golfkat Travel Blog

One of the best times with my children was going to Spring Training in Scottsdale, Arizona.  My son, Matt loved baseball from an early age.  I loved baseball from my youth, to when I stopped playing in college.  These trips gave us the chance to see our favorite teams, watch the upcoming stars of tomorrow, and to play golf at some of the best courses in the greater Scottsdale area.
 
For those of you who have never heard of it, here goes.  Spring training typically lasts almost two months, starting in mid February and running until just before the season opening day, traditionally the first week of April.  Spring training has always attracted fan attention, drawing crowds who travel to the warmer climates to enjoy the weather and watch their favorite teams play, and spring training usually coincides with college spring break.  We would meet many people from cold weather climates, like Chicago, and Cleveland.
 
A typical day for us during Spring Training went like this.  My son and I would wake up early, and head out to the golf course.  The rest of the family would shop, swim, or relax at the hotel.  We got to play of the great Scottsdale courses, like Troon North, TPC, and Karsten ASU.  We then caught a cab to the ballpark for an afternoon of baseball.
 
After that, we headed back to the hotel for a swim.  Our dinners out were often at places where the players go, like Don and Charlie’s, and the Pink Pony.  We often would be seated next to a group of well known players from our local favorites, the Oakland A’s, and the San Francisco Giants.  We would also see some of the older, retired players as well, like Reggie Jackson, Bob Feller, Stan Musial, and Joe DiMaggio.
 
But baseball was our main attraction.  We would try to get strategically located seats so the kids could catch baseballs.  We even bought a short fishing net that could be used to trap baseballs.  The secrets of getting the balls were like this: We sat in the first row for several reasons.  One is that any ball that landed in the bleachers, would ultimately roll down to the first row, where my son would be waiting as he climbed under the stands.  Two, he used the fishing net to reach over the fence to capture the foul ground balls running up against the fence.  He would often get so many that we had to give them to the other kids.
 
But the coup de grace was a moment with A’s slugger Mark McGwire.  As Mac was finished with batting practice, he started handing out his batting gloves to kids in the stands.  When he got to Matt, he handed him his baseball bat!!!  That had to be the happiest kid in the stadium.  He was the envy of the entire right field stands.
 
Another highlight was getting to see the up and coming young stars of the future.  The one we remember most was Ken Griffey Jr.  While he was not signing autographs, he did hold my daughter Sarah in his hands, and give her a hug.  I thought that was pretty nice for a twenty year old kid.  We would often see some of the players at breakfast as well.  If they were staying at our hotel, they would have a late 9 or 10am breakfast when the coffee shop was empty.  Matt was able to meet so many of the players this way.
 
We also enjoyed walking around Old Town Scottsdale, and taking the kids to the Rawhide western town.  We enjoyed the food of the southwest as well.  We also found a water park one year, as well as an amusement park, with batting cages, and inner tube boats that worked like bumper cars.
 
Times like this with the kids are special, and live forever inside my memory bank.  I hope they will take their kids to Spring Training as well someday.