March 2, 2012. Mark your calendar. Arizona’s Cactus League Spring Training is getting underway and what good time this is going to be! With 15 leagues training all within one metropolitan area, you and your kids have the opportunity to see many of your favorite baseball players up close and personal. You may even have a little chat with them while they’re throwing the ball around during warm-up.
As a kid growing up here in Arizona without a MLB team of our own (pre Diamondbacks, of course), we had the Firebirds and loved watching them. But Spring Training was something else. All my favorite big league players popped out of my trading cards and came down to play baseball in what felt like the park next door to my house. I have memories of leaning over the fence yelling “Will! Hi!” Will Clark caught the ball in his glove, turned around and called out to me. “What’s your name?” Feeling the giddy run through my legs, I called back, “Chrissy.” He smiled and tossed me the ball he was throwing around.
Arizona Spring Training is an opportunity to travel into another dimension which feels strangely like, well, the Field of Dreams or even just the good ol’ days that so many of us grew up seeing in old sports reels and films. Players are just steps away from their adoring fans. Experiences with the players can often create these thick, vivid memories that you’d have to brush away with your hand. There is something magical and nostalgic about baseball. The All-American sport is entrenched in our culture, and sometimes we can lose the perspective of what it’s all about between the JumboTron, advertisements, and pumped up theme music for each player as he goes up to bat. But Spring Training is different. It’s baseball in its purest form. Players are out there on the field playing hard to earn their spot on the team; there are no special sound effects, just the sound of the crack of the bat reverberating against the short walls encasing the stadium; seats are optional – and in fact, many people choose to lay in the grass on a blanket with a hot dog and a beer and even some kettle corn.
There’s no better time or place to see baseball. Arizona Spring Training is coming up and we’re all looking forward to it. You know Arizona has plenty of sunshine and during this time of year the weather averages around 78 degrees. It time to play ball!
Cactus League Spring Training 2012 Information:
Recommended Arizona Spring Training Hotels:
- Hyatt Regency Hotel – Downtown Phoenix
- Marriott – Phoenix Airport
- Crowne Plaza – Downtown Phoenix
- Hilton Garden Inn – Old Town Scottsdale
- Millennium Hotels – Scottsdale
- Hotel Indigo – Old Town Scottsdale
