Our trip out west was a good one from beginning to end. We finished it up with two full days and one night in Phoenix/Scottsdale. While there we took in two spring training games as well as roamed around Old Scottsdale for a bit.
I've been to numerous spring training games in Florida through the years. Spring training in Florida is known as the Grapefruit League. In Arizona it's appropriately known as the Cactus League. At the risk of disappointing the state of my birth, Arizona does spring training much better than Florida. The main difference is that in Florida the teams are spread out from the east coast to the west coast and from Disney World down to Fort Myers. In Arizona all the teams are clustered around Phoenix. There are 10 stadiums all within about a 30 minute radius. For the fan of a specific team or just a baseball fan, Arizona gives you a great chance to see a bunch of teams without a bunch of driving. The games were made even more fun because Beth and I had a special guest with us. Ben flew out Monday morning and back to Dallas Tuesday night at about the same time that we flew out.
Monday we enjoyed seeing the Cubs and Rockies at Salt River Fields (home of the Rockies and Diamondbacks). After the game we made the short drive to downtown Scottsdale to the "Old Scottsdale" area. This area has numerous shops, restaurants, etc. and was full of baseball fans decked out in their favorite teams gear. Yesterday we went to the Dodgers/Cubs game at Sloan Park (home of the Cubs). We had about 6 different games both days that we could have picked but these looked like the best matchups and you can never go wrong with the cubbies.
https://saltriverfields.com/
http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/chc/sloan-park/
https://www.visitphoenix.com/things-to-do/old-town-scottsdale/
http://frankandlupes.com/
Thanks to Brian Peacock we had a chance to say hello to Ian Desmond of the Colorado Rockies. Ian and Brian grew up playing baseball together and Ian was recently in Brian's wedding. Brian arranged a "code word" with Ian that we were to call him by when we saw him. It worked perfectly and I'd give you the "code word" but then I'd have to kill you.
As you have probably figured out by now, baseball is everywhere this time of the year in Phoenix. This was true even at our hotel. After some nice Mexican food at Frank and Lupes we decided on an evening soak in the hot tub at our hotel. There were two young men sitting in there when we arrived. We struck up a conversation and soon learned that they were both pitchers for the San Francisco Giants. They were extremely nice and shared with us their individual stories. Conner was from Florida and was drafted out of high school. Doug was from Missouri and had played college ball at Missouri State. He led his team to a Super Regional (one step away from the college world series) against TCU in his final season. Both are just starting the extremely difficult climb to the major leagues. They also shared with us that the great majority of the rooms in the hotel where we were staying were occupied with minor leaguers from the Giants organization. We were spending the night with the Giants!
They were very friendly young men who appreciate the opportunity and are enjoying the ride. They've got three new fans in Beth, Ben and I who will be cheering for them throughout their careers. We jokingly told them the "Code Word" story and even made up one if we run into them somewhere down the line. The code word we agreed on was naturally "Hot Tub".
Utah, where we started our trip, and Arizona where we finished up were really nice. But it sure was great to see palm trees and the Gulf of Mexico again on our walk this morning. We'd been away from the water for close to a month!
Arizona may be the best when it comes to Spring Training Baseball but their beaches just don't compare to the gulf coast of the Sunshine State!
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| Cactus League at it's best! |
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| Salt River Field Cubs/Rockies Game |
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| Salt River Field |
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| Outside Salt River Fields Stadium The practice fields are in front of us |
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| Ian Desmond signing a ball that will be added to Ben's collection of over 400 autographed balls. |
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| Guess where? |
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| Outside Sloan Park-Home of the Cubs |
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| Cubs/Dodgers at Sloan Park. Former Ranger and Dodger Yu Darvish made his first start for his new team (Cubs). He threw two innings and gave up one run. |
