World of Baseball: Arizona: Part 2

Back again for part two, surprise! (That was really corny and I'm sorry...) Part 2 takes us to Surprise, Arizona, home of Surprise Stadium. During spring training, this stadium is home to the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals.

I'm just gonna jump right into the game on this one...

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim vs Texas Rangers

Angels 9  Rangers 10  F/9

Rangers pitchers warming up on the practice fields before the game

Yu Darvish (11), Joakim Soria (28), Embarrassed to say I don't know... (61)

Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez

Rangers manager, Ron Washington

Several Angels players warming up, including, Mike Trout, Albert Pujols,  Peter Bourjos, and Howie Kendrick

Angels manager, Mike Scioscia

Mark Trumbo

Peter Bourjos

Mark Trumbo

View from my seat

Final score

My uncle and I

View from left field

Surprise Stadium sign

This was a very fun and exciting game. Before it even began though, the fun really started. My family and I went to the practice fields to try and get autographs. Ian Kinsler was my favorite Texas Ranger, with David Murphy coming in at a close second. I got them both to sign their cards as well as got autographs from Josh Lindbloom and Mitch Moreland.

Josh Lindbloom and Mitch Moreland

Ian Kinsler

David Murphy

As you can see from the picture of the scoreboard, lots of runs were scored and the game kept going back and forth. Add in a bunch of minor leaguers who weren't on the rosters and the game went downhill from there. Well, for me anyway. I was just learning how to use an iPad to keep score. I definitely prefer the paper method for these types of games.

Now on to Part 3. Stay tuned for that! Thanks for reading

World of Baseball: Arizona: Part 1

Long time, no write... First of all I hope 2014 is going well. I haven't written in a while for a few reasons. One being I'm back in school, going five days a week. Only two classes each day though... Ah, college. The second reason being that I just haven't had much time. Enough about that though.

This is the first of a planned five posts about Arizona baseball. Part one will cover my trip to Peoria, Arizona in the fall of 2012, for an Arizona Fall League game, as well as a Giants vs Padres 2013 spring training game. Part two will cover my trip to Surprise, Arizona where I watched the Angels play the Rangers. Part three takes us to Glendale for two games at Camelback Ranch. Game one features the Reds and Dodgers, while game two is White Sox vs Dodgers. Part four is a Cubs vs Indians game in Goodyear and part five shows off Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, as well as some other pieces of Arizona.

Before 2012, I had only been to Arizona once. It was a vacation with my family when I was about nine or ten. I distinctly remember a few things about it. One of the most memorable was our hotel, which had an incredible pool, water slide, and lazy river, not to mention the amazing peach smoothies... Second was a seemingly never ending thunderstorm that we attempted to play mini golf in. We got through one round and called it quits. Luckily we ended it when we did, or we would've been playing in a torrential downpour. Third, my favorite memory, even if it wasn't as appealing at the time, was my first out of state baseball game. It was the Diamondbacks vs the Houston Astros. If I can recall correctly, the Astros ended up winning that one, but I was happy anyway, since I walked out of the stadium with a purple foam finger. Fast forward to 2012 and there I was in Arizona again. This time for my younger sister's softball tournament. I knew about the Arizona Fall League before the trip and made sure I was able to sneak in a game and I am so happy I did.

Mesa Solar Sox vs Peoria Javelinas
Solar Sox 11 Javelinas 8 F/9

Houston Astros OF prospect, George Springer

Seattle Mariners Admin. Offices

Peoria Stadium, spring training home of the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres

Me in front of the stadium

My AFL ticket
I got to sit anywhere I wanted for $6. Can you say bargain?

Autograph seekers, right field

View from the outfield grass seating area

view from my seat behind home plate

Dodger prospect (now Rockies prospect) Rafael Ynoa

Phillies catching prospect, Tommy Joseph 

Dodger catching prospect, Gorman "Griff" Erickson

Padres infield prospect (now Cubs), Jeudy Valdez

Yankees pitching prospect, Josh Spence

Seattle Mariners pitching prospect, Logan Bawcom

Found a friend in the stands, so I went and sat with him for a few innings.
It was chilly, but the view was amazing

George Springer

Take a close look at the 7th inning to see Mesa's 7 run inning

 So I knew I'd be going to this game, but I didn't know just how exciting it would be. I was rooting for the Solar Sox and knew how good the Javelinas were, so I honestly wasn't expecting much... Going into the 7th, we were down 6-2. I was seriously shocked when we rallied for 7 runs. Most people don't really pay much attention to the prospects, but games like these really show what these guys can do.

I'm gonna move this forward about four months now, which will take us to March of 2013. We remain in Peoria as we see the Giants play the Padres.
Giants (SS) vs Padres
Giants 6 Padres 4 F/9

Members of the Giants warming up before the game

Padres prospect
Unfortunately, I can't recall who this is... I believe it's Tommy Medica, so I'll stick with that 

Padres infielder, Alexi Amarista

Giants win

Final score

View of the field from the third base line

My uncle and I

Giants OF prospect, Gary Brown

looking in towards home plate

Ticket signed by Giants infield prospect, Ricky Oropesa

Game program

In case you didn't guess from the above picture, I was rooting for Alexi Amarista and the Padres. Regardless of the score though, it was a good game and a great start to my first spring training trip!

Stay tuned for part two of World of Baseball: Arizona and keep counting down the days until spring training 2014. I know I am!

A Baseball Christmas

Before I go into what this post is about, I would just like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! With it being the start of 2014, we now can see that baseball really is just around the corner again. Before we know it, it will be Spring Training and then the regular season! Before we get there though, I'd like to share some of the baseball related gifts I was blessed with this past holiday season.

As someone who's been around the game her entire life, yes, all 18 years of it, and was never all that good at physically playing, scorekeeping has become a big and important way for me to connect to baseball.

After previously owning several one team per page scorebooks, I was lucky to receive two scorebooks this year that have the score sheets for both teams on one page. I can't wait to finally use it!

Did I mention I was a Phillies fan? I became one during the 2009 World Series, which was the first time I really sat down and watched it since about 2004. There was no way I was rooting for the Yankees and the Phillies second baseman, Chase Utley, was hitting the ball like nobody's business, so I chose to root for the Phils. I've been a fan ever since, going to San Diego and Los Angeles anytime they visit.

I love baseball and I love books, both reading them and writing them, but I had no clue this book existed, so when I pulled it from the cover of wrapping paper, I was instantly curious to read it.

I used to attempt to make hook rugs when I was little, but never finished one, so now I have a chance to redeem myself with this Dodgers hook pillow!

You may not be able to tell from the picture, but that baseball is actually a puzzle. It was fun to put together and makes for a great decoration. I'm sure if I glued it together, I could even toss it around a bit.

Nothing says "ring in the new year" quite like a Dodgers 2014 calendar. Not to mention my favorite former Dodger, Luis Cruz is in it! I still wear my Cruz 47 jersey often. We miss you Cochito! 

I've been collecting baseball cards for a really long time and have been keeping them in these three binders. The first binder is full and the second is near capacity. The blue one is for special cards like my favorite players or teams. It also holds all of my ticket stubs that I've kept over the years. I plan to eventually separate the cards by league, National in the black binder and American in the red. 

Here's another view of the binders to give you a better idea of just how many cards I own. My autographed card collection is not among these by the way. They are displayed on my wall in a frame as well as plastic inserts. In fact, an entire wall in my room is dedicated to autographs. Mostly by baseball players, but I also have a few from drag racing stars. 

In all honesty, I have no clue who this is, but the fact that it's an authentic autographed card makes me extremely happy!

I got 105 cards this Christmas and I love every single one of them. Below are some of my favorites. 

Jamie Moyer, Luis Alicea

Mike Scioscia, Don Mattingly

John Franco, Odalis Perez

Gregg Jefferies

Manny Ramirez, Joe Mather

Ty Cobb, Brandon Boggs

I also got a new camera so I can take a ton of pictures for the blog. I can't wait to use it during Spring Training! 

So that was my 2013 baseball Christmas! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for World of Baseball: Arizona, a 5 part series covering the 2012 AFL, 2013 Spring Training, and Chase Field, home of the Diamondbacks.