Guest Article #4: Baseball in Arizona

Thursday, March 27th - Cubbies vs. White Sox. I have always loved the Cubbies. I remember some of their greats - Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Harry Cary, Andre Dawson, Mark Grace, Greg Maddux & now Sam Fuld. I had been looking forward to going to the new Cubs spring training park on this beautiful, sunny Arizona afternoon. This happened to be the last spring training game for the Cubs this year. It was a very beautiful park with the best scoreboard I had seen that week. The game was sold out. The 20-20 raffle drawing was $28,000 before the split. Coach Huot almost guessed the attendance correctly, 15,000. I think he was one or two off from the exact figure. The doggies were good, the beer was cold & the sun was hot. I asked myself if it could get any better than this. I guess it could if I was on the bench. I was hoping that I would see Theo Epstein, one of the architects of the 2004 World Champion Boston Red Sox. I think I would have had a better chance of winning the lottery. As you walk into the park, there was a replica of the iconic Wrigley Field sign. To my amazement you had to pay to take a picture with family, friends, etc. Come on, man, you have to be kidding! I guess that is why money rises to the top of the economic pyramid for the benefit of a few. All in all, it was a great day to watch a ball game. (Author: Coach Gaff)