Every year for the last 10 years plus one time before that
my parents and I have been traveling to Phoenix and before that Tucson for Spring
Training baseball. And this year was no
exception. We do this Mostly to see the Rockies but some other teams as well. I
also enjoy going Spring Training in Phoenix because of the weather and a lot of
good food but the main reason is to see baseball and get ready for the season
to start. This year we went to three different games at three different
stadiums and got to see five teams including 21 all-star players and also 4
former Rockies players including Brandan Barnes from the Indians who hit a
three run homer.
Game #1
The First game we went to was on March 10 at Maryvale Baseball
Park in Phoenix which is the home of the Milwaukee Brewers. We didn't get up
real early that morning and not as early as we planned, but we still made it
with plenty of time to spare. This game
was supposed to be a Zach Davies bobble head giveaway day, but they weren’t
handing them out so I don't know what that meant. So anyways when we got into
the stadium I found a hotdog added mustard and of course I had to get
sauerkraut.
After I was done eating my mom came back with a barbecue sandwich
and cheese curds in a mini Brewers helmet. I tried one and almost burnt my
mouth on it but after that they were absolutely delicious and I immediately
wished I would've had gotten my own instead of the hotdog but luckily my mom
shared quite a few with me.
Our seats were
just to the third base side of the stadium and at the top of that section. So
they were easy for someone in a wheelchair to get to, and they were great for
somebody in a wheelchair as the bar in front was lowered unlike most ball parks,
so I could easily see over it. Also the
companion seats were movable seats are not bolted down and unmovable like most
stadiums, so my parents and I could all sit where was best for us.
Once I had
eaten I checked out posted lineup and noticed the Rockies lineup was Nolan Arenado
and the Albuquerque Isotopes. You might
remember the Simpsons episode where Homer is on a hunger strike until the Springfield
isotopes admitted they were moving the team to Albuquerque. Well that team is
the Rockies AAA minor-league team. The Brewers who had more of a normal lineup.
The day was cloudy the whole time and a bit into the game it started lightly
raining and did most of the game and was a bit chilly. I even needed to get my
hoodie out.
The game didn't have much
going on besides the Brewers scoring some runs,
but in the middle of the sixth inning
they have the Brewers famous sausage race which the Brewers have for every home
game and this time the chorizo won the race. About this time the lower level
minor-league players came in to finish the game that the Rockies lost 9 to 2. This wasn’t too good of a game unless you’re
a Brewers fan, but I still enjoyed our day at the ballpark especially those
cheese curds.
Game #2
Game two was a few days later on March 13 it was a game
between the Seattle Mariners and the Rockies at Salt River Fields at talking
stick in Scottsdale Arizona. We arrived pretty early and had good parking and
basically could pick wherever we wanted and were there before the gates even
opened. So we waited for a few minutes until
they opened. my first order of business
was find the bathroom which at this stadium as well as the other two we went to
they have really good family/handicap accessible restrooms which makes it a lot
easier for someone like me to use the bathroom because I need extra space and
these had quite a bit more space than a regular stall in regular bathrooms.
After this we walked around the stadium and I got a slice of pizza which was
quite large, but so was the price at nine dollars. I got this along with a Coke
but needed quite a bit of help and basically needed to be fed since it's
difficult to eat at ball parks and things are just getting harder to do. After
I ate this I just sat and took a rest for a while and waited for the game.
And a
very nice guy came up and asked if I wanted a signed baseball so I said sure. He
pulled a baseball out of his backpack and asked if I could tell who it was. I could kind of pick out a DJ plus the number 9
so I knew it was DJ LeMahieu.
For this
game the Rockies had more of a regular lineup including all Stars Charlie
Blackmon, DJ LeMahieu and Nolan Arenado again and the Mariners had Robinson
Canó and Nelson Cruz. This was a pretty good game that included some
interesting things. One happened just
after the game started when in the first inning Nelson Cruz got injured running
to first base and left the game. But in spring training teams are extra
cautious with their players so who knows how bad it really was. Then the
Mariners starting pitcher Rob Whalen struck out 9 Rockies. The game got to the bottom of the 8th
inning with the Rockies down 7-2 but the minor leaguers had a rally and scored
4 runs. Then in the ninth-inning they
tied the game up then had a walk off hit from Derrik Gibson! This was a great
day at the ballpark with good weather and was very comfortable especially since
we were in the shade and it ended up in an exciting Rockies win.
Game #3
The next day on a Wednesday March 14 we went to Goodyear
ballpark and Goodyear, AZ which is just south and west of Phoenix by just a few
miles. This is the home of the Cincinnati
Reds and Cleveland Indians. We have
visited this stadium in the past and there usually aren't too many people there,
but I think because it was a good matchup of two good teams and included the Angels
so the stadium was mostly filled today. This was also nice day not too hot not
too cold almost perfect weather.
We arrived pretty early and I found myself a
hotdog and I made sure I got the Bertman's Original Ball Park Mustard which
they have at the stadium in Cleveland and apparently is a big thing. I thought
it was like a spicy brown mustard almost but was better.
For this game we got
to see many all-stars and future Hall of Fame including Mike Trout, Albert
Pujols, Justin Upton and Ian Kinsler from the Angels and Jose Ramirez, Corey
Kluber, Jason Kipnis, Francisco Lindor and Edwin Encarnacion from the Indians.
And one Shohei Ohtani the highly touted pitcher/hitter from Japan. For most of this game it was mostly Corey
Kluber dominating the good Angels lineup for five innings but was still a good game
until the Indians blew the game open in the 8th inning with their minor-league
players and older players just trying to make the team. We even saw former Rockies Brandon Barnes hit
a three run homerun and Ryan Hanigan had an RBI hit and Eric Young Jr from the
Angels had a couple of hits. The Indians won this game 7-0. This game might not
been quite as exciting for me without the Rockies in it, but I do like seeing
some of the other teams play and got a treat at this one as I got to see so
many great players.
This year we had a great trip to spring training and got to
see three of the 10 cactus league stadiums and five of the 15 teams and got to
see 21 different all stars and 4 former Rockies and had good weather for two of
the games and not horrible weather for the third so all in all it was a rather
good trip.
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