The nice weekend weather brought the return of baseball to City Island as Metro Bank Park opened its doors for the first time this season on Saturday for their annual Senators’ FanFest. If you ignored the ping of aluminum bats you might even think the Senators were scrimmaging, but it was just Messiah hosting Lebanon Valley College in a special doubleheader as part of the day’s festivities.

So, I took full advantage of the day and wandered around to check out some of the new features while taking in my favorite sights and sounds of spring. The Senators were offering 20-minute tours (mine was with GM Randy Whitaker) that took groups through the new Ollie’s Cheap Suite right next to the visitors’ dugout, the clubhouses, the Patriot-News Press Box Stadium Club, and a luxury box.  Before I left, I grabbed a bag of ballpark peanuts for the road thinking Thursday night’s opening game of the season can’t get here soon enough.