Arziona Spring Break

On the way towards the clubhouse, most of the players stopped by to sign autographs for the faithful few in attendance. This moment was when I got the majority of my autographs, and I'm really thankfully I found out about this batting practice session. I only took a picture of JJ Hardy, for I was too busy getting autographs to snap the remaining players. It was photo or autograph, and I wisely chose autograph. You can always get a photo.

I smiled, showed my green shirt and orange-ish hair, ordered a black and tan and called myself Irish if just for one day. On March 17, the entire Irish population multiplies exponentially, and then on March 18, it stabilizes back to normalcy. I had a few beers, then we headed out to the airport to return the rental car and await our departure back to the cold state of Wisconsin.

This is a better view of the Toyota Prius that we were driving around town. All in all, it was a good car, and I like to think that I was being green by selecting it. We only used half a tank of gas, and we drove around an awful lot. We as a country could cut back on fossil fuels if everyone drove one of these. But I won't dwell on that, it's St. Patrick's Day, not Earth Day. Time to drink more.

The Maryvale baseball complex is more than just the main field. In fact there are a total of 8 baseball fields here, as well as batting cages, training facilities and other baseball related rooms and structures. While the Major League team headed out to Scottsdale to play the Giants, the minor leagues stuck around on one of the smaller diamonds for training and instruction. I would've liked to watch, but it was St. Patty's Day, and I needed a beer.

I looked up Irish Pub in the GPS, and it picked out Seamus McCaffrey's. With that name, there is no way that it couldn't be an Irish bar. And as the luck o' the Irish would have it, it certainly was. So I brought my green shirt to go have a drink.

I'm all for whirlwind trips, where you cram as many activities into as short of time as possible, but sometimes it's nice to be able to go with the flow and relax a little bit. We just didn't have time to poke around Maryvale Park, but maybe next time I'll investigate.

We passed by Chase Field (formerly Bank One Ballpark, and to this day locals still refer to it as The BOB, a nickname that must anger the executives at Chase) en route to the airport. The Arizona Diamondbacks (Dbags) call this stadium home, and someday I hope to see a regular season game in Phoenix. And when I do, I'll have more insight on the place they call BOB.

I always thought it was sweet that Phoenix called its' airport Sky Harbor Airport. It makes me think of a floating airfield that famous animated Disney pilots such as Baloo from Tail Spin, and Launchpad McQuack from Ducktales / Darkwing Duck would fly/crash into. Don't ask me why, that is just the image that pops into my head when that airport name is mentioned. But why ask? I certainly didn't ask anyone about this shiny artwork.