Royalty sees a Florida State League baseball doubleheader!

Prince outside Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida

Thursday morning the King and I went to LaGuardia Airport to catch our flight on Delta Airlines to Florida. We had an early flight which thankfully arrived in West Palm Beach ten minutes early which gave us some more margin for error since we had a minor league baseball game to attend at Roger Dean Stadium in nearby Jupiter. It's the home of the Jupiter Hammerheads, the Miami Marlins single A affiliate and the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals farm team, the Palm Beach Cardinals.

Upon arrival at the airport, we went to the Alamo desk to rent a car. Since there were a few people on line, I was able to use the kiosk to speed up the process for us. After declining possible upgrade options, we went to get the shuttle bus to the Alamo cars. I was supposed to get a compact car. I went to the young man who was directly people to their cars and he said and I quote "today's your lucky day since all the compact cars are dirty and I don't want you to wait, you can choose a standard car instead." We proceeded to the standard car area. I noticed a few Chevy Impalas, a Chrysler 200 and a Ford Fusion. I was planning to take the Chrysler 200. I recently rented one of those at home and I liked it. Then the King noticed the Ford Fusion was equipped with Sirius satellite radio so I told him we'll take that. It turned out to be a wise choice. The car had only 240 miles on it. I was looking forward to breaking it in.

We checked out of Alamo and we were on our way to Jupiter which was only 15 miles away. We got off the exit off I-95 to the ballpark an hour before the game. Since there was a McDonald's up the road, we decided to go there for a quick meal since we were both on the hungry side. It worked out well.

After we ate, we headed back to Roger Dean Stadium. We parked the car for free and then we went to the box office to pick up tickets for the game between the Dunedin Blue Jays and the Jupiter Hammerheads that was starting at 12:05PM.

We proceeded to walk inside and we got set for our first game of the day and the trip.
There was a sparse gathering that consisted of many day campers who were there on a field trip. We had a passing shower during the game but luckily the game wasn't stopped.

Prince outside Jackie Robinson Ballpark in Daytona

As for the game we saw, the Blue Jays got on the scoreboard first with a pair of runs in the second inning. The Hammerheads responded with a run in the fourth inning. The Blue Jays answered by getting a run back in the fifth inning to take a 3-1 lead. They added four more in the top of the ninth to go ahead 7-1. The Hammerheads tacked on a run in the bottom half but they ended the game and rally with a double play as they lost, 7-2.

After the game, the King and I got back in the car and we drove almost 200 miles to see our second baseball game of the day in Daytona. We dodged some severe thunderstorms along the way that slowed us down but we still arrived in Daytona around 6:10PM which gave almost an hour to get ready for game two.

We parked the car for free a few blocks away from Jackie Robinson Ballpark, which is a very nice old time ball yard. It also had a museum that showed the struggles that Jackie Robinson had to endure to break the color barriers back in 1947.

It was also Thirsty Thursday which meant they were selling beer and soda for just a dollar each. It was such a hot night that it came handy for the people who showed up. Unlike in the afternoon, they had a decent crowd on hand to see their 2011 Florida State League Champion Daytona Cubs host the Palm Beach Cardinals.

In addition, they had a special guest appearance by Vince Carter who plays for the Orlando Magic these days. He was at a table signing autographs. I had him sign my score book which was cool.

As for the game we saw, the Daytona Cubs scored first as they plated a run in the first inning. The Cardinals tied it at one in the top of the fourth inning. The Cubs responded with a run to retake the lead, 2-1. In the fifth inning, they added two more runs to go up, 4-1. The Palm Beach Cardinals proceeded to chip away by scoring a run in the sixth and they added two more in the seventh inning to tie the game. In the top of the eighth inning, they broke the tie and as they scored the winning run as they held on for the 5-4 victory.

After the game, we drove all the way back to Riviera Beach which is between Jupiter and the West Palm Beach airport. We stayed at the Travelodge there.

Stay tuned as the journey continued as we picked up our special guest Paul Derrick from Houston who joined us for the weekend.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman