Mesa (Athletics)

On Abject, Godless Communism

Hohokam Stadium, 2016

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Chicago Cubs vs. Oakland Athletics
Hohokam Stadium
Cactus League (Spring Training)
Mesa, AZ
1:05 PM

Outside the Game: 

I managed to go a day with being only woken up once by the guests upstairs coming in at two in the morning, so I was relatively rested when I woke up and had a hearty breakfast and an extra vigorous walk in the park. There were an unusually high number of tweakers huddled around that one house this morning. After, I went over to the gas station to get my bottles of water, and I was back to the room for a shower and headed out to the park.

I parked and took my pictures and went into the park for the game. After the shortish game, I had some time to kill in the evening. I saw an advertisement in the program for a nearby water park, arcade, and mini-golf place. If I went to Arizona without playing any golf, I was in danger of being disowned by my father, so I went over to the arcade complex and played a round of mini golf at Golfland on the Old West course (which seemed more appropriate for my locale) and had a nice round (under par) with not many other people on the course. I stopped in the arcade on the way out to hit some video games, and then headed back to the hotel once I had my fill.

The closest I'd get to golfing in Arizona

I had found out the delightful news that Hunny Bears had another location out by the airport, closer to me than downtown. I went out there and got a lot of food for dinner, which left me a bit of leftovers. It was then a quick soak in the hot tub and off to bed for another early night.

The Stadium & Fans: 

Home plate to center field, Hohokam Stadium

Hohokam Stadium is an old-school stadium in the east end of the Phoenix suburb of Mesa. The park has been dutifully renovated over the years by the A's, and the most recent of those renovations had happened last season, so I was seeing the stadium for the first time as much as a lot of the fans. As it was an older stadium, the practice facilities weren't integrated into one large campus with the ballpark (with the exception of two small practice fields), but the main training area is actually down the road about a half mile in its own complex. (You might think it is a good idea to walk there from the stadium, but let me tell you a couple things: it is extremely hot in the afternoon in Arizona, there is no shade on that walk, and that half mile seems really, really long. Bring water.)

The park itself is mostly tucked into a residential area, one of the few in the Cactus League configured thusly. You can make your way around the park, connected mostly by the big grass areas used as parking lots for fans and the team. Four lettered gates (as well as one for the players and staff) along the perimeter of the infield allow entrance to the park, with the long ticket booths along one of the walls. The park is of an older design, and the entrances open out into the outside walkway that goes behind the seating bowl from outfield to outfield. A big "Grab-n-Go" convenience and team store is located right at the main entrance, and most of the concessions are in this outer walkway, with the exception of some food trucks out in a right field plaza.

A second promenade extends all around the park in the seating bowl, separating the lower box seats from the upper seating area. Sitting at the top of the seating area from first to third base, there is a second level holding party decks, luxury boxes, and the press box. It is all chair seating in the bowl, and two separated picnic hills are in each outfield. There are more party decks in left and right field, and a Stomper's kids area beyond center field. Fans line up at the right field plaza where the players enter the stadium from the practice field next to the park. The new giant digital video board sits above the picnic hill in left-center field, and sign ads are on the top of the picnic hill on right. Both sit over the single-tier outfield wall covered in scattered local ads, standing in front of the endless blue sky stadium backdrop.

Stomper doesn't make the trip east, and between-inning entertainment is on the minimum. With the Cubs visiting, there was a near-full crowd, and for whatever reason, most of the home crowd was on the older end of the scale. However, they were into the game, so points for that.

At the Game with Oogie: 

I mustache you a question

This being a team from the Bay area, there was a lot of hipster concessions, but not nearly quite as ostentatiously as there were over in Scottsdale with the Giants. But out in right field there was a mustache pretzel food truck. It is pretty self explanatory. It sold pretzels in the shape of mustaches. They even gave you sticks so that you can hold them under your nose. So, of course, I got one. It was a pretzel with too much butter. I also grabbed a roast beef sandwich from some import Oakland sandwich stand. The sandwich was okay, but not worth the price, but the chips that came with it were absolutely awful. They were literally the worst chips that I ever had. I ended up throwing nearly the whole thing away.

Okay sandwich, awful chips, and souvenir soda

I had seats in the lower tier by first base, and I was sitting above one of the tunnels into the stadium. There were a lot of retirees sitting around me, mostly old couples or old gentlemen having a guy's trip. There was plenty of old-timey speaking.

The Game: 

First pitch, Cubs vs. As

Let's just lead with this. This game ended in a tie--a godless, communist tie. Much like crying, there are no ties in baseball. It was utterly unacceptable, and the Cubs and the A's should be ashamed of themselves. All that said, this was a low-scoring contest that went along at quite a clip.

The Cubs started things off with a double and a walk. A wild pitch moved the runners up, and another wild pitch brought one run in. The ball got so far away that the runner tried to score from second, but he was cut down at the plate by a timely toss to the pitcher covering the plate. A two-out homer added another run, and the Cubs were up 2-0 after a half. The A's went in order, and both teams had one hit to show for the second.

Things galloped along as both teams went in order in the third. Chicago stranded two singles in the top of the fourth with a double-play, and the A's got a runner to third in the bottom of the inning before stranding him, as well. The fifth was more of the same, with Chicago stranding a runner at third with one out, while the A's stranded two singles. The copycat Cubs stranded two singles in the top of the sixth, with Oakland stranded a one-out double.

Chicago got the scoring back going in the top of the seventh with a one-out homer to left, but they stranded two more runners before the end of their half, leading 3-0. The A's for their part stranded two baserunners of their own in the bottom half. Both teams went in order in the eighth, and the Cubs stranded a double and single in their last frame. Someone clearly told the A's they needed to score at some point, so they started a rally with a one-out single to left and then a walk. A single to right brought in the lead runner, and a single to center brought in a run and left it first and third with one out. A deep sacrifice fly to right brought in the run to tie it at three, but a strikeout ended the inning. And the game. Because they decided to just stop playing after nine innings with a 3-3 tie.

Abject communism.

The Scorecard: 

Cubs vs. As, 03/13/16. No one wins. It was a 3-3 tie. 

The scorecard was the centerfold of the $6 full-color magazine program. However, the scorecard itself was on heavy cardstock paper reminiscent of their scorecard at their home stadium, my favorite in the majors. It is large, with lots of space to score, and unmarred by any advertising taking up space. They even have a full page of scoring instructions. Quite nice.

Except for the outcome. A tie. A tie. A TIE. I mean, I know it is Spring Training, but really? It kind of ruined the whole day. Besides that, there were a couple of plays of note. The two wild pitches in the top of the first were capped with the runner from second trying to score from second base on the last wild pitch and being caught stealing 2-1 at the plate. This was followed by a caught foul tip strikeout that I tried "K(T)" with. There were 11 pitchers combined for both teams. It was mostly ho-hum with those exceptions.

The Accommodations: 

So, knowing I would probably be woken up early again, I tried to go to bed early. I was woken up at 11:30 by maid service in the room above me. I really didn't think it could get any more ridiculous, but here we are. Just to make sure I wasn't crazy, I went upstairs, and, sure enough, there was a maid cart at the room above me at 11:30 at night. Vacuuming. You can't make this up.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2016 Cactus League