The Boys of Spring in Arizona March 2008

I flew on Allegiant Air from Billings to Mesa Arizona in the middle of March 2008 to take in a little Spring baseball along with hanging out with my younger brother Russ; now hailing from Tennessee, formerly of Florida; now retired, formerly a guidance counselor and coach at the middle school level in Ocala, Florida.

The airport in Mesa, to the left, now called Phoenix Gateway Mesa is expanding on the former Williams Air Force Base which it still looks like for the most part, including those old warehouses and some fairly nice base housing too, now bought up by civilians I suppose. Apparently this part of Mesa had never been built up in the past, but they are making up for lost time very quickly if a quick look driving south on Power Ave is any guide.

I forgot how far Mesa is from Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. That is where I eventually met up with Russ though we had a little trouble making contact because of the complexity of the Phoenix airport. We then drove on to Tucson, spring-training home of the Chicago White Sox, the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The other 9 teams training in Arizona are scattered around the Phoenix metropolitan area.

According to the paper the Cleveland Indians and the Los Angeles Dodgers are supposed to be moving to Phoenix next year and probably the Cincinnati Redlegs too; and maybe the White Sox will move up to Phoenix as well, as the suburb of Glendale made them an offer they will have trouble refusing. They have a contract with Tucson until 2012 but they may be able to figure out some way to get out of their obligation. That is Tucson Electric Park, to the right, where the Tucson Sidewinders, the Diamondbacks AAA team in the Pacific Coast League play their home games.

Some of the advantages of Tucson are that it is a smaller city, and it boasts the University of Arizona which usually fields a pretty good team too. We did manage to see U of A beat Cal State Fullerton on Friday evening of the day we arrived. But if it gets down to two teams with all the rest of them being a couple of hours away in Phoenix that might be difficult for everyone. We may have to stay in Phoenix next year.

Actually I have it in mind to visit North Carolina April/May 2009 as there is a surprising number of minor league teams scattered about that fair state as well as a nephew who is a vice-president of the Kannapolis Intimidators, class A affiliate of the White Sox in the South Atlantic League. He and their field manager were the main forces for getting us tickets for the spring games in Tucson and one in Phoenix at the Brewer's stadium in Maryvale. So thank you gentlemen very much.

I don't know what the problem with Blogger is. I am unable to move the pictures around. Sorry.

You can check out more pictures at my other website or maybe in a web gallery. Yes, this last link works, as I just checked it out. [The browser is the problem: Safari has been flummoxed by Blogger once again. I switched over to FireFox.]