John Dudley's page 1 story in today's Erie Times-News -- A Walk in the Ballpark -- captures the enthusiam of the start of Erie's baseball season. Dudley describes in great detail the new amenities at Jerry Uht Park, home of Erie's Eastern League AA franchise.

Specifically, a new $3.25 million multitiered picnic and beer garden, which seats 1,000, debuts in right field at the 12-year-old ballpark. There's also a new video scoreboard, which should complement the $1 million scoreboard which was installed in 2006.

A detailed look at the renovations at Uht Park was provided through an interactive graphic, as readers could get a bird's eye view from the picnic and beer gardens. Photos and illustrations of both areas were also part of the package.

Inside, on the sports pages, sportswriter Ron Leonardi, who spent the last week with the SeaWolves at spring training camp in Lakeland, Fla., profiled the team's top players.

This kind of coverage gets readers and fans excited about Thursday's home opener, which should be great -- except for the weather forecast. Cold and snow could return to Erie for the next few days.

"That's OK," said SeaWolves manager Matt Walbeck. "It's the same kind of weather they're having in Detroit, which is where everu one of these players wants to be."

-- Kevin Cuneo

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