By Andrea L
As many of you know, Lenny and I usually travel to Arizona twice a year. Of course, we don’t make both trips every year as sometimes life gets in the way. We try to though.
The first trip is in early March, right when spring training starts.
Mainly we go there for Lenny to participate in the LABR draft. LABR stands for the League of Alternative Baseball Reality, and is the longest running expert league around. It was first created by John Hunt back in 1994 and Lenny has won three times.
He drafts his National League only team on Saturday and does play-by-play of the American League only draft for Siriuson Sunday. So, while he is doing that I usually find a game to attend, sometimes two or three games to attend.
The ballparks are not spread out so far from each other like in Florida, and the minimal cost to park your car makes it possible to see more than one game in a day.
The second time we go to Arizona is in early November. Lenny has been a speaker at the First Pitch Forum for quite a number of years. This is a great time for games also, as the top four prospects from each major league club make up the six teams of the Arizona Fall League.
The First Pitch Forum is scheduled so that we always get to see the Fall Stars game.
The best part about going to Fall League games is that they are extremely affordable: $8 for an adult and $6 for kids (3-17) and seniors (55+). Even more important though is the ability to sit anywhere you want.
Players are quite humble at the prospect stage of the game, making it easy to get an autograph or even a photo with your favorite youngster. Here is a photo of Andrew Lambo taken back in 2008.
The Fall League hasn’t changed much over recent years, but Spring Training games are a very different story. It didn’t happen all at once, but I have noticed the costs and the crowd size at Spring Training games steadily rising until last year, when I didn’t attend one live game.
I did make an effort, but there was no place to park and many games were sold out, so I went for the next best option, which was to go back to the hotel where I could relax in the room, eat delicious west coast tacos with red hot sauce from a small tub, and watch the games on TV.
A few years back, the Cubbies insisted on a new spring training facility in Mesa, and actually threatened to move to Florida if they didn’t get one. Arizona voters approved $100 million to build the new park back in 2010.
and paid for by residents of the City of Mesa, with part of the costs coming from higher hotel taxes and a selloff of city land..
We got a chance to go to the new Cubbies spring training complex for a Fall League day game 2014, the first year it opened. I will say it is an amazing place and luckily the crowds that day were almost non-existent.
Lenny likes to sit right behind home plate
surrounded by scouts and jugs guns
.
No, Not this type
Well maybe..
I would rather sit in nosebleed seats than give up
even one square inch of my personal space.
Deciding on seats is tough for us most of the time
Lenny also insists on being the first guy in line at the gate waiting
for the park to open, and I am fine showing up five minutes before the first pitch.
You dont even have to buy a ticket if you dont mind coming to the game after the second inning, just walk on in.
So, I decided to write this after seeing an article this morning on CBS regarding the now world series champion Cubs, and the average cost for a ticket to an upcoming Spring Training game. The Cubbies are involved in nine of the ten most expensive Spring Training games in 2017.
There are still games to attend at an affordable cost,
as long as you don’t mind seeing the Chicago White Sox
play the Oakland A’s
I have also noticed airfare, hotel and rental car prices rising over the past couple seasons, but nothing like this year where a rental car will cost you over 50 bucks a day for a compact budget car.
Insane.
Lenny and I decided to fly to Albuquerque, NM for a total cost of $160 each way vs. a total cost of $450 each way to fly into Phoenix on the same dates, and $14 a day for our rental car with unlimited miles. We don’t mind a few hours in the car, in fact Lenny loves it and I just nap…no problem.
While all this is great for the game of baseball, it stinks for fans like me.
Oh how the times have changed in Spring.