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Month: March 2019

Central Florida, the vacation capital of the world

The largest cities in Central Florida are Orlando, Kissimmee, Sanford, and Daytona Beach. The most popular of these is the Orlando / Kissimmee area. Orlando is the most visited city in all of Florida. The main reason is that there is so much fun in this city that it is not possible to do everything. Orlando is home to Walt Disney World, including The Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, MGM Studios, Typhoon Lagoon, and River Country. You can also visit Downtown Disney, which has great shopping, lively restaurants, and great nightlife, including Pleasure Island. Outside the gates of Disney you will also find International Drive and other great shopping venues. Full of outlet and retail stores, hotels and dinner shows, you could have a complete vacation on this street! You won’t want to miss Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure. The two amusement parks bring movie magic and special effects to life. Universal Studios is also home to Halloween Horror Nights, which brings the magic of Halloween every fall season. If theme parks don’t appeal to you, downtown Orlando and Winter Park are great places to see live entertainment, antique shopping, nightlife and clubs, as well as exclusive restaurants.

In just an hour’s drive, you can also visit one of Florida’s award-winning attractions – the Kennedy Space Center. See NASA’s space shuttles and enjoy activities and lessons on how space travel has evolved in recent decades. It is also located one hour northeast of Orlando, Daytona Beach. This beach is popular during the summer months and has a great promenade to walk around and enjoy the sea views. Daytona Beach also hosts Bike Week every year. Residents and visitors descend on this area to ride their motorcycles here and gather to watch old road shows and just chat with other motorcycle enthusiasts. It’s one of the busiest weeks of the year in Daytona Beach!

Central Florida is a popular place to visit and has continued to change over time to offer guests the best possible vacation destination. While many people come here to play games, millions also call it home. It is a large metropolitan area that has a world-class airport, financial districts and

other businesses that directly affect the hotel industry that thrives in this area. It takes a lot of great people to make every magical vacation happen here. So don’t overlook this city as an exceptional place to live, either. You could experience the magic all year round!

Cleveland Indians baseball scout always at the top of the pack

Don Lyle, the Northern California area scout for the Cleveland Indians, has some unique ideas on how to search for baseball prospects.

In less than 20 years, Lyle has signed more than 50 prospects to major league contracts, eleven of whom have made it to the major leagues. That is a success rate of more than 20 percent. Lyle is best known for signing Sacramento-area native Derrek Lee, who was recently traded from the Cubs to the Braves. Lyle removed Lee from El Camino High School to a contract with the Padres in 1993.

Sitting with Lyle at a mid-summer display sponsored by the El Dorado Hills Hard 90 Baseball Academy, you learn that he is evaluating players just by the way they walk across the field to start practice. “That (athletics) puts me on the radar.”

Next is another intangible: sincerity. Lyle is looking for people who are serious about business in the field. “Geoff Jenkins did that,” the Indians scout recalls of the Cordova High star who recently retired after an official career and a World Series championship with the Phillies.

When players start to throw the ball, Lyle looks for those with good fundamental arm action and strength in their throws. Eventually, when they warm up, he will instinctively know if he got it right. Even if the arm action “… isn’t exactly how I want it, but the speed is there, then I’m buying,” says Lyle.

During a ball game, the Indians scout times runners to first base, the pitcher’s pitch to home plate with a runner on base, and the catcher throws to second to catch a base robber. All standards for the profession. But Lyle is looking at the batter before he even walks into the box. He’s checking out the prospect while he’s in the circle on the deck, his focus, his sincerity, again seeing if the player is “challenging himself to get that pitcher to the mound. You can see it.”

Lyle will also move to the opposite sideline to view the prospect through his binoculars. “I’m watching him on the bench to see how he’s looking at the game. Do you want to come up with the game on the line? No, when he’s at the plate. Once he gets out of that circle, it’s about his set. Up.”

When Don Lyle ultimately scores a player, he is trying to determine if that player is ready to play in the big leagues today. “Only 1 percent (of prospects) want me right now,” he admits, but marks the others with a touchdown to “go on.” He often recommends those players to college scouts, hoping they will have a chance to further develop and be prepared for the major leagues in time.

The main indicator to measure a player’s skill level compared to those now playing in the major leagues is the standard scoring system of 20-80 from scouts, with 20 being the lowest score and 80 reserved for the maximum of players from all over the world. “Even with Barry (Bonds), I would have had to rate him at 70,” laughs Lyle over a fictitious score by one of his all-time favorite players. “Give it an 80 and there are no advantages.”

When evaluating a high school talent, particularly the bat and arm, Lyle will score a rank rather than an exact number. “You’re kidding yourself a bit. If (the prospect) makes it to the majors, and his arm is 50 now, it’ll probably be a 60 in the majors. I’ll put it as a 50-60, as I hope it’s going to be better. The performance it is still what it is. “