Spring Training 2011

I've been going to watch Spring Training baseball in the Phoenix area with my friends almost every year since '93, 1993 that is (inside joke). This year we had eight people along for the trip, six of us on the same flight from San Diego. We actually got to the airport earlier than normal, just to find the security line for Southwest about an hour long! By the time we got through security we only had time for one beer!

We arrived in Phoenix about on time, after a short flight where everyone got a free drink for St. Patrick's Day. Before checking into the hotel, we made a stop at the Tilted Kilt for some beer and food. This location was having a huge party out back, which cost $5 to enter, but for some reason, even at 10PM, the DJ was packing up his equipment. However, we got seated inside quickly and all had a nice meal.

We then checked into the hotel and got ready for our four-day adventure.

We had tickets for every day except the first day. We wanted to see (and did see) the Dodgers at San Fransisco in Scottsdale, and these tickets sell out very quick. So we had to buy them the old fashion way - from someone outside the stadium. Luckily the person who organizes the trip, Steve,  is very good at buying good seats at a decent price, and he didn't let us down. Regular scalpers, and there are always tons of them, were asking $100 for lawn seats. We bought our tickets from a man who had extra tickets at face value, so for $30 a ticket the seats were pretty good.

The stadium was sold out, and they announced that there was a new attendance record, which still doesn't make since to me how you can keep having sell-outs AND break attendance records. Do they keep adding more seats?

After the game, which I really watch very little of, as usual,  we jetted back to the hotel. Back when we were young, we'd go straight to the happy hour for our free drinks from 5:30 to 7:30. Now days most of us need a quick nap in between. A quick shower to wash off the sunscreen helps too.

On Saturday our game was in Peoria to see the Cubs at the Padres. Almost every year our trip coincides with the first weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament. With about 48 games played over the four days, there is always some good college basketball games to watch before and after the baseball game. But this year we had the Aztecs in the tournament, and they played Saturday at 3:40. So when we got to the park Saturday morning, we went to go watch the beginning of the UCLA game at McDuffy's across the street, just to find that it was gone, just like the one in Tempe. But luckily there was a sports bar next door that had beer, food and lots of TVs showing all the games. So we had some food, beer and even played checkers! I'm embarrassed to say that it had been so long since I had played checkers that I forgot how. But somehow I won the first game and lost the second.

As the baseball game start time approached, most of us left to go see the Padres play. We stayed through the end of the game and then returned to the bar to see the Aztecs win! Yes, the Aztecs finally won a NCAA game. Since this bar was near the Padres ballpark, there were lots of San Diego fans cheering for SDSU.

Saturday is our traditional night to get "dressed-up" and eat at a nice steakhouse. In years past, we went to a place called Fresher's. This year we tried a different place, the Stockyard. It was located in the middle of nowhere, near the airport, but was very crowded so apparently well known by the locals. Their food was good, I got the 12 oz Filet Mignon, medium well, and it was satisfying, but I guess I'm just not a big fan of steak, because I don't think the steak tastes better the more you pay for it. The highlight of the meal for me was the dessert, a root beer float with Jack Daniels. It was surprisingly good.

For Sunday we had planned a very full day. It started with waking up at 6 AM so we could get in a hike. In previous years, we had hiked Camelback mountain, alternating our hike up the east and west sides. This year we explored a new mountain, South Mountain, described at the largest urban park in the US, or something like that. I own an apology to the guys in the next room, because they wanted to hike also and due to poor planning they got left behind.

The nice part about this mountain was that is was easier to get to and there was plenty of parking. Also, the park was very large, I'd say 20 miles long and 5 miles wide. There were tons of trails, so you could spend your whole day hiking, or just hike for an hour or two. We took a trail that followed a ridge, which took us up some really steep trails. Unlike hikes in the past, it was not not. In fact, it was quite cold and in places the wind was blowing our hats off. I think we hiked for about 90 minutes before heading back to the hotel.

Our third game was at a new ballpark in Scottsdale to see the Rockies play the Angels. This park was actually on an Indian reservation, which made in convenient to go to a casino before the game. We had about an hour to lose money. I just played some video poker and slots, but wished I'd played the new roulette table. They now have automated roulette where the wheel spins automatically and you place your bets on a computer screen, taking the human and group-play element out of the game.

The new stadium is nice, like most of the new ballparks, but they need to work on better access and parking. We did get a good parking spot, and our seats were also good, as can be seen by the photo above. I believe this game was tied after 9 innings, so we left and went back to the hotel.

After the shower/nap/happy hour, we headed out to dinner, this time we went to a place we had not been to before, Four Peaks Brewing Company. They brewed their own beer, and I, of course drank the darkest Stout. For dinner I think I had a bacon cheeseburger.

After our meal, we made it too our second destination for the night - bowling! A quick shout-out to Rick, who was our designated driver for the trip. Just a few weeks before I ate at a place near home that had a bowling alley, and mentioned that it had been over 15 years since I had bowled, and I said I didn't need to ever bowl again. But even though I only scored 99 on my first game, I had tons of fun. In fact, we all had fun bowling.

After bowling, most of us went to another bar, where we stayed until 2AM, well past our bedtimes. But hey, we were on vacation, and this was our last night.

Waking up before 9AM on Monday was hard, but getting my free breakfast was important. Nothing better than a cook to order omelet. It's always nice when the cook remembers you and says see you next year. Pam has been working there for a long time, but she gave us a warning - wear a hat because the rain expected on Monday would be radioactive. OK, good advice.

It is always sad when we have to pack up and check out of the hotel. It means the fun is over. We had planned it well to have our last game in Tempe, to see the Angels play someone, at the ballpark closet to the hotel and airport. We arrived in plenty of time to hang out at the van and finish the ice cold beers, at least for those of us who could still drink after our bender of a weekend. The forecast was for cold and rain, and rainy and cold it was. The game wasn't canceled, so we went into the stadium, but since it was raining the whole time, I never even got to sit in our seast. We ended up leaving before the third inning, and drove back into town to have some food at Dave and Buster's.

After eating, and playing some games, we returned the van and checked-in at the airport. The line for security was very short, however, three of us got in the wrong line for scanning. Apparently they were training someone new, and our line moved VERY slowly. We still had plenty of time, ever more so since our flight was delayed 50 minutes. When we finally boarded the plane, after some time of sitting the pilot announce that we were waiting to be de-iced! Yes, in Phoenix. They explained that the plane had been on a long flight, and that caused the fuel to get cold, and since it was humid outside, the wing was icy. So another 20 minute of sitting. Then there was an incident that most people didn't notice, a passenger a few rows in front of us did something to cause the flight attendant to get in her face. So even after taxing away from the gate, we stopped and sat some more. Then they announce that we needed to return to a different gate to take care of a situation. Meanwhile, some man starting yelling something about voting to have that person kicked off the flight, and then another man yelled at him to stop yelling because nobody cared what he thought. When we finally reached the gate, a woman showed up (not an armed security) to escort the passenger off the plane, who was also a woman. This woman then began to yell at the flight attendant saying "why are you doing this to me? I didn't do anything wrong!". It wasn't until we finally landed in San Diego, two hours late, that we found out what happened. The woman who was kicked off kept complaining that she had a headache from the smell of exhaust fumes and had demanded that she be given oxygen. Like that was going to happen.

So we got our luggage, took the shuttle to the parking and I was home by 10:30 PM. Did I have a good time? Yes. Too good of a time. I worked for one day before getting sick and missing two days of work. Now, six days later, I'm still recovering from my cold, and yes, I can't wait until next year.