[cjgiannini]

Peoria Sports Complex - This is a joint Padres/Mariners stadium. This place makes my top 3 Cactus League parks and Friday night games are a great time. You get good crowds and weather is much more enjoyable than during the day. Peoria has some excellent food (but get there early or you'll be waiting in line for a while) and like Hohokam has a bunch of activities for the kids. They also have the best scoreboard.

[cjgiannini]

Scottsdale Stadium - This is the Giants complex in downtown Scottsdale. They have the best location of any stadium and have some of the best food. You can also see some of the practice fields from inside the stadium. But it's one of the older spring training complexes and most of the seats are bleacher style. It's also the only place where you need a lawn ticket to sit in the lawn and has the most expensive tickets.

[cjgiannini]

Salt River Fields at Talking Stick - Colorado Rockies/Arizona Diamondbacks joint facility. Just up the road from Scottsdale, this is one of the newer facilities and it's fantastic. I rate this the second best stadium in the Cactus league after Sloan Park. 

[cjgiannini]

Tempe Diablo Stadium - Angels Spring Training facility. Built in the 1960s, it's the oldest Cactus league facility and it shows. It's the only stadium you can't walk all the way around with center to right field being blocked. As a result it has the smallest lawn area. After my trip I had this rated as the worst ballpark in AZ spring training.

[cjgiannini]

Sloan Park - Chicago Cubs facility. From the worst to the best. Sloan Park is one of the newest parks and it's in a class of it's own. Cubs fans travel well and that helps the atmosphere, but this place is just great. Anyone who visits AZ for spring training needs to enjoy a game here, even if your team isn't playing here.

[cjgiannini]

American Family Fields of Phoenix - Milwaukee Brewers Spring Training. This is a basic park. Nothing about it stands out, but it's not terrible either. It's one of the more affordable parks, and there are several places where kids can access the players for autographs. They had a bobblehead giveaway of Robin Yount, which is pretty cool for a Spring Training game.








Goodyear Ballpark - Cincinnati/Cleveland joint ballpark. Finished my spring training trip with a Cubs/Reds game at the Western edge of the Phoenix area. Compared to the rest of the Cactus League, Goodyear falls somewhere in the middle.

[cjgiannini]

This week I went to my first Major League game and first Minor League game of the season. Both local adventures.

Oracle Park - San Francisco Giants vs. Florida Marlins 4/10 - My Giants lost, but, as always, I had a great time. I firmly believe this is the pinnacle of major league ballparks. You can't beat the food or the view from the top.





Excite Ballpark - San Jose Giants vs. Fresno Grizzlies (Rockies) - Single-A
Despite San Jose being just down the road and the team being a Giants affiliate, I've never seen a game here. It's one of the older minor league parks and it certainly feels like it, but sometimes it's nice to watch a game and be transported back in time 30 years.

[cjgiannini]

Yesterday I was at Citi Field for Giants vs. Mets. Sadly, my Giants lost, but I still had a good time enjoying a great ballpark. It was my second time at Citi Field. Citi is such an improvement over Shea, and it reminds me of the Giants going from Candlestick to Pac Bell/SBC/AT&T/Oracle Park. It's only my second MLB park of the season, but I'll be a little surprised if this isn't one of my top 5 to 10 parks at the end of the year. 

[ricelynnevans75]

I'd like to get up to Citi Field and the new Yankees stadium at some point in time.  I used to only live about an hour and a half away from Shea and am annoyed I never made time for it.  Went to the last Yankees park a bunch of times though for Red Sox games which was always a fun time.

[cjgiannini]

April 22: Frawley Stadium - Hickory Crawdads (Texas) @ Wilmington Blue Rocks (Washington)

This is a nice Single-A stadium on the Christina River waterfront, just 30 miles down the road from Philly. There was a nice family friendly Friday night crowd on hand. Giants fans probably have strong memories of Dusty Baker's son Darren being swooped up by JT Snow in the 2002 World Series. Well, that toddler is now a young man playing professional baseball for Wilmington. So that was a nice bonus for me.