Check out the results at Fanster.com

Additional detail can be found about the D-backs and their green home stand at 1-800-RECYCLING.com

The night was an extremely fun evening of baseball which makes for no wonder that this event is an absolute hit every year. A special thank you goes out to the Arizona Diamondbacks for making the event possible and the Public Relations department for helping to publicize the fun and exciting event.

Just in case you may have been out of the loop, Friday night is singles night at Chase Field. It makes for a great opportunity to meet and mingle with those with like interests and see some great baseball from a location that you may not otherwise get a chance to see the game. Fox Sports AZ , Cuervo Silver, Mix 96.9, 104.7 KISS FM and 102.5 KNIX are sponsoring the event that will take place in the Miller Light Diamond Club.

AZ Hardball will be teaming up with the Downtown Phoenix Journal to cover the event and all of the fun that is being had. Tickets must be purchased in advanced to give the hosts the ability to prepare for the event. For additional information, please visit the official site of your Arizona Diamondbacks at dbacks.com.

We hope to see you there.

Texas has had an uncanny ability to come from behind this year when needed, and they did so again scoring 6 runs to tie it in the fourth inning and another one in the seventh and followed that with three in the eight. If ASU had been able to win they would have been just one win away from playing in the 3-game finals, but now must try to beat UNC for the second time in a week on Thursday to have the right to play Texas again on Friday.

Leake started strong escaping trouble in the first after allowing the first two batters to reach base. In the fourth things fell apart for the ace and he ended the game with 3.1 innings pitched, 8 hits, six runs allowed and five strikeouts.

Kole Calhoun was an offensive star for the Devils going 3-for-4, including a homer, with a walk and two runs scored. For Texas Cameron Rupp went 2-for-3 with two homers and four runs batted in.

Coming into the game Texas and ASU had the top two ERA in the country, but the game quickly turned to an offensive outburst as often happens in CWS games.

Alex White got the nod for NC and both pitchers lived up to their hype. While neither starter was perfect, both managed to get the big outs when they were needed. Cleveland picked White in the first round of last week’s draft and showed what he hoped would get him to the bigs as he threw 131 pitches in his nine innings allowing only one run. Spence matched White allowing only one run before he left the  game after seven innings.

The Devils and Tar Heels went to the tenth inning tied 1-1 before ASU broke out for four runs in the 10th. Devil slugger Kole Calhoun busted the game open with a three-run homer off NC reliever Brian Moran. ASU had jumped to a 2-1 lead off an error by NC’s right fielder before Calhoun’s homer.

NC was able to get one run back in the bottom of the 10th but fell short in a 5-2 loss. North Carolina came into the tournament as the number 4 seed while ASU was a number 5 seed. ASU will get back to work on Tuesday with Leak on the mound against either Texas or Southern Mississippi in the winner’s bracket.

Stay tuned for a feature story on what Tim, the voice of the Chicago Cubs at Mesa Hohokam, as been up to in future news.

All to raise funds for many worthy charities including Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Cancer Lymphoma.

At least 8 Hall of Famers expected including Ferguson Jenkins, Billy Williams, Bob Feller, Harmon Killebrew, Rollie Fingers, Juan Marichal, and Meadowlark Lemon.

Other Cubs greats expected to play are Bob Dernier, Jody Davis, Glen Beckert, Lee Smith, Randy Hundley, Dave Kingman, as well as other former MLB stars, George Foster, Tommy John, Bert Campaneris, Tommy Davis, Luis Tiant, and Jay Johnstone.

$10 general admission and $25 for VIP ticket that includes a meet and greet with the Hall of Famers and other players on the field at 5 to 5:30 pm.

You can learn more at Fergie and Friends.com or watch a video about the game at CubsAZ.com

Longtime Cubs Spring Training Public Address Announcer Tim Sheridan is going to live a life long dream to play with/against the pros on the local celebrity team challenging Fergie and Friends.  Yes, it’s probably a Washington Generals vs the Globetrotters type situation but Tim and the guys will be giving their very best effort against the Hall of Fame squad.

Hohokam Stadium – March 25 at 7pm

More info at FergieandFriends.com and CubsAZ.com

We are proud and excited to introduce the state’s first ever permanent Cactus League museum exhibit. The Mesa Historical Museum has expanded to include an exhibit that will showcase the Arizona Cactus League and some of its history. This wonderful new experience opened to the public on January 10th of 2009 and was attended by Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry.

As we have been promoting that the state of Arizona is rich in baseball history, you will learn that the Major Leagues have been here since the 1900′s. March 30th 2009 will actually mark the 100th anniversary of Major League Baseball in Arizona. The Chicago White Sox were the first team to play here as they played a local team in Yuma, Arizona in 1909. A summarized chronology of the Cactus League’s history can be found on the official website of the Cactus League Experience presented by the Mesa Historical Museum.

Hank Aaron visiting Sun City, Del Webb’s ownership of the New York Yankees, the Detroit Tigers being the first to make AZ their spring training home and Jim Thorpe’s appearance for the New York Giants are only some of the facts that you will learn about as you delve into the history of the Cactus League. Additionally there are some additional pieces of baseball history that you can see at the museum.

Some of our favorite pieces were the seats from the different Cactus League stadiums, the ironic 1992 Cleveland Indians program that says so long to the Valley of the Sun and the size of the bats that some of these players used to belt their home runs. Since we would like for you to check out the museum yourself, we are sharing only a few of the pictures that we were able to get.

The museum already has plans to expand its exhibit throughout the Phoenix Metro Area and continues working to get their hands on more pieces of baseball past in Arizona. For more information on how to contribute something that you might have, or for information on how to get there, please see the official website of the Play Ball Experience.

Some of you may have seen Todd McFarlane’s excellent work in his collectible toys. While Todd has had ventures into many aspects of the entertainment and creative industry, we are just going to be focusing on a few here. McFarlane has had some amazing accomplishments and we hope to focus on the majority of what he has contributed to the sports collectibles world. A complete bio on Todd can be found at SPAWN.com.

Some items of note about McFarlane is that Todd was a former minority owner of the Edmonton Oilers. He is the co-designer of the Edmonton Oilers’ third jersey. He also helped to create award winning music videos for groups such as Korn and Perl Jam. Todd purchased Mark McGwire’s 70th Home run ball from the 1998 season and he says that his most important influences are his wife and Wayne Gretzky.

The main reason why we wanted to highlight Todd is that he is a resident of Arizona. Todd has recently agreed to create the commemorative ticket for the City of Phoenix’s Light Rail. This commemorative ticket will be available to a limited selection of passengers. You can read more about the Commemorative Ticket for the inaugural ride at SPAWN.com.

Todd, his wife and their three children still reside in Arizona where baseball can be found all year round. The year round theme carries over into the product development of his sports figures where he has mentioned in some of his interviews that sports is perpetual. There is always something going on, always a fan favorite and always a hot team to follow. There is no doubt that some of this influences some of the decisions on what players are created. Proof of this can be found in his Hall of Fame baseball collectable and his commemorative series baseball figurines.

To achieve the amazing level of detail that is included in each figure, there is a painstaking process that takes place while creating each individual figure. While some of us may remember the Starting Lineup toys from the ‘90s, there is no replication of body parts with McFarlane’s SportsPicks collection. McFarlane uses a computer and a 3D scanner to retrieve the detail for his figures. A clip of some of this process can be seen here where Todd shows the process when scanning some NHL hockey players’ faces. The same process is duplicated for the bodies of the players. Once the scans are done a wax mold is created and cleaned up before the remainder of the figurine is sent to be molded.

Some of the releases that are planned for the holiday season include multiple Halo releases, NBA, NHL, NHL Legends and Wave 3 of this year’s NFL releases. In addition, MLB, Guitar Hero and Call of Duty figures are also available for the holidays.

The McFarlane toys can be purchased at several outlets throughout the Valley and the Nation. A retail store and showroom can be found in Glendale at the Westgate City Center with administrative operations in Tempe. A special thank you goes out to Suzy Thomas of McFarlane Public Relations for helping us with our feature story.

News Section of SPAWN.com with all the latest releases

As many of us baseball fans are aware, the Dodgers will be leaving Dodger Town in Vero Beach, Florida for a closer, more convenient, location. The Associated Press had reported earlier this year that the Los Angeles Dodgers’ move to Glendale, Arizona was on track as scheduled. The Chicago White Sox also have a vested interest in the completion of the project due to the fact that they are planning on sharing the facilities with the Dodgers.

The spring training complex sits on the northwest corner of 107th Avenue and Camelback Road in Glendale and stretches all the way to 111th Avenue. The vast property expands both Glendale and Phoenix borders. The facility is composed of a 10,000 seat stadium with over 118,000 square feet of major and minor league clubhouses. There plans to be four major league practice fields and eight minor league practice fields. There will also be two practice infields and enough parking to accommodate 4,000 vehicles.

After one of our Fall League outings, we decided to take a look at the progress of the stadium and the neighboring grounds. Before we did that, we spoke with some fans. We were told, during some conversations with some of Arizona’s winter visitors, that things were looking bleak and that the Cleveland Indian’s facility had made more progress than its Glendale counterpart. We decided to check out the schedules for the teams that have been released and noticed that there are no games scheduled to take place in Glendale for either the White Sox or the Dodgers until the month of March.

While that is no indication of the completion date of the facility, it does make the fans begin to wonder. One fan said, “It’s not like they are the Yankees. I don’t know why they are being so secretive about the progress.” Well as a matter of fact Mr. Baseball Fan the Dodgers are just as rich in history but, anyhow. In a mid October MLB.com report, it stated that the White Sox would not be making and news on their move to Glendale for another month or two. Filled with anticipation, we decided to go see for ourselves.

After driving through a torn up Camelback Road, we approached 107th Avenue to see nearly 152 acres of uncompleted land. What looked to be the main office and what was definitely the stadium were slabs of concrete and spires of iron. On this weekend, workers were working as diligently as the tractors which were moving earth and making progress. There were hundreds of contractors that we could see and it looked as if the practice fields were nearing completion, if not already completed.

Unfortunately, held back by a fence, we were unable to get a closer look at was going on but, there was definitely much work being done and much work left to do. We are not licensed stadium architects, nor do we claim to be, but it looks like it will be cutting it close. The City of Glendale has done an amazing job in the past with the University of Phoenix Stadium and organization so close to this past year’s Super Bowl. The city has a huge interest in completing the project on time as they estimate that it will bring the city an estimated 19 million dollars annually. As they have done before, in impressive fashion, the City of Glendale and Mortenson Construction are looking like they will be able to pull this off in time.

Sign up for our email notifications as we update you on local Pro Baseball news and bring you updates on this and other Cactus League Spring Training news. For additional pictures of the progress, visit our Flickr page.