My First Spring Training — Day 1
Watch:
WHAT THE VIDEO DIDN’T SAY . . .
This really makes me want to go to some minor league games (never seen one) and to check out more parks in general. I’ve only been to five major league stadiums, but that will change this year when I go on at least one Dodgers road trip (more on that in a future post).
For a tiny park that seats 8,000 and only had about 3,000 show up, Goodyear Ballpark has an insane number of employees. They had an usher at every aisle checking tickets, at least three main entrances that were well staffed with quick moving lines, ten times the amount of concession stands that the left field pavilion has (for about the same number of fans that usually show up), and dozens of uniformed police walking around. It was odd.
Huge variety of food options. Hot dogs, pizza, tacos, burritos, Chinese food, ice cream, everything. All for way cheaper than you’d find at Dodger Stadium, of course. I had a jumbo dog (bigger than an all beef Dodger dog, similar taste) for $4 and the pizza for $5. Both were very good.
I saw this Ninja motorcycle in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart a couple miles from Goodyear Ballpark:
Jerry Sands looked solid. Hoping for big things from him. He went 2-for-2 and hit the RBI single at 3:48 in the video.
Aroldis Chapman, who can throw 105 miles per hour, was unhittable. He gave up that foul ball at 4:12, which was a victory for Dodgers hitters last night, to simply get the bat on the ball.
It was about 70% Dodger fans, which makes sense, with Los Angeles being far closer than Cincinnati. Everyone was really nice. I spent most of my time with this guy named Tray, who was the centerfield camera man for the Diamondbacks for ten years. I bought a ticket in the berm (grass beyond the wall), but he gave me his extra ticket behind the Dodgers dugout, which is where I ran into Fan Since ’53 and his son Tim, who is nine feet tall now, by the way:
Tim makes me look pretty bad, but oh well, it’s probably gonna be the only picture of me on this trip! It was nice to see at least two familiar faces last night, and I assume I’ll see more tonight at Camelback Ranch, which is where I’m heading right now!
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I ran into Fansince53 also at Camelback Ranch on 2/27 & 2/28 and then at Goodyear ballpark. He was expecting his son later that day or the following day. I ran into Roberto and other Dodger fans that weekend.
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We are actually going back to Camelback this weekend.
Emma
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