Last Sunday, my family and I headed an hour or so south of Jacksonville to Daytona Beach to visit the Jackie Robinson Ballpark, home of the Daytona Tortugas of the Florida State League Low-A Southeast. The Jupiter Hammerheads were in town, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to check out the park and check in on the Jumbo Shrimp of the future. (Because hey, that’s kinda what this blog aspires to be about from time to time).
The Jackie Robinson Ballpark was built in 1914 and is the 4th oldest active park in the country. Jackie Robinson played his first professional game here. That’s some fantastic history. Obviously there have been some massive renovations of the park over the years, but it still has the old school charm that some of the newer parks lack to an extent.
We started off the game watching from the old grandstand. You really feel the history sitting there.
Unfortunately, with a 5:30 pm start time, you also feel the blazing sun right in your eyes/on your skin for the first 90 minutes of the game. That was unfortunate for us, as we have a 4-year old who can’t be in the direct sun quite that long. (We’re Irish, so pasty skin burns fast). The solution was to move to the top of the bleachers. Sun blocked without a problem, and there was a very nice breeze up there too. I imagine that a 12:05 or 7:05 pm start wouldn’t have these issues.
Jupiter ended up winning 3-1 on the night. Box score can be found here. All in all, it was a fun night out, and the Tortugas go out of their way to be family friendly. The staff couldn’t have been nicer to us all. We will certainly be back.
The Catch 
Leave a Reply