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Hakuna_Moncada’s 2018 Spring Training

2018 was my first time going to any Spring Training games, Cactus or Grapefruit variety. It was kind of a spur of the moment decision and I booked everything rather late (early February). I am lucky enough to date a wonderful woman who happens to be a flight attendant, and so I had free air fare getting down to Phoenix. Finding a place to stay is a different story. As Schooly alluded to in his fan post, finding somewhere that is palatable price wise is difficult, especially as late as I was to book.

Almost every hotel was entirely booked, and prices were borderline unreasonable. I checked AirBNB, and had limited options at that. I was going by myself, and trying to budget, so I rented a single room in a house in the suburbs with a wonderful family. It was my first experience doing something like that, but I figured since I would really only be there to sleep, it wouldn’t matter much. The family who was renting to me was wonderful and very accommodating, though it was a little weird being in a strangers house while they were home. I stayed three days, and had rented a car from the airport, which was necessary as I was trying to see as many games in the three days as I could.

I made it to 5 games in the three days: 3 at Camelback Ranch (Sox/Dodgers), 1 at Goodyear (Mariners/Padres), 1 at Peoria (Indians/Reds). It was a lot of baseball in such a short span, so the details of individual games are lost in a blur but each stadium had unique feels to them that I will attempt to describe.

Camelback is a nice stadium, but everything seemed a bit pricey for Spring Training games. I imagine it has a lot to do with LA fans packing the place for the Dodgers. One of the games I saw was our Sox vs the Dodgers, and it gets packed early, almost entirely with LA fans. There is only one way in to the stadium lot as far as I know, so consider getting there earlier rather than first pitch. Some of the seats are shaded by canopies but most are not. If you are taking in an afternoon game it can get brutal in the sun for 3 hours. They do allow you to bring in your own water bottles as long as they are unopened which I would recommend doing. The food wasn’t very impressive which was kind of disappointing because I think Sox Park has some of the best food in the MLB. They offer a lot of Mexican-American cuisine (a la southern Cali) and most of the menu is catered to Dodger fans. The Dodger Dog is nothing to write home about. All in all it’s a nice place to take in a game but leaves a little to be desired. I give it a 6/10.

Peoria has a very nice park, that is especially kid and family friendly. Behind right field is a large area dedicated to entertaining kids with a variety of interactive activities and games. The Cubs (ugh) we’re playing the Ms and again, the more popular (ugh) teams travel well. Packed with those other Chicago fans and few Mariners fans. Huge traffic to get in to the stadium, which is located more in a downtown-ish area as opposed to Camelback being in the desert. Nice area and a lot of food options nearby. I’m a little introverted, but fans down there seem especially easy going and you meet a lot of good baseball fans. I sat next to a couple of Ms fans who bought me a beer after about 15 minutes of talking; very nice people. There was a young fan with a ridiculously oversized mitt (like in the picture of the draft prospect article the other day) who seemed to get a ball every other inning and was collecting signatures on the mitt. Maybe a cool idea if you plan on taking your kids down with you. Typical ballpark foods, but a nice variety of cocktail options if you’re not a beer drinker. I give it a 7/10.

Goodyear was by far the best stadium and experience I had at any of the 5 games. I got to the park about a half hour before the game started to find out they had happy hour going on! 3$ beers and dollar hot dogs! Awesome deal for a ball game. Not only that, but they had food trucks and tequila tasting at the outskirts of the stadium, but still inside it. The food was the best I had had over my stay, and it was after eating ballpark food for 2.5 days at this point. The stadium itself is great. My favorite of the three, even though it didn’t have the attractions that Peoria did. I was impressed by it even approaching it from outside. Just an aesthetically pleasing ballpark. I DO remember (now our own) Yonder Alonso hitting an absolute moonshot for the Indians. Probably the loudest ball off bat sound I’ve heard in person. Got oohs and ahhhs from the crowd. I don’t remember much else of the game, but really liked that stadium. 9/10.

I’ll be down there again March 12-14, this time with my girlfriend, who I am happy to say is a budding Sox fan. If any of you will be down there I will be catching the Sox at Camelback on both the 12th and 13th and would be more than happy to buy you a beer and talk Sox!

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