When we went to McKechnie Field

My two sisters and I went to McKechnie Field in 2004 to see the Red Sox play the Pirates. We might have been better off getting cheap seats, since the up-frontery was not shaded. And it was pretty hot. And you could smell oranges.

The field's kind of right there on the street, as in oil-change place, Arby's, nail salon, Chinese food, gas station, baseball diamond! We'd parked in the lot of some run-down industrial-type building and given a few bucks to some kids hanging around there. Little entrepreneurs.

Randall Simon was there. Randall Simon will always be the sausage smasher to me. Was that not possibly the funniest thing in baseball history? I could have watched that clip a million times. Toppling sausages. Craig Wilson and his mullet played that day as well. Bradenton is not too far from Fort Myers. That was a pretty good day, I guess.

They are not televising the Red Sox/Pirates game today. Instead we get poker. Televised poker is boring. People love it, though. Not a criticism, by the way: I watch municipal court on TV so what do I know?

Some weeks old news from Bradenton:

1. They enjoy peanut butter bagels in the clubhouse.

2. "One autograph seeker apologized to Freddy Sanchez for wearing a Red Sox T-shirt until he remembered that Sanchez was developed in the Boston system.

When that same guy handed his pen to Jack Wilson, Wilson playfully shot back, 'What do you want mine for? I never played in Pawtucket.'"

3. Adam Laroche is in Pittsburgh. I forgot about that.

4. The Pirates Triple-A team is the Indianapolis Indians. They are guaranteeing the opening day game temperature to be at least 60 degrees. If it is colder than that, everyone gets a free ticket to another home game. Very clever.