Lido Shores Ultimate Spring Training Fan

Lido Shorian Stuart Cassell is a devoted baseball fan.  So for Stuart, living in Sarasota this time of year is a dizzying dose of major league heaven.   A spring training season ticket holder for eight years, Stu attends Baltimore Orioles games at Ed Smith Stadium every chance he gets.

Wednesday, he took advantage of the special season ticket holders autograph session with Orioles players. He loves to chat with the pitchers about their game statistics, which he fervently documents.

Orioles pitcher Brian Matusz signs Stuart Cassell's baseball - photo by Elliott Himelfarb

Then on Thursday, the young at heart got a chance to run the bases after the Toronto Blue Jays lost to the Orioles. Showing youthful flexibility, Stuart joined in, and not only ran the bases, but executed a professional hook slide into home plate. This photo (below) also appeared in Friday's Herald Tribune. Stuart's wife Miriam told us, "Stuart took my girlfriend to the ball game and I went to the library for the Marcel Proust Celebration. This is why our marriage has lasted for 49 years!"  Miriam and Stuart have lived in Lido Shores for 17 of those.

Stuart Cassell slides into home plate - photo by Craig Litten

Stuart, armed with Orioles stats, jokes with pitcher Miguel Gonzalez

Stuart says that "spring training is so exciting because you get close to the players and the field. You don't get that opportunity during the regular season at a major league ballpark." Stu loves Buck Showalter, the Orioles manager, because "he never smiles, he's all business, even in spring training!" Stu continues, "I'm a fan of the Orioles because they are very fan-friendly, a big contrast to the previous teams who trained in Sarasota."

Stuart loves to quiz Baltimore fans with this trivia question: what was the name of the team that later became the Baltimore Orioles? Answer: The St. Louis Browns.

Stuart suggests reading an excellent book on spring training, "The Short Season: the Hard Work and High Times of Baseball in the Spring" by David Faulkner. Faulkner sums up why spring training is so special: "Spring training, that glorious time of year when every team is a champion".

Stuart's favorite baseball team was the Brooklyn Dodgers, which sadly doesn't exist anymore, and now he's a New York Mets fan. Even so, he's thrilled to have the Orioles training in his backyard. You read it here first, Stuart's 2013 prediction is the Toronto Blue Jays and Orioles will be neck and neck, battling for the division title in September.

~JM + BT