As great as spring training is, Opening Day is always better. The Washington Post asked me to write about the end of spring training, and why even the biggest fan of spring trraining much prefers Opening Day. The article appears today in the Sunday Outlook section. Read it here.
Spring training’s favorite bar
Roger Angell of The New Yorker calls it the best baseball bar in America. No spring training trip is complete without a visit to Scottsdale, and no trip to Scottsdale is complete without a visit to The Pink Pony. It’s the subject of my final blog entry for boston.com. Read it here.
Guest column in Vero Beach Press Journal
The Vero Beach Press Journal and the Scripps Treasure Coast newspapers invited me to share my thoughts on the city attracting a new team to replace the Dodgers. Read the column here.
Book excerpt in National Review
National Review Online, the website of the National Review, published an article today adapted from Chapter 6 of the book. It deals with the the legislation passed in Florida and Arizona providing state money for the construction and upgrade of spring training facilities. Read it here.
Goodyear’s new ballpark waits for its neighborhood
The Cleveland Indians new spring training stadium and player-development complex in Goodyear, Arizona is the first piece of what is planned as a new city center for the west Phoenix suburb. I’ve written about the ballpark and the plans for the new city around it in my posting today at boston.com. Read it here.
Spring training’s green holiday
Spring training starts around President’s Day and ends around Easter; but St. Patrick’s Day is baseball’s big spring holiday. It’s what I write about today at boston.com.
Newspaper datelines
For nearly a century, spring training cities have seen newspaper datelines as money in the bank. For newspaper readers, meanwhile, they have meant a connection with the warmth of distant cities. It’s the subject of my final blog entry at Powell’s Books. Read it here.
The best spring training site
A reporter asked me yesterday, which spring training site did I like the best? So I wrote about it for my posting today at Powell’s Books. Read my thoughts here at powells.com.
Glendale complex absolutely spectacular
I got the chance to see the new complex being shared by the Dodgers and White Sox in Glendale, Arizona last week. Owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Frank McCourt promised the finest spring training facility ever built and they just may have delivered. Read about it here at boston.com.
Spring training business is down
The two newest spring training complexes in Glendale and Goodyear, Arizona are as spectacular as their builders promised they would be. But the economy is hurting spring training business this spring, and I write about that in today’s posting at Powell’s Books. Read the article here.
