Thursday was a low key day. We had breakfast at JB’s, then went shopping for books, toys, and looked at some new housing developments and zipped over to Glendale to look at the antique shops. We had dinner at P.F. Chang’s across from the Fashion Square Mall. The parking is now free in the underground garage and the place was nearly empty at 4pm. The lettuce wraps were as good as we remembered and I liked my Honey Shrimp and the Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc.
Today is Saturday and we are home now and resting up from the drive by listening to Jon Miller and Dave Fleming broadcast today’s game from Scottsdale. The best seats I was able to get for the Friday game against the Athletics (even though it was during the first few minutes they were on sale to non-Charros season ticket holders) was in section 130 row 3 near the right field foul pole. Those seats were way too sunshiny on an 88-degree day, so Tracy sought shelter in the shaded seats behind the plate. Jon and Dave were in the booth right behind our “illegal ticket holder” seats. I had Jon sign his book, Confessions of a Baseball Purist, and he joked about making a “low and outside” call whenever in doubt. Since Dave hadn’t yet written a book, I took his picture, printed it out and had him sign that, bribing him with smuggled in Tootsie Roll Pops—“Thank you for risking your life”. They don’t even let you bring in empty water bottles to Scottsdale Stadium because “you will fill them up”. If you come to spring training, bring enough SEALED bottled water for each person for each game, as one bottle per person is allowed. Most parks won’t allow food (exception Peoria allows a “bag lunch”), so check before you go to avoid a long walk back to your car!
The Giants players were rather stingy with autographs Saturday, and with 11,980 + in attendance, the competition was stiff. I was able to get Mark Sweeny on a photo I had just taken—“What was I saying there?” (“I’m taking fielding practice right now—I’ll catch you later”) Kevin Frandsen, Jason Ellison, and Dan Ortmeier in the Giants Spring Training magazine, and Nick Swisher, Eric Chavez, and Dallas Braden in the Athletics Spring Training magazine. (Each magazine costs $5. The A’s is 52 pages long, while the Giants’ is about 150 pages, and way more interesting and informative). None of the Giants big stars would sign—Zito, Bonds, Durham, Vizquel, Winn were all in the lineup, but they barely looked towards the sidelines while warming up. Willie Mays was there too, and ignoring the fans as usual. We saw Mike Piazza signing beyond the dugout just before the game started. Barry hit his first home run of the spring which went into the practice fields beyond the right field fence. I don’t know how far that is, but it was considerable.
We left the game at 2:30, at the point when the wholesale substitution of players took place. We listened to Jon and Dave call the game on XM radio in the car as we made our slow way home through early rush hour traffic in Scottsdale and Phoenix. We arrived home about 1:30am, even with stopping for a burger and some outlet shopping in Cabazon (near Palm Springs).
The Giants players were rather stingy with autographs Saturday, and with 11,980 + in attendance, the competition was stiff. I was able to get Mark Sweeny on a photo I had just taken—“What was I saying there?” (“I’m taking fielding practice right now—I’ll catch you later”) Kevin Frandsen, Jason Ellison, and Dan Ortmeier in the Giants Spring Training magazine, and Nick Swisher, Eric Chavez, and Dallas Braden in the Athletics Spring Training magazine. (Each magazine costs $5. The A’s is 52 pages long, while the Giants’ is about 150 pages, and way more interesting and informative). None of the Giants big stars would sign—Zito, Bonds, Durham, Vizquel, Winn were all in the lineup, but they barely looked towards the sidelines while warming up. Willie Mays was there too, and ignoring the fans as usual. We saw Mike Piazza signing beyond the dugout just before the game started. Barry hit his first home run of the spring which went into the practice fields beyond the right field fence. I don’t know how far that is, but it was considerable.
We left the game at 2:30, at the point when the wholesale substitution of players took place. We listened to Jon and Dave call the game on XM radio in the car as we made our slow way home through early rush hour traffic in Scottsdale and Phoenix. We arrived home about 1:30am, even with stopping for a burger and some outlet shopping in Cabazon (near Palm Springs).
Vacations are always too short--we didn't get to Pizzeria Bianco or to Cowboy Ciao for some special meals this year--but it was fun to get a head start on baseball and our tans!
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