Sobsequy: Notable NL M... (02/27)
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February 27, 2013 Punk HitsA Love (Hate) Letter From ArizonaIf you set out to design a place that I would hate, it would look a lot like Arizona. It’s got natural beauty, sure, but it’s usually way too hot, or too cold, to enjoy. Everything is spread out, Houston- or Los Angeles-style; you have to drive everywhere to get anywhere. And once you get there, odds are “there” is a prefab thing conceived by a team of hospitality management experts. People carry guns and drive enormous trucks and elect Joe Arpaio sheriff over and over. But they also have baseball nearly year-round, and that more than makes up for all its shortcomings. I will brave the bro-laden concourses of Old Town Scottsdale to get my fix. And so Tracy and I have made the pilgrimage again this year. The culture shock usually begins when we touch down at Sky Harbor. I have full sleeves of tattoos, which are pretty much ubiquitous in Oakland, CA. When you move to the Bay Area, you’re issued a band, a job at a record store or coffee shop, and tattoos. (You can opt for job-blockers -- hand and neck tattoos -- but I never felt the need.) Apparently this trend has not yet taken hold elsewhere in the world, as my fellow travelers seem to regard me with a mix of revulsion (80 percent) and wonderment (20 percent). We collect our rental car which, for reasons I can’t explain, costs $6 a day. And it’s not like a Kia or a Le Car; it’s a Jetta. Six dollars! With taxes and fees the total comes out to around $85 for the six days we’re here, but still. I hold on to the $6/day figure as a small but important consumer victory. Home base for this trip is the Hyatt Place in Old Town Scottsdale. We’ve stayed here on and off since it opened a few years back; it’s pricy, but the location and amenities are unbeatable. It seems like every other year we forget this and try staying someplace else -- someplace cheaper and further from Scottsdale Stadium -- and every other year, we regret it. So we’re back at the Place this year, and it’s lovely.
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Pre-Season Positional Rankings: Top 50 Fanta...
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Really enjoyed this, Ian.
I attended ST in AZ for the first time last year, and like Adrian, was totally weirded out by players running on the warning track during the games. I certainly get that, "the games are meaningless, who cares?", but, on the other hand, there are acres and acres and acres of practice fields immediately surrounding the field, so why not use those and avoid the heckling as well as the risk of colliding with drifting outfielders?