Our flight left Cincinnati on Saturday at 7pm, and we got into Phoenix at around 930pm. After all the times we have been to Phoenix, this was the first time we actually flew in with the city being our destination. Little did we know that their airport is HUGE, so we had to do a lot of walking! But after getting our bags and picking up our car rental, we were off to our resort. We chose to stay at the Doubletree Resort in Scottsdale for a few reasons. One being, we've stayed there before and the grounds are beautiful, and two, we were planning on going to 3 Brewers games, one of them being in Scottsdale. We also wanted to explore downtown Scottsdale on the baseball off-days! It's a cute area.
By the time we got to our room at the resort, it was about 1030pm, and I wasn't even thinking about the fact it was 130am in Cincinnati! We came to find out that the air conditioning was broken, so Robbie especially didn't get much sleep that night, but we were able to move rooms the following morning!
Sunday morning we had a little time to settle in, and then we were off to American Family Fields of Phoenix, previously called Maryvale the last time we were there, the Spring home of the Milwaukee Brewers. Since we were at this facility in 2018, a complete overhaul was done on the entirety of the grounds, and I could already tell the differences! They did a great job renovating the main field, the practice facilities, and adding strength and conditioning buildings. I think it flows much better, and is more asthetically pleasing to its desert surroundings!
When we arrived, the minor leaguers were still doing drills in the backfieds, and how the main parking lot is set up, all fans have to walk past all the practice fields, so Robbie and I took a seat on a hillside and just watched the familiar nuances of baseball: hitting, pitching, fielding, etc. My, how we have missed this!
Going into this trip there were also a few minor leaguers that we wanted to zero in on for autographs, the biggest one being Jackson Chourio, the Brewers #1 prospect. We also wanted the autographs from Joey Wiemer, Sal Frelick, and Brice Turang. It just so happened that as we were sitting down on the hillside, Jackson Chourio was walking back from one of the fields, and everyone just swarmed him. He doesn't speak much English, so when I asked him to sign the sweet spot of the ball, he just said "no", and proceeded to sign below the rounded seams. I told Robbie that he wouldn't sign the sweet spot, so he went up and tried, to no avail as well. So it's either his preference to not sign the sweet spot, or he knows his own value and doesn't want people to re-sell his autographs on a secondary market. So, we left with 2 of his signed balls, and a photo with Chourio. Not bad!
We then made out way to the main field, got tickets, then went to our seats. That day, we got tickets a few rows back from the visitors dugout. We felt that there would be less fans sitting on that side, even though the Brewers were playing the hometown Arizona Diamondbacks. We had time before the game started to walk around the stadium, and purchase some shirts from the team store! After we settled into our seats, it was gametime!
The Diamondbacks and Brewers both scored 3 runs in the 6th, and 1 run in the 9th, ending in a tie. Regular season games never end in a tie, but Spring Training games can. I dont remember ever being at a game that ended in a tie, so that was pretty cool!
First look at Jackson Chourio
Jackson Chourio
After the game, we headed back to our hotel for the rest of the evening, as all baseball activities had ended at the fields for the day. Sunday also marked our tradition of starting to watch our baseball movies leading up to Opening Day! First one up was Million Dollar Arm! We brought our Roku just for this purpose!
Monday morning we woke up and spent some time in the hottub before we left! It was wonderful to be in a warm climate and enjoy the outdoors in the morning! Afterwards, we headed to the Brewers fields again, and this day they were taking on the Colorado Rockies. We got to this game early as well and stuck around the backfields until the players were finished, then got tickets. This time we got our tickets for the shade on the first base side, as the previous day we were in the sun, but luckily we didn't get burnt! I decided this day to create a personalized jersey. I thought about what name I wanted on the back, and I came to the conclusion that I wanted a player from the Era of when I first became a fan of the Brewers, and I settled on Geoff Jenkins! He was the player that stood out to me the most, so it was a more sentimental purchase! I'm excited to wear it to a game!
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We were seated behind a couple from Wisconsin who goes to Phoenix every year for a few weeks, and they were telling us how cold the weather had been at the beginning of Spring Training and just started to warm up! They also suggested a local Wisconsin author that is currently on my "to be read" list! Eventually we moved TO a sunny spot because the shade was just a tad chilly. After moving to the sun, we were near the visitors bullpen. I happened to look over, and my favorite former Brewer Brent Suter was warming up! He was traded to the Rockies in the off season. He did make an appearance in the game, and the Brewers paid homepage to him by playing the Jurassic Park music when he came in to pitch, which was his music when he pitched for us. He was a fan favorite, so it was nice to see the Brewers acknowledge that! The Brewers ended up losing this game, but it was still fun! This game also was their Spring Training finale at AmFam Fields. It was a lot of fun to have the opportunity to go to a few games after all their upgrades!
When we got back to our resort, we relaxed, then went to dinner at a restaurant on propery. We dined on the deck, and it was a beautiful night for it! Later that night we watched our 2nd baseball movie, Moneyball!
Tuesday was the final Spring Training game across the league. Some teams ended over the weekend but Tuesday was the Brewers last game, and it was at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale. But before we went there, we went back to AmFam Fields to see more of the minor league practices in hopes to get more autographs. We stuck around the fields where the biggest prospects were, and we ended up with Sal Frelick and Tyrone Taylor's autograph. Sal also obliged to a picture as well. Usually I mimic the players as to how close we get during a picture. I normally hover my arm over their back so I'm not touching them, but Sal Frelick literally pulled me into him and I was like, "ok, we're doing this!" He was such a nice guy, and I hope he makes it to the majors soon! Tyrone Taylor has been a major leaguer for a while, and I think he has the best smile across the entire league! He isnt the best player, but Sal and Tyrone were walking out together so we figured to get them both!
After AmFam, we headed straight to Salt River Fields. Before our trip, I reached out to one of my old neighbors Jake who now lives in Phoenix to see if he wanted to join us for this game and he said yes! He is a major Brewers fan just like me. It was so fun to catch up after 20 years on all things baseball and reminisce about getting the rest of the neighborhood kids together during the summer to play baseball in our side yard!
We had tickets up the 3rd base side in the sun. Eventually we had to move to the shade because this was the hottest day we've had thus far. The Brewers ended up winning this last Spring Training game, so we were able to see all the outcomes, a win, loss, and tie! Pretty cool!
After we got back, we spent the evening in the hot tub, then watched our 3rd baseball movie, Fever Pitch!
Wednesday was a complete day off. No baseball activities at all anywhere in Phoenix. The major leaguers broke training camp because Thursday was Opening Day and the minor leaguers also had the day off too. We went to breakfast at the Black Bear Diner in Scottsdale. On one of our previous visits we found out that some of the Brewers would frequent this diner, so we've been before to the location in Goodyear, but this time we went to the Scottsdale location. After breakfast we had the rest of the day to ourselves, so we napped, hot tubbed, read, watched TV, repeat, in no patricular order. It was nice to be on vacation and have a complete day to ourselves. Robbie had a fantasy baseball draft that evening, so we just doordashed dinner, then watched our final baseball movie ahead of Opening Day, my all-time favorite, Rookie of the Year!
Opening Day was finally here on Thursday, and there was a full slate of games starting early, being we were in the pacific time zone. The Brewers started the season at 1120am at the Chicago Cubs. We did major research throughout the week on what bars would be playing the Brewers with audio, and we found a Packers bar in downtown Scottsdale that was almost certain to have the audio, so our plan was to go there. But being other games were being played at the same time, they couldn't give any game audio. We were really bummed, so we left that bar and went to a burger place next door just in time for first pitch!
It always seems that the Brewers start the season in Chicago and its always freezing cold there, so we never do well. The Brewers looked really flat this game, and ended up losing. But the good news is that we ended up winning the series the next two games! They definitely made up for their debut!
After the game, we went back to our resort and soaked in the last of it as we had a 6am flight the following morning! We got to bed early for that one!
We were up and at em by 3am the next morning, and I was running on zero sleep. After we returned our rental car, we headed to the tram to wait for it to take us to the airport, as the rentals are off site. We arrive to the tram station and it's packed. Like, 100 people all standing there at 4am with no tram in sight. A lady in front of us ended up calling the airport to advise them that no tram was coming. The airport advised her that the tram was down with no ETA of it being fixed. So literally, everyone walked back out of the station and down to the car rental pick up zone. Everyone also started ordering Uber and Lyfts because the airport was still so far away with no public transport available. As we were waiting for our Uber, it was this whole rideshare parade, 1 after another coming through! It looked like the taxi zone at the Bellagio on a Saturday night! Ive never seen anything like it at 430 in the morning though! We finally made it to the airport, through security and to our gate with just a few minutes to spare before boarding started. And if anyone knows me knows that I like to have a little more time than that! The broken tram definitely heightened my anxiety just a little bit! But, it was an easy flight back to Cincinnati and we arrived around noon. The cool thing was that the Brewers had a built in off day on Friday, so we didn't miss anything on that front, and we planned it that way!
After we got back, we talked about going to Nashville (that's where our AAA affiliate is located) to see Brice Turang and Joey Wiemer play later in April, but Turang made the Opening Day roster, and by the 2nd game, Wiemer was called up. That was totally unexpected but we are so happy for them! During ST, the Brewers did a mini series on the young crop of talent coming up through the farm system and called it The Freshmen. And man, have they already been an integral part of our team, delivering in big spots and looking like veterans. It's been fun watching them so far!
Being back in Phoenix was exactly what we needed this spring! It wad perfect weather and we got baseball to boot! As I write this, the season is well under way and the Brewers have been above .500 since the 2nd game of the season. They are in 2nd place only to the *PIRATES* of all teams. And probably the most surprising news is that the Cardinals currently own the worst record in the National league! Let's keep it that way!
Until next time, Phoenix! It's been fun!
