girlsox nation

Pitchers and catchers are reporting in a few short weeks, and the Florida sun is calling Sox fans back from the winter doldrums to the baseball diamond. Winter meetings, new signings, and is that Ellsbury in LEFT?

Welcome to official start of spring for Girlsox Nation- time to bid the equipment truck farewell from the gates of Fenway, and pack up our flip flop and shades. We've got a few  stories to catch you up on, and we'll give you all the 411 on the new faces for the 2010 season. If you haven't considered a long weekend or a mid-week getaway to Ft. Myers, here's some helpful arm-twisting to help you bail on this cold snap and have something to really look forward to...

1). Cheap Flights. Oh, they're out there- I personally found an $81 flight from Logan to Ft. Myers and a return trip for just $67. Sure, we're all a bit pinched from this miserable economy but SO are airlines, and the good deals, well let's just say, "It's on".

2). Available tickets. I'm just going to be honest here, and please don't consider this an advertising claim worthy of an FDA investigation or Jim Sokolov lawsuit, but I've NEVER had a trip to City of Palm park where there weren't tickets released the morning of the game. I've gotten easy tickets through Craigslist, (remember to look on the South Florida list as well as Boston) and I've called up the Red Sox ticket line and scored them weeks after they went on sale. Don't fret, it's not like Fenway... promise.

3) Great hotel deal. Yup, we'll put in a shameless plug for our hotel partnership right here. The Holiday Inn at the Gulf Coast Town Center is the best $139 you'll ever spend. You split it with your friend, heck you can add a 3rd to the room with a roll-in single bed and you're each paying about $45 a night. Did I mention it has an outdoor firepit for cocktails at night, a jacuzzi by the pool and a better hair dryer than my own in every room?

4) Proximity. This is the key word of the Spring Training experience. The park is tiny (soon to be moving to a much bigger park in a couple of years) and the players are excited to be with the fans and earn your love. I easily got Jacoby Ellsbury's autograph in 2007, before he was a star. That rookie is out there this year too, but you have to be in the park to find him.

5) Sun. The absolute worst case scenario is that you run into Jason Varitek in a restaurant rather than at the ballpark. Even if by some cruel alignment of the stars you took the plunge and the tickets all got swallowed up by a giant Ft. Myers beach whale... you'd still have the Florida sun and aforementioned cocktails by the outdoor fire.

C'mon... you know you want to go.

by Maggie Magner, Girlsox Contributor