Author: harrylange

Today was our third straight day of baseball.
We went to Peoria a little earlier so we could visit the practice fields.  
Edgar was working with some of the team

while Servais was throwing batting practice.

Oh, how I wanted to ask Edgar if that was a light bat.

We also saw Dave Sims and Mike Blowers doing some sort of TV segment and than

Blowers walked down the fence signed balls until everyone was gone.
We then walked out to some of the fields where the farm team players were practicing.

There were four group rotating around four field practicing different skills.  I thinks there were 30 to 32 people in each group.

This group was practicing fly balls and how to communicate who was going to catch the ball.  It is actually quite difficult when everyone is trying to stand out to the coaches.  The ball hogs really stood out as we were watching.  They go long distances to get the fly and leave their position uncovered and allow base runners to advance.

This group was working on covering a bunt.   Another field was working on getting ground balls into the outfield back into the bases and the last field was working on handling a runner going from second to third and covering a run down.

Rick Waits (pitching coach) was walking around watch and talking to fans.

Today’s line up with Felix pitching.

Our seats, in the area just past the dug out.
Section 115
Row G
Seats 11, 12

First pitch at Spring Training for Felix.

Second pitch, and then it want down hill.   Felix pitched 2 and a third innings and they got a three of runs off of him.

This is today’s attendance.

The unhappy totals.  We actually lost two games today because this was a split squad game day.

Today’s line up.

Section 109
Row M
Seats 11, 12

Before the game we walked over to the practice fields.  The players had all left except for Cano who was getting his picture taken.

You would think if a player can be driving one of these the team would give him covered parking.

Felix is pitching tomorrow however he stood and signed balls and hats until the game started.

The park had some sort of promotion going on for the kids.

Two kids stood at each position and then the person who was playing that position signed a ball for each of them.

Now explaining to the kids it was time for a baseball game to start and they had to go back to their parents was a challenge for some of the players.

Oh yea, the hotdog won today.

Edgar and Servais spend a lot of time like this.

Today’s attendance.

Not so great totals.

And I have not had an Arizona sunset in a while.   Another great day at Spring Training.

Today’s line up.

Section 111
Row M
Seats 1, 2

This is one of two night games, started at 7:40, I enjoyed the lack of sun.

This guy has got come cameras with him.

These two, Cano and Cruz have been coming in on a cart most days.   Cano is sure having a better start than he did last year.

You can see the respect they get from the other team members.

We have been a little slow in the base running.

Tonight’s attendance.

And the Happy Totals.

Today’s lineup.
And today’s seats.  Again sunny and 90

Section 111
Row N
Seats 11, 12

The mascot winner.

And I got a few more pictures today.

Miley was the opening pitcher.

Cano got a couple of hits.

Even Lind got a couple of hits today.

Base running was a little slow.

At least this one was a little closer.

Attendance for the day.

And the Happy Totals, notice the 15 hits.
Another great day at the ball park.  Next game is Saturday night with a 7:40 start.

Today’s line up:
Our seats for the day.  Sunny and 90.
Section 115
Row C
Seats 11, 12

Final got Seager doing something, not Seager’s fault, the third base coach was standing in the way most of the time.

We got him on this steal.

Hotdog wins again.

Happy totals for the day.

Monday baseball against the Diamondbacks.  As we were driving into the parking lot the car got hit by a baseball ( thank goodness for plastic side panels ). It took me a while to figure out BOOM was a baseball hitting the side of the car.  The guy behind us saw the ball hit the car and he got the ball.
Section 114
Row H
Seats 11, 12
At the end of the DBacks dugout and one row back.

Nothing is for sure at Spring Training, even the daily lineup is on a whiteboard.

Paxton’s first pitch of the day.

Yes Seager you need to run them all out, it is good practice and baseball is all about practice.

A lonely ball :-(.

ust before Cruz gives it a ride.

Hotdog wins today.

Like I said it pays to run them all out.

I got our flag up today.

Here are our seats for today:

Section 110
Row N
Seats 11, 12

Right behind home plate in the next to the last row of this section.  Set behind a San Diego Scout Spencer Graham and some guy with the Mariners ( don’t know what he does maybe a scout, seemed to be only timing home plate to first base).

Got a couple of pictures of the radio announcers,
And of course Cano,
Watching him move is amazing, he does not waste any energy by make unnecessary movements and he looks smooth when the pictures isn’t even moving.  With all of this he is always in the right place at the right time.
Even at spring training they have mascot races.
Edgar always has his eyes on this hitters.
Oh, wait a minute, maybe he doesn’t always.  This is when they don’t do what he asked them to do.

Ok, so it is not a challenge to get a picture of Seager hitting the ball, but it is fun.
Another nice sunny day in Phoenix/Peoria/Goodyear I think it got to 90 today.
Fun game to watch, we started out with three runs and fell back into the 2015 season when things just didn’t go well in the 7th.

Today was our FIRST Spring Training baseball game.   We had a great time.

Section 110
Row L
Seats 6,7

This is where we sat.  We have seats for this area again on Saturday.

One things we forgot was our radar gun.  Everyone else in front of us had one.  Our seats were one row back from all the scouts (or at least a lot of them) who attended the game.

It was fun to watch, the pitcher would wind up, all the radar guns would go up, pitcher would throw the ball, you’d hear the ball hit the catcher’s glove and all the scouts heads would go down at the same time as they made a note of the speed.   Looks like they all had the same type and model of gun and they would ALL record/measure the same speed.

I only took a couple of hundred pictures, here are a few:
Got to have beer.
We were close to the field so it was hard to get good pictures of our announcers.
Our new skipper starting his first game.
Remember this guy?  Here he is getting his first hit of the season.
Today’s attendance.
Happy numbers for the day.  It is fun to watch them win on a 90+ degree day in March.
We had a great time and next game is Saturday.  Seattle and SanDiego play again on Thursday 3/3 however it is home game for SanDiego and when I purchased tickets I got tickets for all the Seattle home games ( less the April 1st game, we leave here March 31).   Anyway looks like a fun March.