St. Patty’s day during Spring Training!

Submitted by fellow reader, Corey, who’s down enjoying Spring Training.
 
So, for my first day of Vacation, I headed over to the Cru Restaurant in Fort Myers to meet my friends Omar and Jeri-Lynn. (I went to art school with Omar in New Jersey back in the day.) The plan was to stay anchored at the bar at Cru and celebrate St. Patty’s Day.
 
I met Jeri at about 5:15 and we proceeded to enjoy the evening. Omar arrived about 30 minutes later and rapidly the bar was filling with other patrons. At about 8:30 or so, the bar was PACKED, shoulder to shoulder and I happened to notice three gentlemen walk (squeeze is a better word) past us all at the same time. I recognized the third one almost immediately, but I wasn’t totally sure (I was fairly “happy” at that point).
 
The three men took up a spot not 20 feet from where I was with my friends, and I just studied the their faces, knowing that I knew who they had to be…and it hit me. They were: Denard Span, Delmon Young, and Orlando Hudson of the Minnesota Twins. So I walked over, quickly introduced myself, shook their hands, gave them their props and politely asked for a photo.
 
About an hour later, three other men squeezed into the bar going the opposite direction. I knew exactly who they were, since they were a foot away: Joe Nathan, Michael Cuddyer, and Nick Punto. I acknowledged each of them, shook each of their hands, gave `em their props and they kept on a movin’, so I had no chance for a photo. They were polite, but curt. Of the three, Nick Punto seemed the one most genuinely happy about meeting a fan from Minnesota.
 
Thirty minutes later…former Twin (and current non-roster invitee to Spring Training) Jacque Jones walked in with another person I did not know. Again, I introduced myself as being a fan from Minny and gave Jacque his props and unfortunately again, no chance for a photo.
 
To randomly meet SEVEN Twins players in one hip bar in Fort Myers on St. Patty’s Day was quite unusual. But, memorable!!
Corey with Orlando Hudson, Delmon Young and Denard Span

GameChat – (ST) Pirates @ Twins

Pittsburgh @ Minnesota
Cedeno, SS   Revere, CF
Young, De, 2B   Hudson, O, 2B
Jones, G, RF   Mauer, C
Clement, 1B   Morneau, 1B
Milledge, LF   Thome, DH
Moss, DH   Cuddyer, RF
Alvarez, 3B   Jones, J, LF
Raynor, CF   Harris, B, 3B
Jaramillo, J, C   Tolbert, SS
  Ohlendorf, P     Pavano, P

 

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Pittsburgh 0 0 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 4 4 1
Minnesota 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 5 9 2

YAY!!!  Luke Hughes, you beautiful boy!!  Finally, after far too long a hiaitus, the Twins got a spring training win!

 

PS.  let us know if this chat program doesn’t work for you or is blocked by where ever you are accessing the posts.  We’re searching out a few other applications to try due to some issues with complicated access!