MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Twins pitchers and catchers reported to Spring Training in Fort Myers, Florida, on Wednesday.
For many fans, it's a day that brings excitement and optimism for the season ahead.
For one fan, that day came last week.
"It's just so much fun," said Joe Fischer, who has become the team's go-to choice for moving down to Florida — and back — for several years. "This will be my sixth season that I've been dedicated to doing the Spring Training route."
Joe, a professional mover with Berger Transfer, is a lifelong Twins fan who works with a small team to carefully pack a semi-trailer with a mix of baseball equipment and just about anything else the team might need to bring with them.
"We bring the ticket machines down there, metal detectors — lots of random, weird stuff to try to load on a truck," he said. "A few years back, we had an ice cream machine, but they didn't figure out they wanted it until the truck was already almost done loading. It turned into an ordeal."
Mike Herman, Twins director of team travel, says Fischer handled that situation, and everything since, like a true professional.
"He's almost a member of the team," Herman said. "Joe does a great job of loading the truck, and that's the most important part — making sure that we use every cubic foot inside that trailer."
This year, that meant fitting in a lot of extra boxes of new gear, following an overhaul of all the Twins branding and logos.
It also meant finding some extra space for some unique items, such as Joe Ryans "vintage" bicycle and Kenta Maeda's golf clubs.
Fischer: "I'm playing Tetris on an advanced level."
Herman: "I would call this 'super Tetris' and I would call Joe a master at that game."
Fischer: "It's a challenge, but that's the thing I love about this job, is it's a new challenge every day, and you never put the same puzzle together twice."
When it comes to the Spring Training route, he loves the second puzzle even more.
"The coolest thing is when they are ready to come back home, and I go back down in a couple of months after Spring Training is over," he said. "Since they are still playing, I get to hang out in the clubhouse for almost a week and load the truck over a few days instead of a few hours. So I've been sitting down eating breakfast in the clubhouse with Tony Oliva and Justin Morneau and Paul Molitor. I mean, it's a dream come true."
He never asks for photos with those Twins greats, though he has requested a few autographed baseballs.
"Probably close to 100, I'd say," he said with a laugh.
But keep in mind, his most cherished autographs, aren't exactly from household names.
"This is a ball from the first year I did this," he said, pulling out a baseball full of autographs. "I needed to have the clubhouse team sign this for me, because they're the real heroes behind the show."
On moving day, there is no one those heroes would rather hand the ball to.
"Whatever they want, we take it," Fischer said.
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