Surprise (Rangers)

On Another Day, Another Zoo

Surprise Stadium, 2016

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Chicago White Sox vs. Texas Rangers
Surprise Stadium
Cactus League (Spring Training)
Surprise, AZ
1:05 PM

Outside the Game: 

I had another afternoon game out in Surprise this Thursday, and I had a nice surprise of no tour groups or noisy breakfast prep waking me up, so it was a good morning in that sense at least. I fell into what had become, after nearly a week, my regular pattern: stumble into the breakfast room for food, an after-meal walk in the park to enjoy the tweakers and pets out for a walk, and then over to the gas station market across the street to grab water to last me until game time.

I went back to the room, showered up, and headed out for the game. I once again parked up easily and headed inside. In going to the Rangers training area before the game, I saw a huge crowd following around Hu Darvish, who was coming back from injury this Spring. He, his interpreter, and his son, went through some exercises, he signed some autographs, and then he was whisked away in a golf cart. The game opened up pretty soon after that, and the lines were not long.

After the game, I was going to make a visit to the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium that I was tipped off to in the program from the game. It was a short drive to the zoo, and I went in, got a combo entrance (because how could you not go to an aquarium in the middle of the desert?) and went to spend my late afternoon in the company of animals. It was a nice facility that seemed to have its "thing" as being able to get up really close to the animals. Which is a nice trick, because you really don't realize how big a rhino is until you are within arm's length of the thing. Similarly, monkey areas were just separated from the visitors by pools that the monkeys wouldn't cross. The whole experience allowed for a lot of great sight lines and easy pictures, which I certainly appreciated.

News Flash: Rhinos are HUGE

After the animal area closed, I spent some time in the smaller aquarium area on the other side of the park which was open to slightly later. After, I went to the gift shop to pay my dues. While I was in there, there was some big drama going on with a mother who was either in real trouble or trying to scam the store. Either way, she eventually left, and I was able to buy my goods. There was a restaurant attached to the park, and I went there for dinner. I watched a Republican debate that was playing on the TV. Trump was again wiping the floor with the outclassed candidates in a way I still can't explain even after seeing it with my own two eyes. The fact this half-literate idiot was cleaning the clocks of the best the Republicans have to offer did not bode well for the political party, or frankly the country.

After eating, I headed back to the hotel. It being late, I decided to forgo the hot tub for an evening and decided to just go to bed and count my blessings.

The Stadium & Fans: 

Home plate to center field, Surprise Stadium

There was no major changes in the stadium from the day before. The programs all were Rangers branded, as well were the uniforms of the staff, but there was not much of a difference otherwise.

Even if they didn't quite match the crowds of the World Champs, the Rangers made a big showing for their team, which had its own run of luck of late. Once again, the between-inning entertainment was on the thin side, mostly giveaways and some contests.

At the Game with Oogie: 

Half-shade scoring

For some reason that I don't remember, I ended up sitting on the third base line again, which, in this case, was the dugout for the visiting White Sox. So, there was a smaller group around me, and it was mostly south-siders. It took until the middle innings before I was enveloped in welcome shade. Most of the fans were minding their own business and enjoying the brutal beating on the field, so there was nothing much beyond that.

BBQ corndogs

I got another excellent Chuckies pork sandwich to eat, and supplemented it with an order of BBQ corndogs, because BBQ corndogs.

The Game: 

First pitch, White Sox vs. Rangers

This contest between the White Sox and the Rangers was intense scoring for a couple of half innings, and then a lot of nothing.

The Sox started it all off with a leadoff double that was moved over to third on a ground-out and then driven in with a sacrifice fly to right. A two-out rally then began with a single and a long double to right that brought the lead run in. A walk made it first and second with two outs, and then a homer to right brought everyone in, leaving it 5-0 after a half inning. The Rangers roared back… and went in order.

Chicago stranded a double in the second, and the Rangers went in order. The White Sox found their bats in the top of the third, with a leadoff single followed by a long double that brought in the runner from first. A ground out to first moved the runner over to third with one out, and then he came home on a sacrifice fly to center, extending the lead to 7-0. Texas broke up the perfect game with a one-out error by the third baseman on a routine grounder in the bottom of the inning.

The Sox went in order in the top of the fourth, but the Rangers got on the board. A one-out single moved to second on a grounder to the pitcher and scored on a single, closing it to 7-1. In the fifth, Chicago stranded a runner, while Texas used a leadoff homer to right to make it 7-2. Chicago got the run back with a two-out homer to left in the top of the sixth, while the Rangers just stranded a runner.

And that was pretty much it for the rest of the game. Both sides went in order in the last three innings, except for a walk for Texas in the bottom of the seventh, and the pointless game ended at 8-2, Chicago.

The Scorecard: 

White Sox vs. Rangers, 03/10/16. White Sox "win," 8-2. 

The scorecard was the same centerfold in the mini-tabloid full color magazine. It wasn't marred by ads, but it was still nearly impossible to use with pencils and didn't even include any space for pitching lines (which were again added extemporaneously).

There wasn't a lot that stood out from a scoring perspective. The leadoff double in the game was lost in the sun and could be considered an error, but otherwise the game was just average baseball.


The Accommodations: 

Not much at the hotel today. I wasn't there much there at all, for once.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2016 Cactus League

Surprise (Royals)

On Learning I Had No Idea What a Taco Really Was

Surprise Stadium, 2016

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Milwaukee Brewers vs. Kansas City Royals
Surprise Stadium
Cactus League (Spring Training)
Surprise, AZ
1:05 PM

Outside the Game: 

I was woken up again by the tramping of another tour group meeting outside my room far too early in the morning. This put a grumpy haze over my morning throughout breakfast and my post-breakfast constitutional, which had too many tweakers and not enough dogs. I went again to the gas station market across the street to grab some water to last me before I got into the stadium, as that worked out pretty well previously. I trudged back to my room to get showered and lie on the bed passive-aggressively until it was time to go to the park.

I headed out to Surprise and parked in the big lot by the main entrance, got out to do my pictures and whatnot, and was quickly ushered in when the gates opened. The drive back to the hotel was without incident, and on the recommendation from the hot tub, I went to the taco place, Birrieria El Gordo. This was the second of the recommendations, and since Honey Bears worked out so well, I was particularly excited to try this one out.

I was forewarned going in. This was a hole-in-the-wall place with a weird schedule, and they no habla ingles. The guy said it was well worth it, so I decided to give it a shot. Upon walking in, I could hear the guy behind the counter roll his eyes, thinking that here comes another gringo. I tried a little Spanish, but they either pretended to not understand, or, more likely, they really couldn't understand my crappy pronunciation. So, I went to the tried and true "point and use fingers" method to order up some tacos. That seemed to satisfy them, so they served up some tacos in a bag. I decided that I should probably get this to go and went back to the hotel to eat.

Holy crap, these were the best tacos I've ever had by far. It wasn't even close. It was well worth the cultural awkwardness to eat these tacos, and I generally don't think anything is worth that kind of embarrassment. The experience has completely redefined tacos for me.

After dinner, I decided I had to do some laundry, so I put a load of clothes into the machine and spent my time waiting to switch to the drier while in the hot tub. That worked out better than I expected. By the time the laundry was done, I was about done with the hot tub anyway, so I went back to my room to fold clothes, do paperwork, and hit the sack early to try and prepare for getting woken up again the next morning.

The Stadium & Fans: 

Home plate to center field, Surprise Stadium

Let's get this out of the way: it is fun to say "Surprise!" You can't help but be a little enthusiastic when you have to say you're going to "Surprise," especially when you get to say it twice, because you are going to "Surprise Stadium" in "Surprise, AZ." So, in summation, it is fun to say "Surprise!"

With that out of the way, this is one the stadiums that I was dreading the most, as it was shared between the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals, who had, six months ago, ripped out my soul and trod upon it while beating the Metropolitans in the World Series. It is not that I held them any particular ill-will. The Royals had suffered even longer than we had, and their fan base are nice enough folks. But there still was a sense of dread on this one.

The park itself is a modern Spring Training construction in a sprawling desert complex with the stadium in the center of two large practice facilities (one for the Royals, and one for the Rangers) on the that team's side of the park (first base for the Rangers, and third base for the Royals). Each practice area mirrored the other, with a main center scouting tower surrounding a complex of the main practice fields, with minor league practice fields in the periphery. One bit of good news is that while I was blearily walking around the entire complex, I found an unclaimed home run ball that had cleared one of the Royals practice fields, so I had that going for me.

Free ball!

The stadium had three entrances. The main entrance was at home plate, flanked by the main ticket office and the outside team store. There are also entrances at first and third base. All the entrances empty out onto a main promenade that circles the stadium above the seating bowl. All the seats are proper stadium seats, and they run into the short outfield. One large picnic hill extends the length of the outfield, with the main video board behind the hill in left-center, and the "Home Run Porch" covered eating area behind it in right-center field. A second row of party decks, luxury boxes, second-level seating, and press boxes rises above the lower area from first base to third base around home plate.

The concessions and team store run along the promenade, in the blessed shade under the upper deck, and out in the open in the outfield. There are auxiliary team store tents in the outfields, as well as cart-based concessions. There are a number of memorials in the park. The field itself is named "Bill Parker Field," Buck O'Neil and Art Stewart get honorary seats, the Surprise Hall of Fame is on the walls in the covered promenade, and baseball quotes are on signs on the promenade. The Royals and Rangers have corners in their respective outfields, with the Royals proudly displaying a World series champion plaque, while the Rangers, pointedly, do not.

The Royals' lion mascot does not make the trip down, and the between-innings frivolities are kept to a minimum. The Rangers did pack the place, but there is no indication if this is due to their recent fortunes, or if the die-hards had been showing up every year. But they made noise and were paying close attention to the action on the field.

At the Game with Oogie: 

Shade scoring

I got seats right behind the third-base home dugout for the game. I was, of course, completely surrounded by Royals fans. They're an amenable bunch, however, so I resisted the urge to pick a direction and start stabbing. One of the older gentlemen next to me deciphered the Brooklyn Cyclones hat and asked me if I was a Mets fan, and he told me no hard feelings for last year, which was nice, but doesn't give me a damn World Series ring.

Chuckies sandwich

For food, I started out at a cart that apparently was really popular called "Chuckies," which just sold pork sandwiches and waffle fries. There was a complex ordering procedure, where you had to pay and get a chit and then turn in that chit for a sandwich. I was there right when they opened, so I guess I didn't have to deal with the lines that clearly necessitated such a process. To be fair, it was quite good.

Brat and souvenir soda

Still having some space before the game, I grabbed a brat and slaw and a souvenir drink before the start of the game. The soda would be useful during the first few innings, where I was baking in the sun before the shadows finally and gratefully overcame my section.

The Game: 

First pitch, Breweres vs. Royals

In my heart, I suppose, I was rooting against the Royals after what they did to me soul last year, but it was hard to actually hate them. They were just the better team. At any rate, this afternoon was the World Champs against the bottom-dwelling Brewers, but it was closer than the contest on paper might suggest.

Milwaukee came out swinging in the first, with a leadoff double and following single to bring in the runner. A one-out single made it first and third, and another double brought in two runs. The next batter singled in the runner from second, and just like that, the Brewers were out to a 4-0 lead at the close of a half-inning of play. The Royals threatened in their own half, with two singles and a walk loading the bases with one out, but a double-play ended the scoring threat.

The Brewers went in order in the second, but Kansas City came back with a two-out rally in the bottom of the inning, with three straight singles and a double driving in three runs to close the Brewers' lead to 4-3. Milwaukee went in order again in the third, whereas the Royals had a leadoff homer to right to tie up the game. In the fourth, the Brewers went in order, while the Royals kept scoring. A leadoff walk was followed by a single. Two outs followed, but the grounder to third to end the inning got thrown away and loaded the bases. A wild pitch scored a run and moved everyone up, a walk loaded the bases, but a fly to left ended the threat at 5-4, Royals. That lead lasted a half inning, as Milwaukee got a one-out single in the top of the fifth, moved the runner over on a ground out, and scored a two-out single to tie it back up at 5. KC went in order in the bottom of the inning.

Milwaukee retook a 6-5 lead with a homer to left in the top of the sixth, but the Royals tied in back up with their own leadoff homer to left in the bottom of the frame. Both teams went in order in the seventh, and the Brewers only had a walk to show for the top of the eighth. However, the Royals skirted ahead again in the bottom of the inning with another two-out rally of a single and a double to take a 7-6 lead. The Brewers went in order in the top of the ninth, and the home-town fans went home happy with a pointless 7-6 Kansas City victory.

The Scorecard: 

Brewers vs. Royals, 03/09/16. Royals "win," 7-6.

The scorecard was the centerfold of the mini-tabloid, full-color, magazine $1 program (branded for the Royals). As you might imagine, it was largely useless with pencils, especially the colored variety. But the suck did not end there. While there were not advertisements to make the space smaller, they neglected to even put in pitching lines. I had to add them in manually along the bottom.

(One other amusing note on the program is that they copied the stadium map for the Cactus League directly from the Cactus League Website. Not only is it obviously the same map, but they actually left in the "Roll over each stadium name for more information" line in the program. [I did try; it did not work.])

All that said, this was a pretty unexceptional game scoring-wise. There was scoring because of sloppy play in the bottom of the fourth, but beside that, it was a pretty average game with an exciting ending for the home team.

The Accommodations: 

The maintenance guy showed up again this evening while I was doing laundry to fix the non-critical things in the room. He was a nice enough guy, and I had seen him around before without knowing what his position was. He wondered why I was even in this room, because it an overflow room, and he thought it criminal that I was put in here for two weeks. I asked if he would pass his thoughts onto the management. He gave me a meaningful look and said, "What management?", without expanding further. I would later find out what that all meant.

But for the moment, I had successfully used the laundry and had most of the things in my room no longer falling apart. So, there's that.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2016 Cactus League