Word: sarasota
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...SARASOTA, Fla.--It seemed like real baseball...
...Wall" was just a 10-ft. high chicken-wire fence. A Sarasota Sports Committee ad decorated the right field fence. And players ran wind sprints across right field during the game...
...Sarasota's Payne Park, winter home of the Chicago White Sox, seats just over 5000 baseball-starved fans. The overflow crowds drink beer and watch the contest from the roofs of their mobile homes beyond the outfield wall...
Spring baseball is a tradition in Sarasota, a retirement community of 51,000 people. Before the Red Sox moved to Winter Haven over two decades ago, the team used to train at Payne. At least one long-time Payne usher--who served as a batboy for Ted Williams--remains loyal, however. "I've always been a [Red] Sox fan, and I always will be," he says with a sense of finality...
...food is standard ballpark fare: hotdogs, popcorn, Coca-Cola and, especially, beer. The beer in Sarasota may be no better than beer anywhere else, but it is served in a unique fashion--by an operatic vendor. "Be the first to quench your thirst!" sings the salesman. "C'mon, you can strike out," he serenades the Red Sox. No one can recall the last singing vendor at Fenway...