01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, March 29, 2005

BY JACK PERRY
projo.com Writer

We slipped under the cover of sleep into the bright Florida sunshine and headed for City of Palms Park, spring training home of the world-champion Boston Red Sox.

We had to wait until our 21-month-old son, Tommy, was napping before heading for the game. He'd have been angrier than George Steinbrenner after Game 7 of last year's ALCS if he knew Mom, Dad and big brother Joey were leaving him with his grandparents -- even if he didn't know we were bound for a place that serves cotton candy as big as his pillow and ice cream in miniature Red Sox batting helmets.

Besides, Tommy will get his turn. Tonight would be Joey's night. His first Red Sox game.

At 5 years old, Joey is more into the RugRats than the Idiots, but as a father, I figure it's my duty to teach my boys about sports.

At the corner of Broadway and Edison and bordered by palm trees, City of Palms Park, painted in sunny Florida colors of white, tan and green, serves as a refuge for thousands of New Englanders every March. It's a place where they can cheat winter as if they were kids playing hooky and bask in the company of their baseball heroes.

Sunburns and sighs of relief

are what Steve Blessing often sees when he scans the crowd. Blessing, a retired Providence police detective, lives part time in Naples and heads security at the park. He says a lot of New England refugees head directly for the games from the nearby airport. Watching their faces, he can almost see the weight of winter roll off their shoulders as they slip into their seats.

From seats close to the visitors' dugout, Bill Castro of East Providence and Ted Casey of Wakefield get early glimpses of prospects such as Hanley Ramirez and wonder whether the Sox will have enough pitching without Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe.

Castro and Casey, two retirees, spend the month in Florida and own season tickets. Castro, 67, a former state senator, calls his annual trip to spring training a "good respite from the winters that get crueler and crueler." Casey, 70, a retired director of fundraising for Catholic Charities, says, "It doesn't get any better, except maybe in heaven."

Like Castro and Casey, a lot of fans get to these games early. The gates open more than two hours before the first pitch, giving fans the opportunity to hound players for autographs, watch them spray line drives in batting practice or spy on Johnny Damon as he warms up by hitting baseballs golfer-like from a tee in the covered batting cages beyond the left-field stands.

At Tuesday night's game, I spent $10.25 on a beer and an Italian sausage. A lot of people have discovered southwest Florida and spring training in the last few years. This year, I ordered our tickets via the Internet in December, and, for $21 each plus surcharges, we ended up sitting in the second-to-last row of the grandstands. But by climbing over our seats and across the back row, at least we had easy access to the sausage and beer stands.

The Red Sox drew about 116,000 fans to 16 spring training games at City of Palms Park last year. They've added seats and expect more fans this year. The team sold out its Grapefruit League schedule even before the games began this year, so we were lucky to get the seats, and, it seems, that's how much of the crowd felt.

The mood was giddy. Almost everyone was wearing a cap or T-shirt that boasted of the Red Sox' or the Patriots' championship seasons. When some guys in front of us ordered a round of beers, one of them repeated the price: "$17.25 for three beers." As if to say, "That's crazy, but we're on vacation. Who cares?" They had escaped winter and were watching the world-champion Red Sox. Finally. The public-address announcer played into it by announcing the temperature in Boston -- 38 degrees.

Baseball is a long, slow game with infrequent bursts of action. It requires patience, and from what I've seen, 5-year-old boys have two gears: full speed and asleep. Sitting between us in his new Red Sox T-shirt and spring training cap, Joey spent part of the game doodling. I was discouraged when he drew a house, but encouraged when he wrote "Go Red Sox."

He joined in some of the chants and even tried starting his own. He was impressed when Manny Ramirez and Doug Mirabelli hit sharp doubles into left field, but he missed a towering home run by David Ortiz, who had earlier gotten a boisterous round of cheers for simply walking across the field.

Still, I think Joey's fondest memory may be the big wad of blue cotton candy the three of us shared.

Arriving more than two hours before the game and expecting a 5-year-old to sit through nine innings, especially in crowded stands on a humid night, is probably asking too much. He wasn't as tough to handle as a knuckleball, but maybe a slider.

We made it through seven innings, which was longer than starting pitcher Tim Wakefield lasted. Hit hard and suffering from control problems, Wakefield was pulled in the fourth. The Sox lost, 6-4, and dropped to 8-10 in Grapefruit League play.

Is it time to start panicking? Not until at least June. Spring training is a good time for grown men, and even boys, to prepare for Fenway Park.

When we left, the game was in the hands of Tim Hummel, Jeff Bailey and George Lombard. Who?

Maybe by the time they're ready for Fenway, Joey will be, too.

projo.com staff writer Jack Perry can be reached at jperry [at] projo.com