This year for Spring Break we decided to make the trek to Phoenix and to Spring Training. You know we're all about the baseball and April is way too long to wait for it. We learned, after we'd booked our flight, that almost all games in Phoenix start at 1:05, our flight landed at 12:30... maybe. Well, we decided we didn't want to miss out on a day of baseball so we bought tickets to one of the games and decided we'd get there when we got there.... and we were off!
1st stop - Mesa - Hohokam Park
Mesa and Hohokam Park are the home of the Chicago Cubs. On Saturday the Cubs were hosting the Cleveland Indians. Hohokam Park is in the middle of a neighborhood and, not knowing the lay of the land, you are directed up a wide residential street to get there. Where they had parked up both sides of the street and in the middle, which made it a tight squeeze to get through. Uggghhh, we thought, this is not good. We passed the ballpark and saw someone selling parking in their "yard" - SOLD!!! We parked and hurried over to the game, it was the middle of the 4th inning, not bad. We had bought lawn seats so we knew we could get in and didn't have to really worry about finding seats - those Cubs fans can be brutal if you're interrupting their game. Turns out, the place was half-empty so we found a big empty section and camped out.
View from our "seats"
Boys enjoying the game - yes, Edd is back there but hiding
View from the other side
Parallel bullpens
On Sunday we travelled to Peoria to the shared facility of the Padres and the Mariners. If you get there early you can watch the teams practice. The ENTIRE team, from AA up to the Majors all on several different fields. We watched the Mariners practice and then headed in to the game. This time we bought grass tickets at the window and again, picked out a spot in the stands to watch the game. Peoria turned out to be one of our favorite parks. It had a good set-up, easy access, great people working there and up close view.
This day the Mariners were hosting the White Sox. Funny enough, last time we were in Chicago we saw the Mariners play the White Sox... coincidence?
The line up!
M doing his thing... they were having a contest for pitching speed. He did pretty good considering no warm up.
Our view
Teaching M how to score a game
On Monday we travelled to Surprise to watch the Rangers take on the Giants. Yu Darvish was pitching, bonus! This time we bought real "seats" which turned out to be a good choice because we were in the shade and the place was PACKED!!! Again, we went to practice and if you don't know the lay of the land the Rangers practice area is a little remote from the field. There were a lot of people in the practice area, a lot more than were at the Mariners. We did find our friends the Kirkpatricks there which was cool, they were busy collecting autographs from their favorite players.
1st Major League Team we've seen "warm up" together
The boys...
Rangers take the field!
Darvish
Moreland on base
The stadium
On Tuesday we planned a double header as it was one of the days they also were having a night game. The day game was at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, the home of the Oakland A's. It was our least favorite park. There is no grass seating, there are bleachers over dirt down the lines. Also, the practice area for the team is 2 miles away and while there is a practice field next to the stadium you can't get to it, and can hardly see it even when you are in the stands. So, it's not a very fan friendly place. Luckily, the Cubs are building a new facility in Mesa and the A's are going to move to the Cubs old facility in a couple of years. On Tuesday the A's were hosting the Royals. The one neat thing about this field was the park area next door, so you could see the rocks past right field.
Batting practice
M doing his thing again, without a mound
More batting practice
Warm up, the "bull pen" was on the field right in front of the stands
Play Ball!
Tuesday night we saw our 1st "night game" at Goodyear Ballpark which is the shared facility of the Indians and the Reds. We were hoping to see M's teammate and his dad who is a hitting coach for the AA division of the Reds but no luck. The practice facility for Goodyear is a healthy walk down the street but it was a beautiful day and we were excited they were having practice before the evening game. The Reds were hosting the Dodgers. We happened to sit on the Dodgers side of the park and got a good luck at some of the line up, like this guy - I think his name is Ethier???
Our view of the field.
Wednesday was also going to be a double header day for us with day and night games. For the day game we returned to Peoria to see the Padres host the Angels. We hadn't really wanted to see the Angels (otherwise known as the Ranger rejects) but, it was either that or watch a team we'd already seen and our ultimate goal was to see as many facilities and teams as we could. We arrived early and watched the Padres practice before the game. As I said, Peoria was one of our favorite parks, very fan friendly.
He who must not be named, at least he played just as bad for them as he did for the Rangers.
Our final game Wednesday night was at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick Resort. This was an impressive facility and tied in our mind with Peoria. Great set up, easy access, fan friendly. And, they had GREAT food!!! Not just ballpark food, there was a hawker in the stands selling Chocolate Chip Cookies as big as your face! He was funny.... "you know you want one" and you could hear him all over the park. We did eventually get one after getting two half-pizzas and a serving of garlic knots for $20 - I mean, really, what ballpark do you know that you can feed your family for $20? Well, you can at Salt River.... and it was great pizza and garlic knots, hard to not go back and get more except we were stuffed and, of course, saving room for that cookie. Salt River is the shared home of the Diamondbacks and the Rockies. This evening the D'Backs were hosting the Brewers. We watched the D'backs practice and then the game. The lighting wasn't great for taking pics but here's a few...
If you know where to look, M is in there getting autographs.
All in all we saw 7 games, 14 different teams (sorry Rockies, next time) and 6 different facilities. The only other things we saw in Phoenix were Cabela's, Bass Pro Shops, the Under Armour outlet, two movies and some restaurants.... and a lot of highway as we circled around and around and around the city.....
Posts
