PHOENIX – I've officially hit the part of this Spring Training trip where my body wants to be home in Milwaukee now.
Fortunately, my body will just have to wait another 30 hours.
If you've read my other Spring Training blogs, you know that we don't exactly take it easy out here, but I'd have it no other way. Yesterday was no exception.
We drove out to Glendale to watch the Brewers take on the Dodgers at the two-year-old Camelback Ranch stadium, and like Friday, I was completely blown away by these new facilities. The Dodgers' stadium is more like a campus with beautiful and unique desert-inspired design. Sadly, these new ballparks make the Brewers' stadium look minor-league at best. With the lease at Maryvale coming to an end soon, the team will have to figure something out moving forward. While I like Maryvale on one level, it simply cannot compete with these stunning new places, and if the Brewers are to stay in the Cactus League, they'll need to recruit a team from Florida to share a new ballpark.
On the field, we watched the Brewers battle the Dodgers to a tie, though we couldn't stay for the entire game. We did see Randy Wolf make a solid start, allowing two runs in 5 2/3 innings of work.
We had to leave early to get to Scottsdale for the OnMilwaukee.com Brewers fan tweet up at Dos Gringos, and the party went very well. It's hard to say how many people were there because of us, but we talked to at least 20, and I was happy to run into old friends and strangers, alike. Adam McCalvy from MLB.com brought his crew, and Joseph Maar from Fox Sports Wisconsin dropped in. For a first effort, we had a really nice time. We ran into friends from Milwaukee, and our group grew to about 10.
Since we were in the neighborhood, we moved the evening along with a trip to Mulligan's and the amazingly retro Hotel Valley Ho and Trader Vic's. Then, we met up with new Phoenix friends at The Lodge, which was the first time I'd been to this Wisconsin-esque bar.
Today, we're all dragging a little, but we'll head to Maryvale to watch the Brewers take on the Reds. Hopefully, tonight will be a bit more low-key (but probably won't) before we catch one more game tomorrow and head home.
I wouldn't call this trip relaxing, exactly. But in an exhilarating, baseball sort of way, it's definitely soothing my soul.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
