Spring Training

My personal highlight: Giants ace Madison Bumgarner

throws with catcher Buster Posey before warming up

in the bullpen for Saturday's game vs. the Pads.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

I left in the dark, and I returned in the dark.

But in between were four games at three different ballparks, being able to see new Padres acquisition James Shields pitch his first inning of the spring against Giants ace Madison Bumgarner, and a lot of miles and some blowing sand as well.

It was my first Spring Training trip to the Cactus League in the Phoenix/Tempe area Friday and Saturday, March 6-7, in a few years. Since I started going regularly in 1994--and buying our wedding bands in a store just beyond the Padres' outfield fence in Peoria the next year--the traffic and sheer number of human bodies packed into minor league ballparks had mushroomed so exponentially that I quit going yearly in the mid-2000's.

Some highlights, besides Shields (who looked good) and Bumgarner (who took some lumps, and talked at length with the plate umpire about his strike zone) in the game yesterday:

--Jon Lester, a $155 million, 6-year free agent acquisition for the Cubs, pitching two innings before a record crowd at Sloan Park in Mesa, east of Phoenix. I have never been around so many people from Chicago, with Midwest "tans" (no tan at all), at one time. They sure don't look like people from San Diego!

 

The Padres' $75 million free agent, James Shields,
delivers his first pitch of the spring Saturday.

--Besides Sloan Park, the Cubbies' new park (second year in operation), I also got to visit Salt River Fields at Talking Stick (that's a mouthful), a beautiful ballpark that is home for both the Dbacks and Rockies, for the first time. This is Salt River's fifth year--I just missed it. Salt River is on a Pima reservation.

--Best quote heard: "Ice cold programs." A vendor at the Giants game at Scottsdale Stadium barked this out--I told him I enjoyed it and would quote him in my blog. The temperature was 84 degrees. (In two weeks it will be in the 90's--too hot for me. That's why I went on opening weekend.)

A potentially scary moment passed in the first game I attended Friday. (Two games a day to feed my baseball addiction--several innings at one game, then madly drive to the second game to catch the latter half there). A gentleman a handful of rows over from me apparently wasn't looking when a fast-spinning foul ball flying back hit him in the tummy. He seemed surprised, but he appeared to be okay. I bet he has a bruise. Ouch.

On back-to-back plays in the same game, Cubs and the left-handed Lester against the Reds at Sloan, two runners ended up on first base after the Reds' shortstop dropped a pop fly in shallow centerfield (the batter was called out after the tag was applied). Then the surviving runner, stealing second base on the next play, was hit in the head by the knee of the Reds' second baseman, who was leaping for the catcher's throw. The Chicago player was removed from the game with yet another "owie" in the packed stadium.

I learned this ST time around that you can't just walk up and buy a ticket at the ticket booth before the game anymore. There were only 130 seats left when I snagged my Sloan Park ducat. The Salt River game Saturday (Cubs were visiting team Saturday--any Cubs game sells out) was almost sold out when I bought a ticket for the next day. And I had to play a pretty piece for a shade seat to see the World Series champion Giants.

Granted, the Giants are popular because they've won championships in 2010, 2012, and 2014. But Spring Training has become a much bigger business since the 90's. One spectator I chatted with paid $35 to sit on the lawn at Scottsdale Stadium!


Copyright 2015 Ed Piper