of pitcher Cole Hamels, infielders Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins.

It also includes the Phillie Phanatic mascot and a caricature of Farrell's father that serves as the restaurant's icon, in a spread extending across the picture windows from the front to the back of the restaurant.

But Farrell shows his true marketing skills in front of the restaurant, which gets more than 1,000 when the Phillies have a spring game at their ballpark a few blocks north.

"One Dollar Yuenglings," says the towering sign that overlooks U.S. 19.

That's likely to draw every Pennsylvanian from Punxsutawney to Pottsville for a cold brew from the Keystone State before a game, although the restaurant is decidedly a family attraction.

What's not so widely known is that Lenny's also serves up to 1,000 meals for major- and minor-league players at the nearby training sites for the Phillies - and even the Blue Jays - as well as dinner for the Phillies at the restaurant after closing for the day to the public.

That's right. Blue Jays, too. "Sure we have Blue Jays fans in here; we even have a Jays logo in the back," Farrell said.

When you're done eating, you can go a few blocks north to Diamond Outfitters, the Phillies' baseball merchandise store at Bright House Field.

Only there can you find a baby's onesie for sale with the inscription: "There's No Crying Unless You're A Mets Fan."

The same kinds of treasures are available for Yankees fans in Tampa.

"You can buy New York Yankees gear anywhere, but only here in Tampa can you get Yankees spring training gear," said Jonathan Tavill, general manager at Steinbrenner Field's Legends Room. A cool item for $25.95: a spring training shirt with "Wish you were here" plus the classy "NY" logo in small print on the back.

The Rays' downtown Tampa shop is primarily a convenience for Hillsborough County residents to buy tickets, yet merchandise sales have quadrupled since the Rays relocated the store there from a West Shore location in 2007.

Much of the Rays' spring training gear is sold from their new Port Charlotte facility, but the Tampa store sells a spring training Rally Monkey with a Rays logo. Of course, there are Rays cowbells, too.

While some items are pricey and others might be bargains, what's certain is that spring training is the best season for meeting fans from favorite and despised teams, alike. And it doesn't cost a dime.

You might run into someone like Robert Lumpkin of Tampa, who was waiting for the Rays' store to open this week to buy a media guide.

"I can't get to many games because of my job - just two or three a year - but I've collected 4,500 baseball cards, all of them Rays and Cincinnati Reds players," Lumpkin said.

Or Robin Warner, merchandise manager at Diamond Outfitters at the Phillies' ballpark.

"Visitors love to come into our store to talk about baseball," she said. "We have a huge following from Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. When they find out I'm from Berwick [in northeastern Pennsylvania], they want to talk about home."

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817.

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