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0 Subject: OT:Spring Training 08: Baseball, beauties and brew

Posted by: Species
- Dude [07724916] Sun, Mar 30, 2008, 02:31

Well I've been back from my now-annual Spring Training trip to the Phoenix area, and boy did you bozos who I invited MISS OUT! As it was, blue hen met up with me and 4 of my homies for a fantastic 5+ days of fun and frolicking.

Saturday hen and I landed in Phoenix within 20 minutes of one another. My longtime buddy What about Bob picked us up and took us to our off-airport rental car. Travel trip: if you can, seriously consider renting AWAY from the Phoenix airport. The $231 (all taxes included) minivan we rented for the week would have been in excess of $450 on the airport. We had just enough time to make it to Phoenix Municipal Stadium, where a bit of history was being made as the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have kept their Spring Training complex in Vero Beach, Florida for decades, had returned from China and had meshed their two split squads in Arizona for a week before the season started. They played the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

I didn't get a ton of pics here, but I did get Dodgers closer Takashi Saito on the mound, as well as Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez warming up in the pen:
Photobucket KRod

We sat in the middle of a large, boisterous Dodgers crowd. As a fan of neither team, hen and I were well entertained (and impressed) by their cheers, including waking up Tommy Lasorda who had fallen asleep on the field (managers and coaches often sit outside the dugout/on the field in fold-out chairs during Spring Training), who tipped his cap to our section, much to our new friends' delight. Our friends in front of us personally kept the beer vendors quite busy throughout the day, lining their pockets in the process. We did have some nice neighbors though:
Photobucket

We picked up the rest of my buddies that afternoon, and went to our party pad. Despite being decorated in the mold of The Brady Bunch, for a group of 6 guys it was perfect. A pool, 51" HDTV, full kitchen, etc. My crew was pretty tired, so hen and I hooked up with rockafellerskank, who took us to hip Downtown Scottsdale. Scottsdale is the happening area in Phoenix, filled with tons of great bars and clubs, almost all of them with outdoor patio seating. Even after midnight, it was still 65-70 degrees outside, and we were quite comfortable in our jeans and short sleeve shirts. First was a rather well known bar, Dos Gringos, with mostly open/patio areas, a second deck, great music, and lots of fun. We went to 2 other places, ending at a place that had a pool table.

I was three sheets to the wind (jack and coke), while rfs was our respectable designated driver and hen not exactly tipping them down hard. Even still, my college-days billiard skills shone through brightly, as even while tripping over my own feet a couple of times, I held my own against the league-playing hen and the sober rfs. Biiiiiaaaaaaaaaaattttcccccccccccccchesssssssssss!

Sunday morning the 5 of us (one hadn't gotten in yet) got up early for a 7:00am tee time. This was a very average public course, although with hen an infrequent golfer, and a second in our group was in their first year playing it was perfect. It was true "desert style", with green tee boxes followed by sandy, dirty open space before you get back to the grassy fairways. It was a good time.

We had chosen that course because it was close to the Brewers home park, Maryvale Baseball Complex in Phoenix. We were all excited to see the Diamondbacks vs. the Brewers, with young starts like Justin Upton, Stephen Drew, Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun and Rickie Weeks were playing. Maryvale isn't the most popular venue around Phoenix, but I have no idea why. While true it isn't in the most upscale part of town, the fact is that the park itself is very well kept, it has some shading and of course the Brewers are now an exciting young team are all aspects that make me enjoy it greatly. I'm more than happy to enjoy Maryvale's spoils until people figure things out.
Maryvale view

We had fantastic seats in section 102 (100 is behind home plate, so we were one section to the left)

While visiting another buddy's seats behind the visitors dugout, I got some sweet picks of Prince Fielder, first fouling off a pitch, before ripping his 2 hit of the day:
Photobucket
Photobucket

Of course, it wasn't all ripping singles all over the field, as he got fooled by a Doug Davis junkball low and away:
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It was a real pleasure to have such excellent seats to see young phenoms Ryan Braun, Justin Upton and Rickie Weeks rip base hits:
Braun hit
Photobucket
Photobucket

Monday we put together a double header in the suburbs of Phoenix. Peoria and Surprise are NW of Phoenix, approximately 40 and 60 minutes from Tempe where we were staying. Peoria is home to the Mariners and Padres, while Surprise is home to the Royals and Rangers.

In Peoria we saw a tilt featuring the White Sox vs. the Mariners. The Peoria ballpark was nice. Like Maryvale, it's a city-owned complex made up of the main field and several sub-fields that are used by various city leagues:
Peoria 2Peoria 1

Our seats were only modest down the left field line, offering us some views of Jim Thome about to whiff on a pitch (he struckout badly against Seattle starter Jarrod Washburn)
Photobucket
...and Cuban phenom Alexei Ramirez taking a low one:
Photobucket
Our seats did, however, offer us some other impressive views of other action:
PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket

Coming soon: Hooters in between games, babes and scenes aplenty in Scottsdale, a Sharks vs. Coyotes hockey game and my favorite park of all, Tempe Diablo Stadium in Tempe.
1allhair allstars
      Sustainer
      ID: 50902421
      Sun, Mar 30, 2008, 12:14
Sounds like a good time was had by all... Left us a little short on the "brew" portion of the title, unless you were actually referring to the Brewers... in particular I love the two shots of Fielder and his lower half.


Hmmm... maybe that didn't quite come out right...
2Twarpy
      Leader
      ID: 386242821
      Sun, Mar 30, 2008, 15:15
Species looks like an undercover papparazi with all those pics! Looks like the digs you rented was quite the man palace, I can only imagine the pain you must have felt living with a guy like bh for even a few days. The weather looks like it was fantastic, if I am ever able to make it down I will be sure to drink you under the table.
3J
      ID: 14249309
      Sun, Mar 30, 2008, 15:16
Hey, thats my sister!!!!
4Species
      Dude
      ID: 07724916
      Sun, Mar 30, 2008, 22:36
But the fun isn't over! When we were done in Peoria, our plan was to go to Surprise Stadium in the retirement community of Surprise, approximately 10 miles east of Peoria. The Sox vs. Mariners finished up pretty quickly, so we had a 2+ hour wait. Across the street from the stadium was a local Hooters. With nothing better to do, and various games on TV, we went over there for some wings and beers. Our waitress fit the marketing profile of Hooters quite well. I had to slap her hand off of my ass during this picture - it was quite annoying how much she was fondling me. Geez.
Quality waitressing
Surprise Stadium is the newest venue in the Phoenix area, shared by the Royals and Rangers. The venue is outstanding, with ample parking, great concessions and other amenities:
Surprise 2Surprise
At the game, we got to see Japanese import Hiroki Kuroda pitch, as well as young superstars-in-waiting Alex Gordon, Billy Butler and Matt Kemp. We had superb seats between the plate and the dugout. Here Kuroda got Gordon to ground out to first:
Photobucket
But later Gordon got some revenge with a solid single:
Photobucket
Kuroda's motion seems very similar to other Japanese pitchers....he really seems to look a lot like Daisuke Matsuzaka:
Photobucket
Royals slugging phenom Billy Butler was easily the most impressive stick in the game. He was at least 3-for-3 (he might have had 4 hits), including this run scoring triple to right. If you look closely in the upper right portion of this picture, you can see the ball slicing up and away from Dodgers 1b James Loney. What was hilarious was seeing Butler trying to leg out the triple.....it was reminiscent of Chris Berman describing a D-lineman running after an interception: "Rumblin' bumblin' stumblin'!"
Photobucket

Tuesday was easily the BEST day of the trip. It was a triple header of golf, baseball in Scottsdale (a VERY close second to Tempe Diablo) and our beloved San Jose Sharks vs. the local Phoenix Coyotes. For our second round of golf, we kept it to a foursome and had to split up the crew, kicking blue hen to the curb (lol). This resort course in Tempe combined a traditional front nine with a back nine in true desert style, with highly manicured tee boxes, but 150-200 yards of desert foilage like from this tee box:
Photobucket
We all really enjoyed this par 5, which had this absolutely brutal entry shot, with nasty bunkers protecting this really elevated green:
Photobucket
Also very joyous was this hugely elevated tee box to a par 3 some 50 yards below. The tee box did offer a pretty nice view of the valley:
Matt swing view
The finishing hole was this sweet island green:
Island green

While we got through golf pretty quickly, it still wasn't enough to let us get to Scottsdale Stadium before game time. This was BAD, as we only had lawn seats, and the game featured the two most popular teams in the Cactus League, the Giants and the Cubs. By the time we got into the game, the entire lawn section was already covered with wall-to-wall fans. Dumbstruck, we ended up putting our blankets on the hill facing away from the field :( The only positive was that we had shade.

That didn't stop us from enjoying a great deal of beer, and plenty of sights. Scottsdale is one of the best ballparks in the Cactus League, with a fair amount of shaded seats, excellent concessions and is right downtown near all of the best restaurants and bars.
Photobucket
Of course, there were tons of scantily clad females looking to stay cool amidst the summer heat:
PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket

Still to come: Sharks and Tempe Diablo Stadium.
5Species
      Dude
      ID: 07724916
      Mon, Mar 31, 2008, 23:57
....and with all of that fun, our Tuesday wasn't even done yet. My crew went to see our beloved Los Tiburones, the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks now sport the NHL's second best record, and have clinched 2nd place in the Western Conference. The Sharks truly have what it takes to make a legit run at Lord Stanley's Cup.

Hockey is difficult to photograph! Here, former Coyote Jeremy Roenick is digging in the corner while the best passer in the NHL, Joe Thornton, awaits his chance, and speedy linemate Milan Michalek lies in wait:
Photobucket
....and while Roenick takes a faceoff, Thornton waits to pounce:
Photobucket
The game was scoreless in the 1st, and Phoenix took a 2-0 lead in the second. Phoenix got a quick turnover in the 3rd for a 3-0 lead, but 2 successive penalties gave the Sharks a quick (40-odd second) 5 on 3 power play. They converted quickly, and tallied again on the 5 on 4 power play to follow, to close the gap to 3-2. Much to our chagrin, carelessness in their own zone on another power play resulted in a short-handed goal for Phoenix, but the Sharks rallied yet again, with Thornton getting his hat trick right in front of us with 2 minutes left to tie the game at 4. Sadly Phoenix won in OT, but the Sharks still escaped with a point, giving them (at the time) a streak of 18 straight games with a point!

Phoenix does have one thing working for them that the Sharks do not...........cheerleaders!
Coyote whoooooooooooo

After drinking ourselves to sleep, we skipped any Wednesday morning activities in order to enjoy my favorite ballpark, Tempe Diablo Stadium.
Photobucket
Tempe Diablo is home to the Angels and is famous for two things. 1 - it's fantastic views:
Diablo
Diablo 2
........and it's other fantastic views:
oh billy
Diablo friends
Photobucket
oh billyyyyy
Diablo friends 2
Lite
Photobucket
....oh, there was a baseball game too, as newly annoited Cubs closer Kerry Wood pitched that day
Photobucket

We actually had seats for this game, but after baking in the nearly 90-degree temperatures, we spent a fair amount of time in the left field concession/lawn area. As can be seen by the initial scenery photos, the general admission/lawn area starts about 3/4's the way down the left field line - rather unique in my recollection of Cactus League ballparks. They have great food, are in a great location, and it's true (in case you can't tell) that the Angels attract tons of hot women!

Needless to say, this was a total guys week. I didn't even throw in all of the Guitar Hero, Crown Royal, tequila, Miller Hi Life and other concoctions too numerous to mention. We wanted to do indoor kart racing but just didn't seem to find the time. We've learned a few lessons, made a lot of notes for what we plan on next year, and can't wait to go back to the same pad (most likely, the location was just sooooooooo perfect).

Everyone start hitting up their wife, girlfriend, mother, WHOEVER YOU NEED TO in order to try to hop aboard the party train next year. Woooooooooooooo!
6Twarpy
      Leader
      ID: 386242821
      Tue, Apr 01, 2008, 00:22
Definitely won't be letting the gf see this thread as why I need to join you on this trip:)

J's sister is hot though, she'd definitely win any game of Pick of the Winner.

Curious as to what bh was relegated to doing while you guys were golfing, as I sure as hell am not a golfer.
7blue hen
      ID: 16322314
      Tue, Apr 01, 2008, 09:43
I did play the first day, and made some poolside conference calls the second (remember, it was three hours earlier).

Golf in Arizona is great. The thin air helps a little (and helps ME very little), but the hard ground is awesome. When the ball goes as far as it normally would, it takes a hard bounce and goes another 20 yards. This especially helped on my low screamers, since distance is typically my weakest part.

You don't have to be a good golfer to get out there, and you'll be glad you did.
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