It's not Baseball it's Spring Training
by Kelly Sallaway - LincsMag Writer.
Date: 08 March 2010
March Means Spring Training Baseball -The Games Mean Nothing
Cactus League Baseball returns to Arizona
While the rest of the Country is still covered in snow Spring has sprung in Arizona. The bright green fields dotted across the brownish landscape and bright blue skies are the destination for 15 of the Major League Baseball (MLB) teams from across the U.S.
These teams move to the sun for the month of March to train, tweak and tune up their squads before Opening Day.
Baseball officially starts April 1 but all the teams will play each other, every day in March.
This tradition started back in early Baseball history when the original eastern teams (New York, Washington, Chicago, Boston) would travel to Florida for Spring Training. The organized pre-season games became “The Grapefruit League“. As the country and baseball expanded the west got into the act and in 1946 teams started training in Arizona’s ‘Cactus League‘.
The Cactus League boasts fifteen teams playing at ten different stadiums around Phoenix and one in Tucson. These stadiums are small with seating for 5,000-10,000, compared to MLB parks that house 40,000-60,000 in attendance.
Each team has their own stadium and the teams travel across town and back playing one or two games a day all month. The smaller venues have a neighborhood feel and they allow the fans to get close to the players.
In this setting the players are very approachable. Spring Training might give you a chance to talk to your hero and get an autograph from a sports Superstar. Even billionaire ballplayers are usually pretty laid back in March.
Games That Do Not Count
In March you have all of America’s best ball players assembled in front of thousands of roaring fans playing in games that mean absolutely nothing.
That’s the beauty of it. Spring Training games do not count. They don't seed the teams for the regular season or count toward any championship. Sure, they keep score, and everyone wants their team to win, but no one really cares.
I attended the Opening Day of the season but I have no idea who won. My team is the San Francisco Giants because their “home” field is in my neighborhood. When the real season starts I will switch back to my real team (The Arizona Diamondbacks) and the Giants will go home- along with the Chicago Cubs, the Seattle Mariners, the Boston White Sox... and the rest.
Spring Training provides more than a booze-up for locals and a playground for athletes brushing off the winter. It is a huge economic boon for our cities and states generating more than $350 million in revenue every year. Aside from a full squad of players, coaches, trainers and assistants staying in hotels for a month, there are ticket revenues, sales tax and games receipts for each town. Spring Training is a popular travel destination for devoted fans and sun-seekers. Last year attendance topped 1.3 million and 60 % of those were from out of state.
If you were cooped up in cloudy, cold place like Wisconsin or Minnesota why wouldn't you take the excuse to travel to Arizona and watch your team?
In recent years "Sports Travel" has been pretty much recession-proof and any fans plan their vacation around the Spring Training baseball schedule.
They usually spend about 5 days and several thousand dollars to relax under sunny skies, drink some beer and watch their team play a game of no consequence.
It may not seem American to compete in games that don't count but while they don't mean much to us may mean a lot to a young player trying to make it in the “Bigs”. Baseball uses this time (actual games against other major league players) to assess skills under fire and weed out their squads.
Scores of guys are called up for Spring Training while only 40 make it to the regular season.(of which only 25 are eligible to play) It is a real-world trial and “ make it or break it” time for these players coming up through the “Farm” teams.
(Baseball’s ‘Farm system’ consists of small town teams where players are either groomed for the future or sent back to languish their entire careers)
Baseball indicates the first day of spring and while it comes an month early in Arizona we enjoy every day of it. There is always an expensive ticket to see the greats of the game or a place on the lawn to kick back and take in America’s Pastime.
Many people (that includes a lot of people in the U.S.) think Baseball is not very exciting. Like Cricket, it takes a certain knack to appreciate the nuances and strategies of a slow-moving game. There aren't many crashes or broken bones but it can still be fun.
On a beautiful March day out with your best friends you don't need much of a reason to stretch out in the sun watch a bunch of Millionaires play a pointless game.
