My trip to Spring Training in Arizona March 11-14 was monumental.
In the last several days, my craziness for baseball--my addiction?--has led me to read and re-read the Athlon Sports annual preview for the 2022 MLB season. I bought a pack of Topps Baseball cards, Series 1, through Amazon because I checked Thursday and Friday (3/31-4/2) for cards at our local Walmart--"we get whatever our vendor brings," said the employee at Customer Service. None delivered to Walmart. Frustrating!
Last night I hit the virtual gold mine of turning on MLB.TV (I hadn't checked before), finding that they are televising Spring Training games from both Florida and Arizona all through the day (and night). I watched part of the Cardinals' replay from yesterday last night, then just now I fueled my fury by watching an inning or more of the Rockies' replay from last night at Talking Stick, next to Scottsdale.
Which is all to say, I am enjoying so much being back in the Spring Training ritual after not going to the Cactus League last year (too hard to figure out whether I could enter a stadium, sit in a seat, etc., under the constantly-changing COVID protocols). That was a big loss, but quickly made up with my mini-trip last month just to see some of the facilities (there are 10 MLB Spring Training facilities in the Greater Phoenix/Tempe area, hosting 15 teams--10 teams double up at their facilities, like the Padres and Mariners at Peoria Sports Complex).
As I wrote in an earlier post, I only had the chance to see one live team workout (the Dodgers, as I was leaving to come back to San Diego Mon., March 14). I jumped the gun, driving immediately to Arizona Fri., March 11 after I read the news that the owners and players had come to an agreement over a new CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement), but realizing that players could report up to Sunday night--meaning, I didn't see any workouts the entire weekend, only a junior college game.
I tell my wife, "It's a state of mind." Baseball is an enjoyable ritual, an annual activity, something many of us grew up with. My brother and I played youth baseball, then continued in high school. I became a fan much more than he did. He was more drawn to football as far as viewing. Me? I collected baseball cards, I read baseball information books voraciously. I got my first autograph at age 8 when my grandpa Merle took me to a talk by Dodgers catcher Johnny Roseboro.
My latest thing is reading about Shohei Ohtani's workout regiment and his ambition to have an even better season than last year, when he went 9-2 as a starting pitcher on the mound for the Angels and hit 46 home runs as a hitter. He's just an incredible baseball player, and I have a ticket to go see him pitch the Angels' opener Thurs., April 7, at Angels Stadium (way high up in nosebleed territory).
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