New York Yankees, New York Mets to meet in Grapefruit League for the first time since 1996
The 2011 season was packed with thrills, controversies, injuries, upsets and many more. The fans enjoyed the season more than before. Thrilling contest started from spring training and kept going until the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers 4-3 in
the seventh and final outing of the seven-game World Series to record their name as the Champions.
Before the losing clubs could come out of the grief and winning teams could have enjoyment of their wins, Major League Baseball has announced the schedule of the Grapefruit League, which is played just before the regular season. It has always been fun for
the fans to see the opener, whether it is a series, league, championship, or World Series opener.
This time in 2012, the fans will have two state-teams in Grapefruit opening battle with the New York Yankees and the New York Mets. Just after wrapping the spring training at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, all eyes will move towards Port St. Lucie, where the
first major contest will be played on April 3. This game will start another amazing action-packed season, which will continue until time decides one champion.
Spring training and Grapefruit are the part of the season since beginning, but the important fact in this outing is the Yankees and the Mets will meet for the first time in spring training in Tampa since March 1996. Both state teams have never been in a
contest since annual spring-training matchup ended in 1997. After the first outing in 1996, the Yankees moved the team’s headquarters to Tampa from Fort Lauderdale.
The competition between the clubs ended in 1997 because of 161-miles distance between Port St. Luis and Tampa and beginning of interleague regular season meetings. This year, however, Mets wanted to have some variety in their Grapefruit League adversaries.
Since the Los Angeles Dodgers changed their office to Arizona from Vero Beach and the Baltimore Orioles set up their office in Sarasota from Fort Lauderdale, the Mets were short of opponents because of long distances. They could only invite the St. Louis
Cardinals and Florida Marlins in Jupiter and Viera was able to host the Washington Nationals. All these clubs has less than a two-hour drive from Port St. Lucie. There is still a problem, as the Cardinals and Marlins are in the National League which will not
allow them to visit the Mets as often as they would have liked.
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