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BUCKY FOX |
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in the DESERT |
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Between baseball, tennis,
there's a whole lot to see
By BUCKY FOX
of TheColumnists.com
Get out your 2005 planner. Block out the first week of March. Promise yourself you’ll head for Phoenix for spring training and pro tennis.
Because baseball and tennis in Arizona are sizzling while most of the country is freezing. And you’ll enjoy the sports time of your life.
I did the baseball-tennis swing through the desert this March. It was my first spring training experience. My first live look at Andy Roddick. And I’m hooked.
As the sports world escapes the stifling boredom of February and steps into the freedom of March, Phoenix rises to become the hot spot for one solid week.
First, the men’s pro tennis tournament in the Phoenix sister town of Scottsdale signals the start of the U.S. spring hard-court season. America’s young studs turn out, and that includes Roddick, James Blake and Robby Ginepri. You see those dudes pound the ball, and three words spring to mind: America is back.
Second, baseball’s spring training season opens. This is sport at its finest: young players you don’t know from left field sweating to make the big leagues. And five months after the Marlins washed out the Yankees in the World Series, you’re thirsting for the sport you grew up with.
The Phoenix grid is so simple, you can steer from tennis to baseball stadiums in a breeze. Fellow newspaperman Steve Watkins and I drove to three baseball games and the tennis tourney in two days, and we had plenty of time to gorge ourselves at the best Mexican restaurant you’ll find, Macayo in Scottsdale. Keep that place in mind next year.
After our March through Arizona, here are highlights:
Tempe’s Diablo Stadium, home of the Anaheim Angels. Vladimir Guerrero is the best-looking nonsteroid player in history. The Angels landed one major specimen when they signed him in the off-season. He immediately looked worth every million by bashing hits in his first two times up.
While the Angels beat San Diego 8-7, I marveled at two Padre people. The manager, Bruce Bochy, is the high priest of throwbacks. He hangs on to his job despite fielding losing teams year after year. No other coach manages to pull off that combination. Then there was a fan named Teresa. When she wasn’t shooting photos of Padres, she was reciting San Diego baseball trivia. Her husband, Dave, wore a serious smile.
Mesa’s HoHoKam Park, home of the Chicago Cubs. This team sports the most maniacal fans in baseball. Period. Here we are on a sunny Saturday in the middle of sand and cactus, and somehow 12,000 Cub followers find their team. And how long has it been since they won a World Series? Before the Titanic’s tilt? You’d think these fans would tire of the Cubs’ nontitle routine. You’d be wrong. The stadium rocked to the Cubs’ 5-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants with the sound of a playoff game.
Those fans especially bellowed during a crazy Giant catch. Left fielder Todd Linden made it after crashing against the fence and bobbling it. Cub baserunner Trenidad Hubbard got confused during the juggling act and got thrown out at the plate. Out came Cub manager Dusty Baker, replete in his French Foreign Legion hat, to bitch and moan. Didn’t do any good, except to turn on those Cub legions.
Sometimes you wonder whether that huge following is healthy. As long the Cubs keep selling out tickets, they hardly have incentive to win it all. The standard is Florida, where fans treat the team like a leper when it loses. Then they packed it when the Marlins win. Result: two World Series championships since 1997.
Maryvale Baseball Park, home of the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers are that obscure or I’m out of it, but I was familiar with only one player in their split-squad starting lineup: Craig Counsell, the shortstop who won championships with the Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks. It’s been 22 years since the Brewers reached the World Series, and if they make it this year, you have the scoop of the century. Then again, they nailed Texas 8-3 on this night, and I’m picking the Rangers to win the American League West.
You want two familiar Brewer names? Tony Gwynn Jr. and Prince Fielder, sons of former mega-hitters. Both appeared late in the game. Gwynn looked stout at the plate. Fielder played like a good one at first base. He also packs plenty of power, bringing back memories of dad Cecil. Prince pounded 27 homers in A ball last year. He and Gwynn will stay in the minors awhile, but look for them next year in the majors.
This was a quiet evening, since hardly any fans were there. One woman who was had the misfortune to sit near the field--and got hit by a broken bat. She survived, maybe because a big dude in front of her provided enough interference. He was Green Bay Packer receiver Javon Walker, who knows something about catching and baseball. He was drafted by the Marlins in 1997 and rose as high as AA before sticking with football. Not that he was thinking of a baseball comeback. When a fan yelled after the flying bat, “Catch it, Javon, it’s like a football,” he responded, “Man, I ain’t catchin’ nothin’.”
The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, home of the Franklin Templeton Men’s Tennis Classic. Andy Roddick is the reigning U.S. Open champion, and it shows when he plays. People hardly showed up the day before to watch French Open runner-up Martin Verkerk of Holland. They nearly filled the stands for the top American. Roddick returned the favor by beating Jan-Michael Gambill in three sets.
Roddick is a showman. He griped loudly in the McEnroe tradition when he couldn’t handle Gambill early in the match. Then Roddick became all business and rallied to win. The crowd loved the show. Especially young shirtless guys in the upper deck. The letters on their chests spelled Roddick. It paid off, because afterward he met them for high fives and photos.
By then, it was a cold night in the desert. Sports were only just warming up.
©2004 by Bucky Fox. The illustration is modified from one in IMSI's Master Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA.
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