Take Me Out to the Stadium Tour

It's all about the connections...When D1 was in Gainesville, she had a doctor named Chris Jolley, who became a friend. Chris is a wonderful guy, and I introduced him to Dr. Barry, who wanted him badly to join the staff at UM. Chris interviewed, the top folks all wanted him, but, alas, his wife had veto power, and she loves her life in rural Gainesville...

Still, at one of our dinner meetings, Barry mentioned how huge a Marlins fan his son is, and Chris said his father, in Dallas, was an engineer with the company building the new stadium, and did Barry think his son would like a behind the scenes tour? Only enough to give up some limbs, Barry replied...

And so yesterday was the day. I picked up Scott and Josh in Pembroke Pines, since Barry had a busy afternoon and I did NOT, and we drove south. We stopped by JMH and got Barry, and headed over to the site of the old Orange Bowl, where Marlins Stadium is rising.

We met Mark, the project engineer from Indy, who is Chris's father's friend. He took us into the construction trailers, and showed us models and pictures, and then gave us all hard hats and bright vests and safety goggles...

I love engineers. They're generally the opposite of lawyers. They're most efficient of words, and they actually BUILD stuff, as opposed to just talking all the time. Mark was a prime example --Purdue grad, laconic, sharp sense of humor.

Barry and I told Mark we were all standing on holy ground. The Orange Bowl was the scene of many wonderful memories for us, and a golden age of Hurricanes football (Dolphins, too, but Barry likes the Jets and didn't want to talk about that).

Mark took us across the street, and we walked into the stadium. It's mostly built, and the famous retractable roof is nearly complete. Mark told us the building is "sexy" from an engineering standpoint, and I saw what he meant: curves everywhere, and floating ramps --I saw immediately how it evokes the ocean and its waves...

We stood on home plate, and walked all the way to the top. A stiff breeze blew in from Biscayne Bay. It was lovely, as was the view. Looking out past centerfield, the stadium is built to showcase Downtown's skyline. When the roof is open, huge picture windows will open, too, so it will be a true open air stadium, instead of just one with a moving roof. It was WAY impressive.

Mark showed us huge cantilevered concrete trusses, the "biggest ever used." They were designed by my neighbor, John Nyitray, a famous Hungarian-American engineer, who has done structural work all over the word. If the roof collapses on me while watching a game or 2, Wifey can walk down 3 houses and yell at him.

We also passed some pallets with the name of another neighbor --Bostic. Judy, who lives next to John, owns the metal work company doing all the railings and grillwork.

I thought it was pretty cool that I knew 2 major contributors of the new project--and they're next door neighbors!

Mark took us to the locker rooms, and weight rooms. He showed us gorgeous views from overhangs, and told us about wind tunnel tests that made the stadium hurricane resistant, both to wind and flooding.

Barry and I agreed that the stadium was much less needed than, say, more money for hospitals and schools, but as long as they built it, it was silly to not appreciate it.

It's truly destined to become the coolest venue in the Major Leagues.

We thanked Mark, and headed to Tobacco Road for dinner. We bored Scott and Josh with tales of our many visits there over the past 3 decades. And I showed Josh, a budding musician, all of the posters of the great blues acts who had appeared there.

All in all, it was an outstanding way to spend an evening.

Scott went home and immediately FB posted that next April can't come fast enough. I agree.

I told Scott and Josh that someday they'll take their kids to games there, and tell them how they were at the place while it was being built, with Grandpa Barry, and long departed Great Uncle Dave.

They laughed. The future seems so far off when you're a teen.

All I know is, Yankee Stadium, where my mother went to games, was built in the mid 1920s, and they knocked down the "historic" park 2 years ago. My mother was born in 1920, before the House that Ruth Built was around.

So sometimes you can outlive history, I guess.

I just look forward to a couple of mojitos while also drinking in the breeze from the Bay, and watching the Fish play. I won't care if I ever get back.