New spring training facility a hit with opening-day fans
Landfill south of 45th Street transformed into $150 million showcase.
WEST PALM BEACH — It was a day of firsts Saturday when The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, Major League Baseball’s newest spring-training facility, opened its doors to the public for the first time.
The first souvenir baseball from a batting-practice foul ball went to Rocco Arnone, 10, of Boca Raton, who snagged it outside a Houston Astros practice field.
Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez and 8-year-old Ryan Shenker of Potomac, Md., teamed up for the ballpark’s first player-fan high-five.
The first player to succumb to autograph hounds was Astros infielder A.J. Reed. He also posed for the first player-fan selfie with Lynn University student Andrew Kalmans of Houston.
“If you build it, they will come, and here we come,’’ Nationals fan Lana Turner of Stuart said, quoting the baseball movie “Field of Dreams,” as she strolled with her husband, John, through the $150 million spring training complex south of 45th Street.
Hundreds of fans, from as far away as California and wearing the colors of both teams, started arriving at about 8:30 a.m. on the 160-acre site — a landfill before the teams broke ground in November 2015.
They gathered along chain-link fences in front of the Astros clubhouse on the north end and the Nationals clubhouse on the south end, waiting for sightings of the teams’ biggest stars, Jose Altuve and Bryce Harper. They happily settled for just about any player wearing an orange Houston star or a curly Washington “W.”
“I can’t believe how fan-friendly it is. You c an ac tually see the