Finally, Baseball in Yuma

Holy Cow! A fantastic opening in Yuma was had on Tuesday afternoon. Hope you were there to experience it right along with all of us thrilled front-office staff. Everyone was anticipating working hard and delivering a good experience not just for the fans, but for the ballplayers as well, and with the largest opening day crowd ever seen in the Arizona Winter League, allow us to exhale and smile a little bit.

Close to 500 people came out to cheer on the ballplayers on one of the warmest and sunniest days we've seen so far. (Really, as I write that last sentence...is one day more sunny than the next in Yuma? I really do forget it's FEBRUARY!) Two competitive ballgames, good oldies blaring between innings, great tasting ballpark fare, and all the free sunshine you could absorb! Where else can you get these things in this time of year?

I was busy trying to work in the press box, so I didn't have an opportunity to take too many pictures. I did take this picture of some of the record crowd filing out to the concourse after the first "Battle of Canada" wrapped up.

We thank everyone that came out to enjoy the day with us, and we hope you return and bring some friends along with you. Strike up some rivalries with your peers. Catharsis is healthy! (That's a rejected slogan I threw out in one of our meetings recently!)

And finally, I wanted to post this picture of the guys on the groundcrew at work. I've been a whole lot of places, and I don't believe I've ever seen municipal facilities upkept so unbelievably nice. All four of the fields at the Ray Kroc complex could pass as the best fields I've seen in person in the past year (not Wrigley Field, but that's a landmark all to itself).

Here is my chat-break partner, Sergio, working on the baselines right after the end of the ballgame. I know the whole crew gets to the field at 4am, and returns in the evening after the ballplayers have been shuttled away to the hotel. If the ballplayers had any doubts when they traveled from across the world to come to Yuma, they can put in their backpocket that they practice and play on world-class facilities. Here's to you, Grounds-Crew!