I’m writing this from a motel in Chandler AZ, where I am about to indulge myself with three days of Spring Training in the Arizona Cactus League. It’s my first ever real spring training trip, and I’m pretty stoked. The only other time I went to a spring training game was in Florida, where I skipped out on a conference to go catch the Yankees at GS Steinbrenner Field back somewhere in the early 2000s. The games are:

  • Cleveland v. Seattle, Peoria Sports Complex. Cleveland is the closest MLB team to where I live, so I do like to follow the team. I especially like to listen to Tom Hamilton’s radio broadcasts. He’s going into the Hall of Fame this summer as the Ford Frick Award winner. My son and I went to Cleveland last October to see one of the greatest ball games I’ve ever seen live - Game 3 of the ALCS. Even thought the Yankees lost that game, it was still a thrilling game. I look for Cleveland to repeat as the AL Central champs, but honestly that division is always difficult to pick, since they are all small market teams with young players.
  • Athletics v. Texas, Surprise Stadium. I remain super pissed off that the Athletics were forced out of Oakland by their asshole of an owner, John Fisher. He should be stripped of ownership, as he is doing nothing to improve the team and everything to strip every ounce of profit for himself as possible. Nonetheless, because of the genius of Billy Beane, the Athletics always seem to have an interesting team with young stars. So they can be fun to watch. Texas is trying to recover from a team that sort of fell apart after they won the 2023 World Series. I’m not sure why Bruce Bochy continues to manage at this point. He’s nothing left to prove, and he’s already retired once. Texas is, to me, an unknown quantity. They could compete for the AL West, but only because Houston is beginning to fade from its title run days and may now be catchable.
  • Los Angeles Angels v. Los Angeles Dodgers, Tempe Diablo Stadium. The Angels suck, but the opportunity to see Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani on the same field in the same game is irresistible. That is, if both are there and show up. I suspect they will, because that’s the media draw. I hate the Dodgers, and have hated them all my life for obvious reasons, but I gotta say their current iteration is a bonanza of future HOFers.

That’s the lineup. Should be a good three days. Not sure what else I can fit into these three days in the Phoenix area. Suggestions welcome!