Arziona Spring Break

We made a whole lap around the field, and got back behind homeplate in time to see Craig Counsell getting ready to pinch hit in the on-deck circle. If you've been following Counsell's career, you'd notice from this picture that he has changed his batting stance, and so far in Spring Training, it has been paying off.

This is the view from our seats down the right field line. Not too damn shabby if you ask me. The only bad thing about these seats is that you have to crane your neck to the left to see the action at the plate. But it's a small price to pay for sitting in the sun on a beautiful Saturday in 80 degree weather, watching baseball in the middle of March and sitting in the 3rd row. And it's a price that I would pay often. A large crowd was on hand to see the Brewers take on the Dodgers. This was the Dodgers first year in Arizona (they previously played in Florida), so their fans now had a shorter commute to check their team out for Spring Training. But even though the Brewers fans outnumbered those of the Dodgers, the fan support wasn't enough for Manny Parra to keep the Dodgers off of the scoreboard.

The Dodgers went up 3-0 in the first 2 innings, and never looked back. The Brewers did manage to score 3 runs in the game, but by the time that they did, they were already down by 6 runs. The Brewers do have the offense to overcome that kind of a deficit, but I decided to use the remaining time at the game today to walk around and check out the rest of the ballpark. So I walked out along to outfield path to get a glimpse of the game from that vantage point. And I liked what I saw. For just $8 American, people can park their rumps on blankets out here and watch the game. And even though I paid a little more than that for my seats, I felt comfortable hanging out here with my people.

After watching a couple of innings from our seats in the 3rd row in right field, we decided to get up and walk around to check out the facility. As you can see from the picture below, the view is spectacular from the concourse behind home plate, but there was one thing about it that made me not want to sit there - the lack of sunlight. Arizona is famous for it's sun, but behind home plate the press box cast a shadow over the seats in front of it. For redheads and albinos, the shade was probably welcome, but me, I wanted to be exposed to as much sunlight as possible so that I could come back home with a sweet tan. So we went back to our seats in the sun in right field.

I was really enjoying sitting out here in the lawn seats, but I could tell that my Dad didn't really like it. It's no secret that he is older than me, and when you are older you tend to not want to sit on the ground because you can afford not to. So he stood behind me on the path. Noticing this, I suggested we head back to our seats.

We were staying with my Dad's cousin Kathy and her husband Jim. We were on the West side of Phoenix and they live on the East side in Tempe. We had a bit of a drive, so we stopped at a Walgreen's and I saw these hobo-proof shopping carts. The wheels apparently lock up somehow when they come close to the yellow line. I don't know how it works cause it's some kind of magic, but it prevents hobos from stealing them to push around their worldly possessions.

So the Brewers unfortunately lost 7-3, and although I did get to see Manny (Parra) I didn't get to see Manny (Rodriguez). But it was a great day regardless, and I finally got to fulfill a lifelong dream and attend a Brewers Spring Training game. After the whirlwind 2008 season that culminated with a playoff appearance, I was excited for another year of Brewers baseball. But now it was time to walk back to the Sun Devil Auto station where we had parked our car.