Spring Training!

I met my father in Phoenix for the weekend last week. We had fun!

Dad was worried because the weather reports said "Showers with possible thunderstorms". I have live in the West long enough to know that this means that there might be some rain, and even a thunderstorm, but even then, they would be short-lived. I told him to come on.

We went to the Royals-Rangers game in Surprise first. I saw one of my fantasy baseball players live when I had no idea what he looked like before. Calvin Pickering is a huge, African-American man. I had no idea. He hit the ball real hard, but he was called out for passing a base runner on a would-be grand slam. When you are on the bubble like Pickering is (KC seems to think that hitting is not important), you can't afford those kind of mistakes! Rangers won, largely because of this play.

Surprise complex seems really new and clean. The Royals and Rangers share it; there were a lot of fans for both teams. I think that Dad and I annoyed the people around us, though; I gabbed the entire game.

This was also the first opportunity that I could use the Canon 20D camera my wife gave me for my birthday. However, I got no pictures, because I took in the cheap, 3rd party long lens my friend Paul gave me a while back. That lens evidently doesn't talk to the camera right; the camera would display "Err 99" whenever I pressed the shutter.

After the game, we decided to go into Scottsdale to find dinner. After wondering around, we finally settled on a place that smelled pretty good, call the Salty Señorita. We almost regretted this. It was tacky, and a college meat market. The first person who greeted us made us wait for a real hostess. We were seated immediately, but they did not have my dad's first choice, nor my first two choices. We resigned ourselves to mediocre food, especially when the chips came out. They were dripping in grease.

When our entrees arrived, however, we were blown away! They were great!

Presentation: 1 Food: 8

We went back to our hotel, and watched TV. We watched The PeaceMakers, an action film starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. Dad's comment was "this movie was well done, technically". My comment was "Kidman looks better as a brunette." We both thought the plot was silly; I had seen this in the theater, and was not impressed either.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites near the Airport. The suite was really nicely laid out and appointed, but the building is starting to get tired. There are rust stains on the drains, etc. The free breakfast was good, though, and the short order cook was fun.

On Sunday, we went to the Angels-A's game at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. First, however, we stopped by the A's training complex. It was deserted. I guess the minor leaguers have not started yet.

The A's game was awful. Outfield error by Swisher, infield error by Ginter, a mediocre start by Etherton, and horrid relief pitching. The final painful total was Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 17, Oakland 4. We got two safeties; I guess we had that going for us. (For those of you who are Baseball Prospectus premium subscribers, Johan Keri has a good writeup here.)

It's spring, however, and hanging outside, in a relaxed small ballpark watching baseball with my Dad was pure joy.

We once again struggled to find a place for dinner. We ended up at this Italian place (Lorenzo's? Pizza) in Tempe. Once again, we were not impressed by the facilities; it was a converted Dairy Queen. But the food was really good.

What a nice way to spend a weekend.