The weekend started early Friday morning at SFO, catching a morning flight to Phoenix, through Orange County, getting us into Arizona just after 12:30. We got our rental car and headed out to Phoenix Municipal Stadium...arriving in the 2nd inning of the Giants v A's game! WHAT A RIVALRY!
Nice stadium. Older, but an intimate setting. And, as you can see, it has a very Arizona desert feel to it! It was sunny and warm, with temperatures reaching the low 80s during the game. Fine by me! The game was super fun, too! The Giants ended up beating the A's 13-9, not that Spring Training results matter much. I was more excited to see the players. Some old favorites, like Yoenis Cespedes (who seems to be rather intrigued by his shoe):
And also fun to see some of the up and coming prospects, like Michael Choice (who is hitting an absurd 11-18 or something like that this spring):
Once the game ended, we went and checked into our hotel. I will say this about the hotel...it was cheap! But, um...you definitely get what you pay for. The regular beds were very hard, the pull out couch bed had weird stains on its paper thin mattress...no housekeeping...and the place had the faint stench of old cigarette smoke. Not one of our better finds...but, seriously, it was a good 100-150 bucks PER NIGHT cheaper than anything else in the area. So we survived. We took showers (separately), changed clothes, and headed to downtown Phoenix for the Suns vs Hawks basketball game!
Our original seats were up, second to last row in the corner. Then again, they were 6 bucks. Solid by me! We had a fine view!
As you can see...not exactly a full house. If you were paying attention, I said original seats in the sentence above. We headed out after the game started to get some food...and were approached by a nice young lady who asks us "hi, would you like to sit in the lower bowl today." Uh, sure! So we were given tickets from a rather large stack of them and headed down to our new digs. Much more swanky!
Not too bad! Especially for a free upgrade! We'll take it! Provided a nice view of the entertainment as well!
That's The Gorilla. Yes, that's his name. Crude. The Suns game entertainment staff are clearly lacking creativity. All in all, the game was pretty awful. The halftime score was 44-39. Snore. Not exactly what I was hoping for in my first ever NBA in person experience, but still worthwhile!
After the game we consumed the Tilted Kilt across the street. Because nothing says post-game like drinks and finger foods delivered to you by attractive females wearing next to nothing! Indeed. Downtown Phoenix was a nice place, at least. And I caught this cool picture of the moon rising over Chase Field (home of the Diamondbacks).
The next day would see much more of the same hypercompetent consumption of sports. This time, though, we were already in Phoenix...so we headed out to Phoenix Muni earlier. We got there about half an hour before gates opened...and once they did we took in batting practice!
What a studly group of churros! Yup, we're pretty awesome...well, except for that out of place black hat. Crude choice by young Cameron. But I'll let it slide this tim...Oh, look, there's the #10 prospect in all of baseball, shortstop Addison Russell!
Nice! We wandered around taking in all that we could...and came across an official game ball!
Good timing on this find, as well, as a few players came by to sign autographs shortly thereafter! So I ended up getting my newly found baseball signed by prospect Michael Taylor, starting pitcher AJ Griffin, and manager Bob Melvin! Quite the haul, if you ask me!
Eventually, the baseball game started. The A's were playing the Rockies. My favorite player on the A's, Josh Reddick, was playing in this game...so I took pictures of him and his epic beard. In order, there's him roping a single, trotting around the bases on a 3 run home run, and playing the outfield! Consume his greatness!
What a monster. He is currently in a "best beard" contest with one of my favorite WWE wrestlers, Daniel Bryan! Such an awesome guy. The other highlight of the game was getting to see top prospect Sonny Gray pitch. He dominated his two innings.
And the A's won! Woo! Not that results matter...but its nice to see the pitching coming through. After the game we went back to the hotel to change and headed out to Glendale to consume more sports! This time it was hockey, as we attended the Coyotes vs. Ducks game!
Yes, the won the Sharks' division last year. Ah well...they deserved it. They were not crude last year like the Sharks were. For a franchise on the ropes, they had a pretty decent crowd...and a completely enjoyable in arena experience all around! The goal song was perfect (Howlin for You - Black Keys), the teams put on a good show (4-4 through OT), and a shootout win for the home team! Huzzah!
Such a good time. I'd definitely go back to Coyotes games. Well played, Glendale! After the game we consumed some beverages and pizzas at BJs while hanging out with friends and watching sports. A competent evening.
Our last day was spent in Scottsdale, taking in the Giants v. DBacks game at Scottsdale Stadium. Very nice, stadium...although a little crowded. They did appear to be rather pleased with themselves there too. A little too pleased, if you ask me...
Huh, weird, I don't remember any world champions being crowned last year. Whatever. Anyways, the Giants side was rather crowded, so we went to the DBacks side. And, low and behold, Giants 2010 NLCS MVP Cody Ross, now a Diamondback, came by to sign some autographs!
What a guy! I added him to my baseball. Also got to see former Oakland A Cliff Pennington...and former Oakland A Barry Zito was the starting pitcher for the Giants! What a great game to be at as an A's fan!
We consumed this game from the grass open seating area in the outfield!
Ah yeah, rocking the Diamondbacks hat (and my brand new Spring Training t-shirt!). The game was fun...but it was super crowded there. Not as intimate a setting as we found at Phoenix Muni. Much more like an actual game than a true Spring Training experience IMO. But still a wonderful time (and perfect weather). We ended up watching the last few innings from much closer...
Solid! The Giants won, woo hoo for Cam. After the game we went into North Scottsdale and consumed Thai food at Soi4...a spot recommended by ESPN's Keith Law. It was rather delicious. Then it was back to the airport for a quick flight home...
...or so we thought. We get there, and our flight is delayed until 11:30. We were under ATC hold because of fog in SFO. Wonderful. This is why we don't fly in and out of SFO...it's crude weather! We tried to get on some earlier flights to Oakland, to no avail. So we waited...and, well, entertained ourselves!
Hey, if they're gonna keep us there for a crude number of hours, we're going to consume entertainment with some competent wheel chair racing! We did eventually get home to the somewhat foggy (although really not all that bad) SFO...at 1am. Sigh. A crude end to an otherwise hypercompetent weekend!
Seriously, Spring Training was awesome...such a great weekend all around! We've already decided we are going back next year...and next time we're going for a full week! Epic!
That's all for this adventure! Next up, 10 days in Kauai!
Cheers!
2 comments:
Still can't get over Griffin climbing onto the tarp to come sign for us and Taylor's very polite "you're very welcome" responses. Just so cool. Love that THEY seemed to think it was a big deal.
Sounds like a great trip, and some very nice pics! You do need to find another adjective besides "crude"... ;-)
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