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| Maryvale! |
Over the last two days, I had another fantastic baseball
experience. Planning to spend two days in Phoenix to enjoy three Cactus League
games, I left Saturday morning and arrived at Maryvale Baseball Park to enjoy
the Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers. This was a park we didn’t go to last
year, so it was nice to walk around a new ballpark (they’re all great, just
varying degrees of great). I enjoyed a brat (it is Milwaukee’s home park, after
all) and a beer, and hung out by the Reds bullpen. We had pretty solid success
with that last year (re: Brock’s conversation with Bronson Arroyo) and this
year was pretty great also. I got to watch Aroldis Chapman warm up! He was like
8 feet from me! Also, I said this to a few people, namely Colleen and my Dad,
but watching major league players toss baseballs to kids is never not the best
thing ever.
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| Aroldis! |
After that game, I was going to check into the motel I had
booked and then head to the Dodgers and White Sox. Well…the hotel was, um,
sketchy? I didn’t feel comfortable staying there, so I cancelled my reservation
(and got refunded) and figured I would head down to the night game and then
head back to Bullhead.
The night game was sold out.
Oops. Headed back to Bullhead and was home at a reasonable
hour last night. Score one for a great experience at Maryvale and
disappointment elsewhere.
This morning, I drove up to Las Vegas to see the Mets and
Cubs play at Cashman Field, where the Las Vegas 51’s play. The 51’s are the
Mets AAA affiliate, and I was struck by the ballpark. The Phillies A affiliate
in Lakewood play in a nicer facility. The walls were high (to combat winds? Because
they didn’t want to spend the money to grow grass to have a berm in the
outfield? Because Vegas?) and not padded, and the park only sat about 9,000
fans.
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| The party area and field at Cashman |
But the Mets brought mostly starters to the desert including
David Wright, Travis d’Arnaud, Curtis Granderson (who struck out…Mets fans need
to get used to that) and defensive whiz and center fielder Juan Lagares and the
Cubs brought a lineup filled with guys trying to latch on and top prospects. So
I can say I’ve seen the Mets play this year (AAA jokes, anyone?) and seen some
of the top prospects in the Cubs organization, including Javier Baez and Kris
Bryant. And I scored a baseball! Mostly because I was alone in my section. Bearded guys always lose out to kids.
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So it wasn't what I had planned, but it was pretty great anyway.
Some observations from the road in no particular order:
1.
Two tumbleweeds
2.
A plastic bag blowing around that blew right
into a trash can
3.
A guy facetiming and driving
4.
Someone parasailing out the back of a pickup
truck on a dirt patch off the highway
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| I got a cap! |
Last year was more fun, because these things are always more
fun when you have friends to share them with. But I’m pretty pumped I got to do
it again.
