Phoenix

On The Sort of Thing That Puts a Damper Even on a Cubs Win

Maryvale Baseball Park, 2016

Friday, March 18, 2016

Cincinnati Reds vs. Milwaukee Brewers
Maryvale Baseball Park
Catcus League (Spring Training)
Phoenix, AZ
1:05 PM

Outside the Game: 

The day began okay. I didn't get woken up by either the setup for breakfast or the people leaving for the Grand Canyon tour, so I was in a pretty good place as I got my breakfast (supplemented with no-working pancake machine) and went out for my walk in the park. There were more dogs than average this morning, and there were only one or two tweakers out.

I even had a short drive to the ballpark, as I would be going to Phoenix proper. An easy day was looking especially good, as I was getting pulled a little thin by everything as the trip started to sputter to an end. Yes sir, that's all I needed was a nice, easy day.

After a lazy morning, I drove out to the park and took my pictures and killed time until it was time to line up to get in. The main entrance was packed, so I went around to the other side, and I was the first person lined up in front of the secondary gate, in the blessed shade. After a decent wait, the gate was going to open in five minutes, and I got a call on my cell phone. This is usually not good. It is either my parents with bad news or my work with bad news or my landlord with bad news. But I had told my Dad I was going to call him later that day, and it turned out to be him, so I wasn't really expecting anything except telling him that I would call him after the game.

And then he told me my uncle died.

The youngest of the children in his family, my uncle had a heart attack the year before, but he was working on it, and there was nothing too immediately worrying about the situation. Except that he had another heart attack in the middle of the night and died.

I was cycling through the five stages of grief pretty quickly, but then the gates opened, and I was in the way, and I had to go in. So I numbly gave the usher my ticket and went in, and tried to work out what to do. After getting some pertinent information, I told my Dad I'd call him later, and I went about watching a game I suddenly wasn't too interested in. I was writing this up for the Website I freelance for, so I couldn’t just bail. But I could just go through the motions.

After the game, I went back to my hotel and called my parents again. There was nothing to be done, and the wake wouldn't be until after I was home, but I now had to call work and tell them that after two weeks on vacation, I was going to have to take two days off for my uncle's wake and funeral, and the thought crossed my mind that they might not believe me.

This was the afternoon I was going to mail all of my accumulated crap back to myself. When I did the Spring Training trip last year, I had the added benefit of having my parents to cart back all the accumulated cups and whatnot of my travels back with them instead of me. On my own in Arizona this time, I settled on just mailing all my knick-knacks back to myself. I had bought office supplies earlier on, and I had been filling up the two medium boxes I had as I went. I drove them down the road to the Fed Ex place and mailed them to myself, after exchanging lame jokes with the guy behind the counter about the "Indian pot" that I was insuring. (Because I had Native American pottery, and it was funnier when you called it “Indian pot,” and I really wasn’t in the mood for joking, either.)

I got back in my car and went to the Honey Bears by the airport and ordered a lot of food. A lot of food. And then I stopped at a liquor store and bought a small bottle of something. I think it was Jameson. And I responsibly parked my car, changed into my bathing suit, and went out to the hot tub with my bottle of something and my BBQ.

And I ate my food and drank my booze in the hot tub. And people came, and I gave them some booze and some BBQ, and eventually other people brought more booze, and it was a whole thing. The maintenance guy came by one time, but when he saw it was me and it wasn't out of control, he went on his way.

I don't remember much, but it got me through the evening, and I didn't ruin the hot tub--or at least it wasn't ruined when I left--and I dragged my ass back to my room and passed out.

The Stadium & Fans: 

Home plate to center field, Maryvale Baseball Park

Maryvale Baseball Park is the only Cactus League park that is actually within the borders of Phoenix proper, as opposed to all of its many suburbs. And apparently this area of Phoenix was a crime-ridden mess until recently, when the park was a cornerstone of the redevelopment efforts. And it is not a bad park, except that it feels decided low-minors as opposed to some of the newer palace parks, without the historical gravitas of the older parks to back it up.

The park is in a residential and commercial area, revealed by the fact that the beyond the outfield wall is a trucking company depot. I did meet a nice feral cat out there, however. The main entrance plaza follows the minor-league model of being wedged between the team store and the ticket booths. Two more (largely disused) entrances are on the other side of the park, furthest away from the parking lots. Across the street from the main entrance are the practice fields where you can hang out and get autographs.

All the entrances dump off onto a main promenade that circles the park above the one seating area. It is regular ballpark seats behind home plate and to the dugouts, then bleachers until the short outfield, and a grass picnic hill is the outfield. The concessions are all on the top of the promenade, so with the exception of the food court area behind home plate, you can grab grub while still watching the game. The downside is that the promenade isn't very wide, so at the entrance and the popular concessions stands, it gets backed up pretty quickly.

An abbreviated second level of press and luxury boxes rises above right behind home plate, providing some welcome shade for those under it. The rest of the main seating area is "protected" by slated overhangs that only provide partial shade until the shadow gets really long. The main digital scoreboard sits out in left-center, and especially for a newer park , it is decidedly a low-tech affair without video.

The Brewers are one of the lightest draws in the Cactus League, and this Friday afternoon game was certainly indicative of that, with the main seating area thinly filled and a few hardy souls risking the mid-day sun on the picnic hill. Bernie doesn't come south, but the Sausage Race does, to the great joy of the crowd, but there were few other between-inning activities of a more average nature.

That said, the fans that were there were there because of the team, so there's something to be said for that.

At the Game with Oogie: 

Braaaat

One thing that I can't take away from the park were the food options. This was no kidding around Milwaukee's best. A brat was a given, as was a container of cheese curds. Klement's Meat Sticks were also on offer for a buck, so that happened.

Cheese curds and meat stick... because

I was only able to get a seat on the bleachers right beyond first base. And I baked. The desert heat was out in full effect, especially considering sunburn would be a great topper for this already crappy day. Judging by the accents, all the people around me were people from the home state down here for the Spring. They were mostly nice, but they did not appreciate me booing steroid jackass Ryan Braun, who apparently was making his first Spring Training start after his suspension and ruining a guy's life. So they can suck that up.

The Game: 

First pitch, Reds vs. Brewers

This Reds-Brewers was not a clash of the titans by any stretch of the imagination, but it kept moving at least, sparing me from being cooked alive.

Things started quickly, with the Reds getting a one-out, two-base error in the top of the first. A single brought in the run, but a grounder back to the pitcher erased the lead runner on a fielder's choice. A two-out homer then brought in two runs to make it 3-0, Reds, at the end of a half. Not to be outdone, the Brewers started with back-to-back singles to make it first and third. A double brought in a run and left it second and third with no outs. A one-out grounder to short brought in another run, but a strikeout ended the first 3-2, Reds.

The second slowed down, as the Reds went in order, and the leadoff single for the Brewers made it no further than third. The third inning began with a single bunted over second and then over to third on an error by the pitcher. A single brought him home, but a double-play ended the half 4-2, Reds. The Brewers, for their part, went in order.

The Reds stranded a leadoff double in the fourth, while the Brewers had a leadoff homer and nothing else, ending the fourth at 4-3 Reds. Cincinnati stranded two in the top of if the fifth, but the Brewers had a two-out rally, with a single that stole second and made it to third on a wild pitch. All of this was made moot by a triple that brought him home, tying us up at 4-4.

The Reds went in order in the sixth, but after a leadoff single was picked off first, Milwaukee converted a one-out double who stole third and was brought home on a sacrifice fly to right to take the lead, 5-4. The Reds tied it immediately back up in the seventh on a one-out single that stole second and was brought in by a two-out single. The Brewers made a run in the bottom of the seventh, but were foiled at every turn. A leadoff walk was erased in a double play. A two-out walk stole second and was followed by another walk and a double steal, but a strikeout ended the threat.

The eighth opened with a walk for the Reds, and one-out hit batsman made it first and second. A walk loaded the bases, and a short double brought in two runs to make it 7-5, Reds. The Brewers only mustered one walk in the bottom of the eighth, and the Reds went in order in the top of the ninth. With their last licks, Milwaukee began with a single that got to second on a passed ball. A fly to deep right got the runner to third, and a walk made it first and third with one out. A grounder to short got the runner from first, but one run scored to close it 7-6, but the last-chance pinch hitter looked at strike three to cement the pointless victory for the Reds.

The Scorecard: 

Reds vs. Brewers, 03/18/16. Reds "win," 7-6.

The scorecard was part of the $5 (going to charity) full-color magazine program. However, the centerfold scorecard wasn't on the magazine paper, but rather heavy-weight paper. There was even a full-page instructions on how to keep score. And the scorecard was nothing to sneeze at. It was a Scoremaster variant with full batting and fielding stats, with room for notes, a line score section, and a full game stats box. Although, I will say, this particular day, I was in no mood to fill out the endless stat boxes after the game.

There was a double-steal in the bottom of the seventh, I used the pitchers' spot generically in the lineup, but otherwise, it was just a deceptively high-scoring game with not a ton out of the ordinary. Double-switches had me using reference letters several times, but that was mostly it.

The Accommodations: 

My adventures at the hotel were detailed above. There was no particular drama beyond that.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2016 Cactus League