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Subject: OT: Species' Spring Training LOLLAPALOOZA! Posted by: Species - Dude [07724916] Wed, Mar 21, 2007, 20:15 One of the gifts of the RotoGuru boards has been the amazing friends I have made. Whether it was nothing more than the board, 'graduating' to email or phone or meeting in person, I have enjoyed so many interactions with friends I have made. Following is a bit more than a blurb about the excellent adventure my buddy Jeff (non-board dude) and I had in and around Phoenix last week, with props and thanks to many Gurupie friends for making it happen. Over 7 years ago one of the first friends I made was What about Bob? He doesn't post any more but many veterans will remember this dumbass from earlier in the decade. One of my first Gurupie experiences was meeting him, jedman and Punishark at a SF Giants game years ago….and in 2001 I was invited by WAB to the World Series where my beloved Yankees got spanked in Game 6 at Arizona's cavernous Bank One Ballpark, now Chase Field. Two years ago I bought the wife some jewelry and was able to start a new spring tradition of going to Phoenix to visit WAB and his family for Spring Training. Last Wednesday through Saturday was the 2007 version, and it was off the hook, at least from a sports fan's perspective. For the baseball fan, Spring Training is an absolute blast. The ballparks are small - like AAA fields - and the players are much more accessible and occasionally accommodating. Front row seats are $20.00. The sun is fabulous and the women must dress scantily for the weather. Considering last week was in the low 90's, in that regard it was a BUST OUT week! ;-) Wednesday's game was the Giants vs. the Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium. Tempe is a suburb East of Phoenix where Arizona State University is located. It is quite the spot for the young crowd, and bluntly the location near ASU combined with it being the Angels' home park (i.e. SoCal hotties) makes this place a chick haven. Here's a view of the ballpark from our seats 4 rows back and next to the Giants dugout:  Me proudly sporting my Giants gear (and yes, that Miller Lite girl in the background is looking at me - I had to blow her off):  Stud prospect Brandon Wood hitting a ball in play: Vladimir Guerrero with a hack (note ball about to jam him inside):   What's sweet about Spring Training is that the ushers aren't that insane about standing/squatting in the aisle. Our seats were 4th row so for the Vlad pic (and others) I could squat right behind the screen and put the lens of my camera through it. Tempe Diablo is an outstanding stadium - probably my favorite. We were sitting in the Giants section (obviously) so while Barry got some heckles:  ....it wasn't too bad. Of course, the Giants fans heckled Gary Matthews, Jr, especially after he knocked out a deep HR to center!Wednesday night my buddy and I went to a 170-player poker tournament at a local indian casino. Their poker room is THE BOMB. Seventy-odd tables with huge big screens lining the high walls akin to the NY Stock Exchange. Thursday's game featured the Angels taking on the Brewers in Maryvale. Maryvale Baseball Park is a huge, multi-field complex in South Phoenix. Bluntly the neighborhood isn't anything to write home about, but Maryvale was actually a very pleasing ballpark, with some shaded areas that are a BIG help on these hot days. Here's a pic of Brandon Wood on deck, but I offer it here as a bit of a wide angled view of the park:  One nice thing about Maryvale is that it is typically NOT crowded. We got 6th row seats just to the 3rd base side of the plate only a few days before the game. Here's a pitch by Ervin Santana to Rickie Weeks to lead off the game (note the pitch in flight):  Prince Fielder watching a high hard one:  Note that 364-foot sign in straight right? He homered on the next pitch to the top of the grass to the left of that little triangle. It was a SHOT. We enjoyed the game quite a bit. Ryan Braun hit a nice opposite field laser and looked good at the plate. Brandon Wood played most of the game at 3b and made some nice plays in the field. Thursday night we went to the San Jose Sharks vs. Phoenix Coyotes game at "Jobing.com Arena". This arena is new and right next to the AZ Cardinals' new football stadium. What's amazing about this facility is that it's all a part of a huge retail development. Movie theaters and a large mall also occupy this huge property. Being Sharks fans we dressed for Sharks success and salivated at the chance to be the fans for the visiting team. Our center ice seats in the 2nd deck were VERY nice for being near the top of the arena. This particular arena had a VERY large first bowl that went back at a fairly low angle, with the luxury boxes and 2nd deck jutting out on top of them, giving the 2nd deck fans a very nice over the top view. The Sharks blew out the Coyotes 5-1 and we whooped it up, eventually moving behind the goal the Sharks were shooting at in the 3rd period to be with another cluster of Shark fans. My buddy took a pic on his phone that I'll try to post. Friday's game was the Rockies vs. the Giants at the home of the Giants, Scottsdale Stadium. Fellow Gurupie rockafellerskank and I had met last year for some evening libations. This year he and his company were hosting clients in a private pavilion in right field, where free food and all the alchohol you could drink were being served. Yes, FREE BOOZE! One problem: He had overbook the MF'ing deal! What's worse is that the game had been sold out for a week. My 2 buddies and I were each at opposite corners of the stadium hunting down scalpers. One grandpa and grandson were standing next to the ticket window with the Dad and 2 other kids. Gramps had his ticket but the dad and 2 kids didn't. A scalper came by with 4, so they decided to get all 4 so gramps could sit with them. Noticing my dismay about missing the tickets, the Grandpa held his ticket out and asked me "You want it?", and before this dude next to me could do anything, I snagged it and told the Grandpa that the baseball gods would bless him today. Ka-ching! Not 2 minutes later, my 2 buddies say they found 2 tickets, so I told them to get them and we were at least in. So I enter the gate, not knowing whether or not rockafellerskank would have extra wristbands for the all-you-can-eat-and-drink pavilion.....but not 90 seconds after entering the gate does my cell ring, and rfs came through with the hook-up!! My 2 buddies and I enter the pavilion and since the Giants were coming up in the 1st decided to sit right on the rail of the RF fence. Randy Winn, I believe the 2nd batter of the game, proceeds to crank a home run not 10 feet to our right after we had sat down for all of 3 minutes, and the Giants scored a few runs that inning while we checked out the Pavilion. So we make our way to the shaded area where the food is and enjoy carne asada and/or shrimp tacos, hamburgers, hot dogs and nice bratwurst! Making our way further, rfs' particular section where most of the shade was required a certain stamp to get in, and we had it. So not only do they have their OWN bar separate from the other 200-odd people in the pavilion, but they have ceiling fans in that area and two wide screen TV's with the NCAA tourney on! It's like we went to a raving party and a baseball game broke out! This pavilion ain't for the cheap....and the quality of female companions allowed into the place was high. Between the eating, drinking, NCAA tournament and scoping out the women, I'm not sure we saw more than 3 innings of the game. At one point we were on our perch watching the game and drinking margaritas when we struck up a conversation with one of rfs' co-hosts (from another company in a related industry who went 70/30 w/rfs)....rfs notices us talking to her (nice looking gal more my age vs. the 20-something hotties) and pipes in "Hey, you're talking to the wrong guys", which engendered a hellacious set of comebacks from us and we all had a laugh. Needless to say we had a great time. Bonds went deep, the Giants won, and serious props and thanks to my boy rfs for being such a generous host. Think it's over? HELL NO. So Friday night we have arranged with Farn to check out a Phoenix Suns game! We meet him at the Hard Rock across from US Airways arena (right next to Chase Field in Downtown PHO) and proceed into the game. Farn has a sweet connection who scored us 8th row seats in the corner on the basket side of the Pistons bench. From our vantage point Farn points out Randy Johnson, sitting in his customary front row seats immediately behind the basket with one of his daughters. Farn laughed as he pointed out that RJ NEVER makes it beyond halftime, and sure enough with :20 left in the 2nd, 'there goes RJ' down the hall under the stands to bail out of there as if he was late for a bail hearing. Sadly, the Pistons spanked the listless Suns, who couldn't make a 3 (something like 2-16 when I checked) or make a stop to save their lives. From our close vantagepoint it was easy to see what the Pistons do on offense - it's fairly simple - but they just do it very well. They mix it up between Rasheed and Webber in the post and running Rip off of screens. They pounded Boris Diaw inside mercilessly with whoever he was guarding. Even with them losing Billups in the 2nd Qtr (we saw him wincing in pain holding his groin) the Suns had no answer for Flip Murray, who went off. So, serious props and thanks to Farn for being such a gracious host. I REALLY hope he was joking when, in the 2nd Quarter and DET had taken the lead, he said 'if the Suns lose this is the last time you'll be here'!!! lmao Saturday's game feature the Brewers and Oakland A's in the A's home park, Phoenix Municipal Stadium. Muni is pretty weak really, but it was conveniently located. OH - well one thing Muni has going for it is the Tempe location of Hooters is only 3 miles away and a direct drive. We stopped by Hooters where Mandy greeted us very warmly as we watched Ohio State's miraculous comeback. Mandy, hailing from Ohio jumped up and down (quite entertaining) and gave us hugs when OSU hit the miracle 3 to send it into overtime. A blue eyed blonde, Mandy fit the marketing requirements of Hooters quite well, thank you. Oh, and this was also St. Patrick's Day! So St. Pattie's Day at the A's ballpark is quite a treat. Green runs wild and the Irish lasses run wild. It was HOT so they had to improvise when their t-shirts proved too hot - lots of knotted up shirts providing nice midriff shots, if they weren't already wearing small tanktops. Here's a pic of the first batter (Weeks - note ball in flight) of the game...and one of Prince smacking a base hit to right:   The "highlight" of this game was Oakland starter Joe Kennedy not retiring a batter until 5 runs on 6 hits were on the board! The crowd gave him a LOUD, sarcastic cheer when he finally recorded an out on a meek grounder. It was really quite hilarious. Although I felt bad for the guy, he deserved it because he was horrible. He got 2 more mock cheers for the other two outs he finally got. So, needless to say it was a freaking OUTSTANDING trip. I would recommend Spring Training to all baseball fans. Admittedly it helps to have connections, hook ups and local friends to help improve your trip.....but the more times I'm there the better I know the area, the places to go before and after games, and the stuff to do at night. And as Farn said: "The mediocre chicks around here are the HOT ones (back east where he hails from)!" | |||||||
| 1 | KrazyKoalaBears ID: 354152921 Wed, Mar 21, 2007, 21:41 | Great story! Thanks for posting! :) | ||||||
| 2 | rockafellerskank ID: 51281619 Wed, Mar 21, 2007, 22:00 |
Glad you enjoyed the experience. And, yes, the talent at the stadium was off the hook. I'll tell Amy (With Prime Staff) she has now been posted at rotoguru.com I'm sure she'll be thrilled. See ya next year. | ||||||
| 3 | Great One ID: 201155199 Wed, Mar 21, 2007, 22:08 |
If anyone wants to come to Jersey and hang out with me, we'll have just as much fun! (alright, probably not lol... :) I think I need to move out there, sounds awesome. Its a shame RAW wasn't in Phoenix or something to really complete this trip! | ||||||
| 4 | GoatLocker Sustainer ID: 060151121 Wed, Mar 21, 2007, 22:22 |
Great write-up Species, thanks for sharing. We went through the area too early to catch any games. Seems I'll be saying the same as every year. Maybe next year. Cliff | ||||||
| 5 | Perm Dude ID: 28245217 Wed, Mar 21, 2007, 22:32 | Sweet! I love that shot of Fielder the pitch before the dinger. One of the reasons I love going to minor league parks is because many of them have that cool sitting-on-the-grass-hanging-out section. Perfect for when you have some little ones. Watch out for the long ball, however! | ||||||
| 6 | Seattle Zen ID: 46315247 Wed, Mar 21, 2007, 22:39 | Nice camera! Those are some beautiful shots. | ||||||
| 7 | JeffG Leader ID: 01584348 Wed, Mar 21, 2007, 23:59 | Great pics! LOL on all the scouting reports about the women, I think I counted 9 references. You may need to re-visit the jewelery store if the Mrs reads this! | ||||||
| 8 | Species Dude ID: 07724916 Thu, Mar 22, 2007, 01:40 |
Found a few more: "Can I borrow your tanktop? My car just hit a water buffalo":  My my! What a big chest you have!:  A real pose:  The brunette was TINY. NO! Not up there....in terms of height. She was standing on the step above me and still looked short. I did enjoy her button accessory greatly. Hopefully I'll get a hockey and hoop pic from my buddy's cell phone camera. | ||||||
| 9 | darkside Achiever ID: 3590317 Thu, Mar 22, 2007, 08:30 | Nice Fletch reference! Solid pics too. My brother lives in Scottsdale...I really need to make it out there for ST some time. Thanks for the recap. | ||||||
| 10 | Twarpy ID: 4110219 Thu, Mar 22, 2007, 16:35 |
Species, Great pics man love how you big yourself up on the photography (note how the ball is in motion)...Chicks, free booze, warm weather, baseball, basketball and hockey you guys are damn lucky down there. Would absslutely have loved to see how much game you spit to those girls, hopefully you didn't tell her you liked her "button accessory". | ||||||
| 11 | Species ID: 5259811 Thu, Mar 22, 2007, 17:59 | Just helping the untrained eye. Judging by how narrow and bloodshot your eyes looked in that Raptor picture, you have TWO untrained eyes, dumbass! | ||||||
| 12 | Ref Donor ID: 539581218 Thu, Mar 22, 2007, 19:01 |
LMAO. Having read this thread and seeing Twarp's pic with Joey, I def. see Species' point!!! I've been to Tempe for a week a while ago for the Fiesta Bowl and I'm telling you the area is nice year-round. Add in the fun and you have perhaps The Perfect Storm! | ||||||
| 13 | Species Dude ID: 07724916 Fri, Mar 23, 2007, 12:19 |
A few more. Here's a pic from the sweet seats supplied by Farn: ....and this was my first hockey game with cheerleaders  Here's what I would have done to any punk ass Coyotes fans who would talk smack:  GO SHARKS! | ||||||
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