Having grown up in Arlington, Texas, my team is the Texas Rangers. I don't understand people (you know who you are) who root for someone other than the home team if they have no connection to that city. I have never been to Cleveland so why would I ever be a Cleveland Indians fan? I wouldn't. It hasn't always been easy to be a Rangers fan, even when they have a good season but that is part of being a fan. You aren't a real fan if you are only on board when things are going well.
My research immediately tells me that I won't be seeing the Rangers. Though they play in Surprise, a drivable distance from Phoenix, all of their games start around 1 in the afternoon. I am in Phoenix for a conference related to my job and although I am here alone and there is no one to rat me out, it feels wrong to bail when my company is paying a lot of good money for me to be here. (Later, my boss - who is a Rangers fan - said he totally would have supported my going and that may actually have been that true but I didn't put that to the test so we will never know.)
David and I had a good experience at a Giants game last year, I love San Francisco as a city and the Giants play in Scottsdale at night so I decide to go ahead and get a ticket to go.
Just to prove I was at the conference...
I find this totally distracting. I am trying to listen to what the speaker is saying and this woman is furiously typing emails. Half the people in the room are typing on iPads or on their phones and I have serious doubts that much of it is business related.
After sitting inside all day watching people check their Facebook status, I am ready to be outside. And after being late for the boat the day before, I left nothing to chance.
I arrive over an hour before the game.
I had a lot of expectations for spring training. You hear stories about people taking weeks off and taking the whole family to experience this.
Now having been...I don't get it. I didn't see the draw. I enjoy baseball games and I like to go to live games but I expected more excitement, more buzz, more....something. It was just a game in a smaller stadium. Some big name players played, some new people played, some people who won't be on the team on opening day played.
In this case, Lincecum is on the mound for the Giants. I don't normally follow the Giants but at least I know who he is. The Padres were the visiting team and though most fans here were Giants fans there were still some obnoxious Padres fans in the section in front of me. That's the same as any regular season game.
Something else is the same...the food. I spent $18 on a regular size hot dog, a water bottle and popcorn. The ticket to the game was $29 and parking was $10 so I spent nearly $60 on this outing.
I hate to say that I would be less likely to take a vacation to spring training in the future because I know David would still like to go someday. So if he wants to, I will go and eat my $5 hot dog and cheer on the home team. But if he decides to stay home, I will happily make him $5 worth of hot dogs.
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