People will most definitely come….

Living in Arizona has many many perks.

The weather, the feeling of living in a smallish town yet having all the conveniences of a big city, the weather, the sunshine… the weather.

One of the best things we have in AZ is Spring Training. There are currently 15 MLB teams that train in the Valley of the Sun and as a baseball fan this excites me to no end. One of my favorite movies is Field of Dreams. The speech that James Earl Jones gives towards the end of that movie still gives me goose bumps. For the all the Hollywooding they did with the movie, that speech is pure. And it’s true. Give it a look…..

There is something about Spring Training. Growing up, I’d watch games on Channel 9 (Cubs) and Channel 44 (White Sox) in Chicago and everything on the TV was green. The Cubs trained in Mesa and the White Sox in Sarasota Florida back then. But it gave you hope that the long Chicago winter was coming to an end. Rebirth was on the horizon. Now that I live in a place that depends economically on Spring Training and the thousands of fans it draws to the area, I get to take part in the rebirth live and in person.

Recently I took in two games. One with a group of co-workers I enjoy spending time with. We took in a Cubs/Reds game at Sloan Park which is the (fairly) new home of the Cubs. The place is remarkable. From the huge (money pit) of a team store to the great views from the stands it’s a great experience. Close highway access does not hurt. We had general admission tickets and I took it upon myself to spend an additional $4 per ticket and secure something called the Budweiser rooftop. My friend and co-worker Kathy “worked from home” the morning of the game and then hightailed it up to the rooftop to secure this view.

Pretty sweet! Seeing as though it was a work social gathering we didn’t really watch most of the game. But we did have fun and some adult beverages were consumed.

Just a few.

48 hours later I was back at it. This time with my wife and daughter in tow. We took in a Cubs/A’s game at HoHoKam Stadium in Mesa. This used to be the Cubs home before they left for Sloan Park. And while the Cubs may have built an amazing park, HoHoKam stadium is a great place to watch a game. It’s small (around 10,000 capacity) but the seats are close to the action. My daughter has been playing softball for about a year now and she was really into the game. It’s one of the moments that just clicks for a dad and his kids when everything else going on takes a backseat and you are at a game and talking about strategy and players. It’s a moment I will always treasure and not take for granted.