JUPITER, Fla. • New hitting coach Jeff Albert and returning shortstop Paul DeJong ended up on the same flight to Dallas, so the two Cardinals shared a rental car and started a conversation on their 80-mile drive south. Harrison Bader and Tyler O’Neill arrived later, their flights from opposite coasts on the continent delayed all the same, and knowing little about where they were headed, what it looked like, or how long it would take to get there, they split an Uber.
More than 90 minutes and less than $150 later, Bader and O’Neill had passed “just a lot of flat land” and pulled off a main road toward their destination.