Best seats in the house

As I indicated in my last post, although we saw lots of neat things, and did lots of neat things, over our long weekend in Phoenix, baseball was the primary attraction.

Not surprisingly, the weather was perfect, as you can see above. And we thoroughly enjoyed the games, the parks, the fans, and just the general spring-time surroundings. When every team, it seems, is a potential pennant-winner.

Our first game Sunday was at Scottsdale Stadium, spring home of the Giants (which alert readers will note we saw last summer in their real home in San Francisco. The weather was much more pleasant this time, even if the views were not as spectacular.)

nice, but not exactly San Francisco Bay

We opted for both games to buy lawn tickets, not only because they're the cheapest in the park, but also because it's fun to sit out there. (Price was definitely an object at the Giants game; we feel that they charge unconscionably high prices for everything. From $7 bottles of water to $25 "seats" on the lawn! By contrast,

the Rockies' lawn "seats" were only $11. And the water was only $6.) I mean, I can't remember when I last walked barefoot on grass. Ours at home is usually not all that comfortable, even when it's been recently watered.

The Giants park had one huge amenity that, perhaps, almost justified those sky-high prices: trees. As you saw in my last post, it was just about the pleasantest thing in the world to lie back on the grass and look up at the trees in between innings. Even though the view was somewhat obstructed when there was action going on:

Although it's not as bad as this picture indicates. All you have to do is stand up and you can see the field just fine. And standing up occasionally is a very good idea for old joints and bones that aren't used to sitting cross-legged for lengths of time.

Plus, it was most crowded early in the game...

...in the later innings, when a lot of the not-real-fans had left, we moved forward to the front of the berm and had both shade and a view.

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The Rockies' park the next day (which they share with the D-backs during the spring) lacked the trees, but in all other respects (including prices) was a much better experience.

What a gorgeous place! And the lawns are about 4 or 5 times as big. Plenty of room for everyone, with no crowding; and they're steeper, too, so there's virtually no view-obstructing.

The rest of the park was equally well-designed and fun to stroll around in. There was imaginative and lovely landscaping...

interesting native plants adorn the batters' eye

the yellow foul pole looks perfectly matched with the Palo Verde blossoms

...all they need to do is plant some trees out on those expanses of lawn!

The stadium is officially called Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. And unlike some other stadium/team names with "at this" and "at that" in their names, this time it actually makes some sense. It's part of the Talking Stick resort that's on Native American land, specifically the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Community. (You might

notice on the website a motto: "Two Tribes, Two Teams, One Home," that refers to the fact that the Rockies and Dbacks share the facility.) 

One of the other attractions on the property is a very nice-looking hotel that we are considering using as a base of operations for future spring training trips. There's also a couple of golf courses, and what looks like a full calendar of events when spring baseball isn't happening there.

(I was a little disappointed and surprised that the park's website didn't have more information about the tribes and the location's uniqueness. There's a little more information in this Wikipedia article. But they do have a nice marker out front that identifies the tribes and explains what a "talking stick" is. Here's the ever-helpful Wikipedia article on that subject.)

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Watching the fans is always an attraction by itself at ball games, and spring training games are especially good people-watching venues. Most of the folks at these games are real fans, and they aren't shy about showing their loyalty...

Giants fan with appropriate-colored hair

Rockies fan (his face was covered in purple, too)

Giants fan who might need to watch the ballpark calories

Giants fans taking selfies

It's great to see baseball fans from all over the country, coming out to support their teams. But these were my favorite fans...I really appreciated being included in this burgeoning spring tradition of theirs!

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Stay tuned for more about our non-baseball Phoenix activities.