The Cactus League:
Arizona’s Annual Rite of Spring
By Charlie Vascellaro

Spring training in Arizona has always represented rejuvenation, youthful exuberance and optimism. It a time when, by its design, hope springs eternal, the beginning of last year’s “wait ‘til next year,” cry. And while all 12 of the big league clubs in Arizona’s Cactus League spring training circuit get to start the season with a clean slate, at least one of them would like to pick up right where they left off.

When the reigning World Series champion Chicago White Sox return to their Cactus League digs in Southern Arizona the atmosphere will be charged at beautiful Tucson Electric Park.

After playing second fiddle in the second city for more than100 years, the White Sox have finally earned bragging rights over their north-side rival Cubs. Since joining the Cactus League in Tucson eight years ago, the White Sox have also taken a backseat to the Arizona Diamondbacks, with whom they share spring headquarters. Since the team’s inaugural season of 1998, and especially after the 2001 championship season, the Diamondbacks have traditionally garnered the lion’s share of attention during the spring in Tucson. But that’s probably about to change.

This year the White Sox will know what it feels like to enter the spring season with a World Series flag flying over their ballpark, strutting out on the field in haughty grandeur in front of admiring throngs and envious opponents. One person who literally knows how it feels to be both on both sides of the field is Roland Hemond, executive advisor for the Chicago White Sox and former executive vice president of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Hemond, a lifelong baseball man who has worked for five different big league clubs over the past 50 years, left the Diamondbacks to take his position with the White Sox just prior to the Arizona’s 2001 championship season.

“I moved about 15 feet, from the left side of home plate to the right side,” says Hemond, adding, “I was proud and happy for them. I still have strong feelings for both teams.”

Despite the fact that Hemond was no longer with the Diamondbacks, Jerry Colangelo presented him with a World Series ring after the 2001 championship.

“It was a very classy thing for him to do. I was so overcome with emotion when he called to tell me, I had to hand the phone to my wife. I couldn’t even talk.”
It’s been 48 years in between championships for Hemond, whose first and last World Series winner was the 1957 Milwaukee Braves.

“It will be exciting to return to Tucson as champs and we’ll do so humbly, knowing the work that is ahead of us for another season. But, I loved hearing Jack Donovan’s (facilities manager at Tucson Electric Park) voice mail say, ‘spring training home of the World Champion Chicago White Sox,’” says Hemond. “I think many fans who have not been to Tucson in the past — and those who have been — will more likely to visit because of the excitement a World Champion club brings,” says Hemond.

As a former Arizona resident who moved to Baltimore seven years ago, I still return for the start of baseball season, keeping up an annual tradition that began more than 25 years ago. Each spring, our group emerges from collective hibernation and, subsisting on a diet of mostly beer and peanuts, we venture from ballpark to ballpark each day. A road trip to Tucson is always included on the itinerary.

Tucson Electric Park and Hi Corbett Field
Baseball fans have been venturing to Tucson since 1947 when the Cleveland Indians began playing spring exhibition games at Hi Corbett Field as half of a partnership with the New York Giants, who trained in Phoenix. Since those founding fathers brought baseball to the desert, the Cactus League has evolved and grown — sometimes by dramatic leaps and bounds — to its current high water mark of 12 teams and nine ballparks across the state. The White Sox and D-Backs are joined in Tucson by the Colorado Rockies who replaced the Indians at Hi Corbett Field in 1993. The other nine teams play in relatively close proximity to each other in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area.

We love Tucson Electric Park for its spectacular view of the Santa Catalina Mountain range, expanding beyond the outfield wall to the deepest reaches of fair territory and to what appears to be the end of the world. Because two teams share the park, there’s a game being played just about every day of the Cactus League schedule. The wide concourse completely circles the ball field and there’s plenty of gourmet ballpark fare to enjoy, including great Mexican food and barbecue pits.

Just a few blocks away, Hi Corbett Field has received a few facelifts over the years, but retains its old-world minor league charm in picturesque surroundings. Movie buffs know the original Hi Corbett was a backdrop for the spring training scenes in the movie “Major League.”

The greater Tucson metropolitan area offers a wide range of fabulous resorts and golf courses. Cactus League road trippers can also take excursions to regional attractions like the Mission San Xavier del Bac, which is right on the way to the Mexican border town of Nogales. During the past few years we’ve taken a liking to the Hotel Congress in the heart of Tucson’s historic district at 311 E. Congress St. The Congress is a one-stop destination and non-stop party with a spacious and attractive lobby bar, inconspicuous Tap Room lounge and lively Club Congress nightclub. The hotel’s Cup Café restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. The rooms are small but affordable, appointed with unique antique furnishings.

After day games at either Tucson ballpark we go to nearby Bob Dobbs Bar and Grill at 2501 W. 6th, a great place for beer and bar snacks and watching the NCAA basketball tournament games that run concurrently with spring training.

It’s barely a two-hour drive up I-10 back to the Valley where our tour continues.

Scottsdale Stadium
For more than 10 years I’ve been part of a partnership on a pair of season tickets in the second row at Scottsdale Stadium, right behind the home team San Francisco Giants dugout, where I sit with my good friend Alan Cruikshank for at least one game every spring season.

Among the elder statesmen of Cactus League ballparks, Scottsdale Stadium was constructed in 1956 as an old wooden bandbox whose original occupant was the Baltimore Orioles. Since remodeled into its chic red brick, retro/nouveau design, it has been the Giants spring home since 1984 and the home park to more teams than any other stadium in the Cactus League’s 59-year history.

Before and after the game Alan and I always go to Karsen’s Grill at 7246 E. First St. for cold drinks, hot grub and lively baseball banter.

Phoenix Municipal Stadium
Just a 10-minute drive from Scottsdale Stadium but light years away in design, Phoenix Municipal Stadium is located just a few miles from Sky Harbor Airport. Affectionately referred to as “Muni,” the real grand daddy of Valley baseball venues opened in 1966. It is still one of the most out of this world looking ballparks in the country. While many of the newer ballparks are retro in design, (a trend that began with Baltimore’s Camden Yards in 1992) Muni is a space-age neo modern structure that has been likened to a flying saucer.

As the most utilized ballpark in the state’s history, Muni served as spring home to the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s since 1966 and the minor league Phoenix Giants/Firebirds for nearly 40 years before the franchise flew the coop when the major league Diamondbacks arrived. Muni has been the spring home of the A’s since 1984.

Recent remodeling, including a new press box, has taken away some of its kitsch but the park remains delightfully unpretentious. Over the years we watched young minor league prospects like fan-favorite Matt Williams develop into full-blown big leaguers, and saw a cavalcade of stars, including Rickey Henderson, Will Clark and the notorious brothers of bash (Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco) pass through.

Hohokam Park
My spring training memories actually begin when I was a junior high school student many years ago in Mesa. While riding the bus, I heard a familiar sound in the distance — the proverbial “crack of the bat” — and for a fleeting instant, I thought I caught a whiff of freshly cut grass. It was the original Hohokam Park just across the street from its new and improved present location at 1235 N. Center St. We quickly devised an elaborate scheme for playing hooky and going to the game the next day, and a lifelong Cactus League fan was born.

This was my first feel of the intimacy associated with spring training games, the closeness and easy accessibility of the players to the fans for pictures and autographs, the sights, sounds and scents associated with the ballpark and the joy of day baseball. Of course that was a long time ago, when Cactus League parks were likely to be less than half full on a weekday, before spring training became the $200 million tourism industry it is today. Last year, the Cubs, who’ve played in Hohokam Parks old and new since 1977, set a major league spring training record, drawing 193,993 fans to 16 games. Because of the capacity crowds and modern amenities like a Jumbotron video scoreboard, the new Hohokam Park feels more like a big league stadium than a spring training facility.

These days after the game we chill down in the Cellar Pub at Sun Devil Liquors (235 N. Country Club Dr.) a great place to sample a regional draft beer or any of a wide variety of micro-brews and imports.

Tempe Diablo Stadium
A few miles to the west is Tempe Diablo Stadium, where the scenic vista afforded by the neighboring Tempe Buttes has always been the ballpark’s feature attraction. Spring home to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim since 1984, it was originally opened by the one-year wonder Seattle Pilots in 1969. A $20 million renovation to the stadium and its surroundings will keep the Angels in Tempe for the next 20 years.

We like to walk around this ballpark, watching bikini-clad sunbathers on the grassy berm in the left-field corner and snacking at the numerous concession stands nearby. The bleacher seats behind the bullpen in the right field corner are a popular place for autograph hounds, as players must walk to and from the clubhouse tunnel before and after the game.
From Tempe Diablo, it’s just a short ride to Casey Moore’s Oyster House at the corner of 9th and Ash. This converted antique home is literally a great neighborhood haunt. At least that’s what the locals say. Feel free to ask the bartender or any of the staff for a ghost story, and they’ll probably oblige.

Maryvale Baseball Park
A few years ago, visitors from Milwaukee had to pack up their big tailgate party and move it from the grassy parking lot at Chandler’s Compadre Stadium to a new parking lot in the west Phoenix neighborhood of Maryvale. We used to love Compadre Stadium for its friendly, informal ambience but we’ve come to feel the same way about the Milwaukee Brewers new Maryvale Baseball Park. It’s a bit removed from the other more centrally conglomerated parks in the Valley, but traffic flows freely west on I-10 to the 51st Avenue exit and the reward once you get there is the perhaps the most fan-friendly park in the league. The open-air concourse behind the sunken seating bowl is shaded from above by louvered sunscreens stretching down the first and third base lines. The concourse completely encircles the stadium and the grass seating spans the length of the outfield and sits at a comfortable incline. There are plenty of grilled snacks and variety of beers at easily accessible concession stands from which the game remains in full sight.

Peoria Sports Complex
I remember when Peoria was more of an abstract notion than an actual place, a stretch of vacant lots along the far reaches of Bell Road, something you might pass on a road trip to California. It was almost as obscure as the San Diego Padres former spring training locale of Yuma. Now, Peoria is at the center of what has been the fastest growing part of Arizona for more than a decade.

A testament to visionary thinking, when the Peoria Sports Complex was completed in 1994, the thriving commercial and residential megalopolis that has become the West Valley did not yet exist. A little more than a decade ago the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres entered into a groundbreaking agreement when they decided to break ground together as co-tenants of the then crown jewel of spring training facilities. Since then, Peoria has enjoyed its status among the Cactus League’s leaders in attendance, drawing more than 225,000 fans to 30 games in 2005.

Because two teams call the Peoria Sports Complex home, like Tucson’s Electric Park, there's a game scheduled just about every day. Like Mesa’s Hohokam, the ballpark is big and feels big league. The surrounding concourse has so many concession stands it reminds me of the Arizona State Fairs I used to frequent as a kid.

After the games, both Mariners and Padres fans think The Monastery II (8011 W. Paradise Ln.), located just down the left field line, is Peoria’s best post-game watering hole.

Billy Parker Field
Coming on the heels of Peoria’s success, it was really no “surprise” that two more teams were lured away from their former Florida spring outposts to join the Cactus League in 2003. The sharing of spring training facilities by two teams began with the Mariners and Padres in Peoria and continued when the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago White Sox opened Tucson Electric Park together in 1998. As it enters a season, fans are becoming more familiar with Billy Parker Field, the shared spring training facility of the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers in the west Valley town of Surprise. Twelve practice fields and a pair of practice infields surrounds the main stadium, which looks out on the Bradshaw Mountains. The 10,500-capacity stadium runs the gamut from affordable grass lawn seating to upper-deck club seating and corporate suites, other amenities include batting cages for fans of all ages on the concourse.

Although we’ve been coming to Cactus League games for more than a generation, like the spring season, it still feels brand new every year.


Colorado Rockies
Hi Corbett Field
3400 E. Camino Campestre, Tucson
Tickets: 520-327-9467 or 800-388-ROCK
www.rockies.mlb.com

Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago White Sox
Tucson Electric Park
2500 E. Ajo Way, Tucson
Tickets: 866-672-1343 or 520-434-1367
www.diamondbacks.mlb.com
www.whitesox.mlb.com

Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers
Surprise Stadium/Billy Parker Field
15960 N. Bullard Ave., Surprise
Tickets: 623-594-5600
www.kcroyals.mlb.com
www.rangers.mlb.com

San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners
Peoria Sports Complex
16101 N. 83rd Ave., Peoria
Tickets: 623-878-4337
www.padres.mlb.com
www.mariners.mlb.com

Milwaukee Brewers
Maryvale Baseball Park
3600 N. 51st Ave., Phoenix
Tickets: 414-902-4000 or 800-933-7890
www.brewers.mlb.com

Chicago Cubs
Hohokam Park
1235 N. Center St., Mesa
Tickets: 480-964-4467
www.cubs.mlb.com

Oakland A’s
Phoenix Municipal Stadium
5999 E. Van Buren Rd., Phoenix
Tickets: 510-762-2277
www.athletics.mlb.com

San Francisco Giants
Scottsdale Stadium
7408 E. Osborn Rd., Scottsdale
Tickets: 480-945-8481 or 800-877-1117
www.giants.mlb.com

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Tempe Diablo Stadium
2200 W. Alameda Dr., Tempe
Tickets: 480-784-4444 (Ticketmaster)
www.angels.mlb.com