On Heading West
Friday, March 4, 2016
Phoenix, AZ
Outside the Game:
With the leftover vacation days that I had to use or lose before June, and thanks to the Mets World Series tickets taking up a good chunk of my discretionary income for a planned Australia trip, I decided to repeat my performance of 2015 by going to the other Spring Training league, the Cactus League in Arizona.
The Cactus League had a good deal going for it, in that they had consolidated all the teams into the "Greater Phoenix Area," so that the furthest apart teams were within forty minutes. This was both good and bad. It was good because I could pick one hotel and stay there for the entire trip without changing up. The bad was that every fan for every team was trying to stay in the same forty-minute wide area, which meant that hotel and rental car costs were higher than in Florida.
The short driving distance meant no three-hour+ halls from one stadium to the other that made going to a game a day such a pain in Florida, but it was offset by the fact that there wasn't all that much to do in Arizona if you don't like golf or Native casino gambling. You get the good with the bad. I had planned out this trip rather extensively during the end of the last year. And by March, I was ready to go.
I had planned out my coverage for work as best as possible and made it quite clear that I was going to be gone on time this Friday to make my plane. I was scheduled to land a little after 11 PM MT, which wasn't too bad, as I could probably still be in bed by 1 AM.
There was thankfully no issue leaving work, and none in the travel to the airport. I got through security, upgraded my boarding, and had some dinner. And, of course, I got the first delay notice for my flight as soon as I made it to the gate. But, it turned out to be the last one, and we were in the air just a half hour later than expected.
I spent most of the flight asleep, which I realize was a bad idea, but I was exhausted and on a plane, so what else could I do? I didn't download the United app before I boarded the plane, so I couldn't watch any of the tablet-based entertainment, and I wasn't interested in whatever was on the seat-back screens. I bought Internet at some point to pass the time and look at funny cat pictures, but the trip passed fairly quickly when we landed at 11:30 PM or so.
I had to go get my rental car, which turned out to be a Grey Chevy Trax, which was about all I could hope for. As long as they didn't saddle me with a SUV or something similar for two weeks, at least I was in the right car category. I got my GPS working and drove out to the hotel after a short drive, and checked in.
The hotel staff were waiting for me, and he greeted me by name, because I was the only guest who hadn't checked in yet. He got me my room key, and I dropped all my crap in my room, but more on that follows.
The Accommodations:
So, I was at the La Quinta Inn Arcadia, and let me start with the spoiler that this experience--coupled with some other bad experiences with La Quinta--has placed them on my "never again" list. The room itself seemed nice enough. The bathroom was right off the entrance to the room on the left, with a functional, if un-fancy tub, toilet, and sink.
My bedroom had my king-sized bed on one side of the room with end tables, and on the other wall was my desk, the dresser with TV on top, and the microwave and refrigerator. The AC was already on, and everything on the surface looked fine. As I was getting ready for bed, I flipped one of the pillows and found that it had a huge stain on it. After closer inspection of the rest of the room, I found a lot of evidence of uncleaned stains and the like that left me skeeved. I checked all the remaining pillows, and put the soiled one off the bed, and I was too tired to do anything but sleep on the bed after checking it rather thoroughly.
On the Unfortunate Reality of Dodgers Fans
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Arizona Diamondbacks vs.
Los Angeles Dodgers
Camelback Ranch
Cactus League (Spring Training)
Glendale, AZ
1:05 PM
Outside the Game:
My day began with my being awakened by the staff setting up for breakfast service. The "room" opposite of my own was apparently used as a makeshift pantry, and so when they were setting up breakfast in the room just past the public bathrooms from my room, they tended to slam the door a lot. I greeted them with shouting at them to stop slamming the damn doors so much at 6 AM and offered to show them how a doorstop worked if they weren't aware. I felt a little bad for the clearly teenage kid who was doing most of the work, but not
that bad.
The slamming stopped for a while, and I got some more sleep before waking up again to yell at the front desk staff for the disgusting state of some of my bedding and the room. I also asked to be moved to a different room. They apologized all over the place about the condition of the room, and promised to have everything fixed this afternoon, but they regretted to inform me that they were full up and I could not be moved. As you might imagine, this brightened my mood considerably.
I stomped into breakfast to find a standard breakfast buffet. There were bagels and bread for toasting, a waffle maker, a cereal bar, and one table of hot things, which this first morning was sausage and biscuits and gravy, which actually did help to brighten my mood a little. I needed to get some Crazy Glue for my disassembling glasses, and I was told by the front desk that the gas station mart across the street was probably the closest place. I trudged out into the surprisingly pleasant Arizona morning to the gas station to get my glue and some water.
Even in the morning, the Arizona atmosphere just sucks moisture out of you. Yes, yes, all that about "dry heat," but it really should be called "desiccating heat." On the way back, I noticed that the strip of land between the hotel and the gas station was actually a park, but I was more interested in getting back to my room for a shower and some more sleep this morning.
And I did so. My first stop this Spring was at the Dodgers. I'm not sure subconsciously if I did it to get it out of the way, but between my first, last, and only visit to their stadium, and the playoff animosity last year, I just wanted to get in and get out. The game was between the local D-Backs and Dodgers, who apparently come to Spring Training in droves east across the desert, and when I drove to the park several hours early, I already had to go into a back lot. I parked up and headed to the practice fields, which required an extensive bag check to get in, because, the attendant told me, that the Dodgers fans like to sneak in a
lot of booze.
The walk around the practice complex in the fading Arizona morning was quite nice, actually, and I did all my pictures and then went into the stadium. Or at least I thought I did. The first gate that opens only lets you into a vestibule with some concessions and a small team store. But it does let you line up early at the actual entrance by the main entrance, which was important, because by the time the gates really opened, there was quite a crowd behind me.
After the game, getting out of the park was a bit of an adventure. There was a long line of cars to get out of the lot, and the Dodgers fans passed their time by openly drinking while waiting to
drive out. And we're not talking about just the passengers. The drivers would be passing beer and bottles of hard alcohol between themselves and the cars next to them. It was the most brazen drunken driving that I had seen, and I was someone who was alive in the 70s.
Needless to say, I was driving defensively until I was quite far from the park. But thanks to the proximity, I was able to get back to the hotel relatively quickly. Being stuck in that room, not trusting its cleanliness, and being in the same place for two weeks, I decided to drive down the road from my hotel to a CVS and pick up a bunch of cleaning and stationary supplies. I stopped at an Arby's I passed for dinner, and then I went back to the room and gave it a thorough cleaning and de-smellification, as well as setting up my paperwork machine for the next two weeks.
Exhausted from the lack of sleep and dealing with Dodgers fans, I made it an early night.
The Stadium & Fans:
Outside of their unfortunate association with the Dodgers, Camelback Ranch has a lot going for it. The relatively new facility is from the 101 section of the new Spring Training handbook. The main stadium is part of a huge campus of practice facilities and parking lots that encircle the main park. From the main entrance in center field, there is an artificial lake that runs the length of the facility that separates the White Sox and Dodgers practice facilities and fields. Unlike most other parks, it even lacks a main marquee, with the main entrance being close to the ground.
The main entrance plaza at the end of the lake has two sections. The outer plaza has a team store and the main ticket booth. The inner plaza opens up first before the game and is a tree-lined area with a lot of benches and some merchandise and concessions, as well as signs pointing to all the White Sox and Dodgers affiliates. It lets you line up early at either one of the entrances that lead out in left or right field. The only other entrance is a VIP/ADA entrance towards third base.
Outside of the park has a lot going on, and most of it is Dodgers-related. On the Dodgers practice field side of things, there is a small replica of the Dodgers Stadium street sign from the home park, as well as a giant bobble-head Tommy Lasorda holding his Hall of Fame plaque. All along the trail around the training fields are lists of all the Dodgers All-Stars by position, and giant baseballs with all the Dodgers Hall of Famers. The White Sox practice fields do not have anything similar.
Once inside the actual park, the entrances empty out onto a main promenade that circles the park above the seating bowl. As with most Spring Training parks, there is just one seating area that runs from short outfield to short outfield behind home plate. That seating area is split up by another walkway between the lower and upper areas. Two picnic berms in left and right field allow general admission seating, and the digital video board rises up in right-center field. The White Sox and offices are in the right field bullpen and corner, and the Dodgers are in the left field bullpen and corner. The "Mojito Patio" is in right field. A second level rises above behind home plate from dugout to dugout, with party decks, luxury boxes, and the press box.
The place was absolutely packed, and given that their opponent was Phoenix's own D-Backs, the fact that they Dodgers fans dominated numerically is even more impressive. They were into the game, in their own fashion, even if it took until the fourth inning to fill up the park. There was full docket of between-inning races and other frivolities, and Tommy Lasorda made an appearance, so it wasn't all that bad.
At the Game with Oogie:
I had seats on the third-base Dodgers home side of the field, just pass the base and a couple of rows back. In keeping with the Dodgers tradition, most of the seats in this section were open for most of the early innings, and then emptied out again in the later innings. Once a Dodgers fan, always a Dodgers fans, even in training. I suppose they were training to get there late and leave early at Chavez Ravine.
Most of the fans around weren't too objectionable, being in the pricey seats, but I did have a moment of silence for those people on the picnic berm. I can't imagine what was going on out there. I was next to an extended family of Dodgers fans, and an older brother was right next to me and recognized the hat. After my first visit to Dodgers Stadium, I was a little worried, but he was good-natured about it, and said that they would get us this year.
While I was stuck in the vestibule before the gates opened, I got an always-disappointing Dodgers dog, and once inside I followed it up with a chicken-rice box at the culturally sensitive "Wok Off."
The Game:
My first face-off this Spring was between the home-town Diamondbacks, and the not-too-far-away Dodgers. This game stayed tied a lot longer than the score would suggest, having fallen apart only in the late innings of the meaningless game.
In the first, Arizona went 1-2-3 in one of the more unusual ways possible, with a two-out double that got erased trying to steal third. The Dodgers, on the other hand, came out scoring, with two singles to lead off the game and leave it first and third with no outs. A sacrifice fly to center brought in the lead run, but a double-play after a walk ended the scoring at 1-0 Dodgers. The D-Backs went in order in the second in a more conventional way, while LA turned three straight one-out singles into another run to extend the lead to 2-0.
The Diamondbacks came alive in the third with a walk immediately driven home a deep double to left. An error on a pickoff throw from the pitcher got him to third, and a sacrifice fly to center tied the game up at two. The Dodgers went in order the next three innings, while Arizona stranded a two-out triple in the fourth, went in order in the fifth, and stranded another man on third in the sixth after a leadoff double made it to third on another blown pickoff throw.
Things change in the bottom of the sixth. The Dodgers started off with a leadoff double to right. A walk followed, and the D-Backs traded the runner going to third for a double-play. Another double to center drove him in, however, and then a homer to left drove in two more. Another two-out single followed, and another double brought him in before final ground-out, opening it up to a 6-2 lead for the home team. Arizona managed only one baserunner again in the top of the seventh, but in the bottom of the frame, the Dodgers did everything possible not to score. Two walks and a short single loaded the bases, but a double-play ended the threat.
The Diamondbacks stranded two runs in the top of the eighth, but LA tacked another run on with a leadoff homer to deep center. Arizona limped in order in the top of the ninth, and the Dodgers (and their drunken fans) celebrated their pointless 7-2 win.
The Scorecard:
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| Diamondbacks vs. Dodgers, 03/05/16. Dodgers "win," 7-2. |
The Dodgers-branded scorecard was a series of ups and downs. On one hand, it was part of a mini-tabloid full-color program. On the other, the program was free, and the middle centerfold with the scorecard was on cardstock, for easy writing with pencil. On one hand, it had tiny scoring boxes and wasn't suited at all for a Spring Training game. On the other, at least there wasn't advertisements taking up even more space, and at the least the baserunning and extra base hits stats were relevant to the game.
The game was mostly straightforward, but there were some plays of note. In the top of the first, some runner violated the cardinal rule of everything by making the third out getting caught stealing third base, 2-5. In the bottom of the second, a single to right led to an outfield assist on a CS 9-2-4 as the late throw home went straight back to second as the batter tried to extend the single to a double. With bases loaded in the bottom the seventh, there was the organizationally pleasing 1-2-3 double play. The pitcher the fateful sixth inning for the D-Backs had the unfortunate pitching line of .6 IP 5 H 4 ER 1 BB 0 SO 1 HR.
The Accommodations: Outside of my righteous tantrum about the sorry state of the bedclothes, I didn't end up changing rooms because nothing else was available. This would be an evil harbinger of what was to come for the trip.
2016 Cactus League
