The proposed tax is the first of its kind to hit Arizona Legislature that is backed by Mesa Mayor Scott Smith and other Arizona Legislators. There is more to House Bill 2736 than most people had thought. In addition to the opposition from the ball clubs, car rental and travel agencies have mixed impressions of the Bill. In addition to raising the price of spring training tickets, car rentals will take a huge hit. How big of a hit? According to the Phoenix Business Journal, Phoenix already has the highest car rental taxes in the U.S. The additional taxes will range from 18 to 40% on top of that.

The original intention on keeping the Cubs in Mesa was originally backed by the fact that the team brings the most revenue and the most fans to the annual kick-off to the baseball season. Keeping the Cubs would translate to more visitors and help tourism in Arizona. With the latest developments, there is a potential that this Bill, if passed, could have the opposite effect.

Phoenix attorneys representing some of the teams have already begun to lobby against the bill. With pitchers and catchers beginning to report next week, there is no doubt that this political situation will continue to hang over the 2010 spring training season.

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While the addition of the Los Angeles Dodgers to the mix may have been a huge contributing factor, the numbers are still coming in. Additionally we are awaiting the Spring Training totals across both leagues. Regardless, the numbers were up here locally, which bodes well for the local economy.

Some additional interesting numbers include the Dodger’s 80% visitor increase from Vero Beach, which would validate that the Blue Crew move to Arizona was a great decision. Scottsdale Stadium attendance was up 11%. The Chicago Cubs also set both a single game and season attendance record.

Additional highlights included:

• Cactus League baseball attracted a record 1.5 million fans this season.
• 13,327 fans for the Chicago Cubs vs. Chicago White Sox at Mesa on March 27, the league’s largest crowd ever.
• 203,105 fans attended Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, a Cubs team and Cactus League season record.
• 73,060 fans attended eight games on March 21.
• 1,643 fans showed for the Los Angeles Angels vs. Oakland A’s game at Tempe Diablo Stadium on Feb. 26, the season’s smallest crowd.

Highlights Source: AZ Central, Cactus League Attendance Figures for ’09 Up. April 3, 2009 (accessed April 4, 2009). http://www.azcentral.com/community/scottsdale/articles/2009/04/02/20090402sr-baseball0403.html

This past weekend, multiple locations hosted events for fans to join and see their teams get some batting practice in. As the spring training games kick off in a few days the excitement continues to build. With new stadiums and new teams, as well a returning team, Arizona prepares to kick off spring training games in less than three days from now. Arizona welcomes our out of town guests as MLB gets ready to start Spring Training 2009.

In Goodyear, the fans were plenty. The day began with a ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the opening of the new ballpark in Goodyear. Upon arrival at the ballpark, the lots we filling up and there were plenty of fans at the event. The ballpark is also ready for the Cincinnati Reds to arrive in 2010. We noticed that they already have the signage up for the team which we thought was kind of nice. The new stadium is very well laid out and has accommodations for well over 10,000 fans. We watched the Indians batting practice for a while before making our way back south to the Peoria Sports Complex. Upon departure, the fans kept rolling in.

In Peoria, the San Diego Padres were wrapping up their batting practice as the Seattle Mariners took the field. Since Ichiro Suzuki is presently in Japan, we did not get the opportunity to see him, nor did we see Ken Griffey Jr. this weekend. There is no doubt that there will plenty of opportunity to see the newest addition to the Mariners as Cactus League progresses. While intimately familiar with the park, due to our Fall League game coverage, we noticed some additional areas in right field that have been set up for a lounge type area for Spring Training. There were baseball clinics and events for kids as well as a team shop, as all locations do, that were accessible to the general public.

Sunday, our trek took us back to Bell Road, only in the other direction, to the City of Surprise, were the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals were taking batting practice. In its seventh year of existence this fan fest had tons to do as well, as there was sports memorabilia, kid’s games, face painting and even clowns. We also had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the Royals legendary Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett.

In all, we had a great time running around catching all of the events and the players seemed to be enjoying themselves as well. There was not a smile missing from anyone’s faces, from the staff at the stadiums to the fans and the players. When asked about the number of balls he tossed to the kids, Mike Morse of the Seattle Mariners, “I had to. We appreciate you guys”.

…And we appreciate you too Mike.

Click here to be taken to the location of the schedules for all of Cactus League spring training.

While we are still in the process of finalizing our schedule section for the website, we thought that we would thank you for your patience and go back to the basics with some downloadable schedules for your reference pleasure. The schedules come in three flavors: Excel, text and PDF. Get one, or all three. Tell your friends and get be sure to get yours today.

• 2009 Cactus League Schedule – PDF (720)
• 2009 Cactus League Schedule – TXT (339)
• 2009 Cactus League Schedule – XLS (495)
• 2010 Cactus League Spring Training Schedule (85)
• 2010 Cactus League Spring Training Schedule (83)
• 2010 Cactus League Spring Training Schedule (108)
• 2010 Cactus League Spring Training Schedule (96)
• D-backs Aduim Icons (65)

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Since early in the 90’s, MLB has been experimenting with the idea of having fall baseball in the Midwest, California’s Inland Empire and the East Coast. None of these ventures would end up panning out which would revive the idea of having baseball in Hawaii. Currently there are four teams that compete during the Winter/ Fall League in Hawaii that have the possibility of coming to the Phoenix area.

One of the influencing factors is the baseball infrastructure that the Phoenix Metro area already has. With the addition of new ballparks in 2009 and 2010, there seems to be more room for the teams to play here. Historically, the players of the AFL are generally a little more experienced than those of the Hawaii baseball league which would potentially create the need for their own circuit in which they can compete. Alternatively, roster requirements can be passed down to make all teams competitive so that they are playing each other more than twice a week.

Although Hawaiian fans may be clearly disappointed, the business justification seems to make sense. Making it more convenient for the teams and their scouts would be beneficial to the organizations and more affordable for most fans. Admittedly we are a little biased being in Arizona but locale aside, whether die-hard fans agree or not, MLB is a business and bringing the competition to a single place would benefit the teams, scouts, players, organizations; and in this case, Arizona.

Recent media reports claimed that the Winter Baseball Meetings would be pretty quiet for the Diamondbacks, who were not expected to make much of a splash this year. To our surprise there has been some interesting revelations as the team makes moves to fill some gaps and strengthen other roles. For the team, overall, money issues has been a recurring theme for the ball club as they opted not to make any arrangements with the Big Unit to return to Arizona for his next season.

In a move that we all welcome, Augie Ojeda was signed to a one year 700k plus contract that would ensure his return for next year. Augie played in 105 games last year with some solid defense in the second base spot. Although his offensive performance has room for improvement, he seemed to deliver in the clutch towards the end of the year, earning him a spot as one of the fan favorites. We are looking forward to our favorite chant, “Augie, Augie, Augie… Oye, Oye Oye!”

Still at the second base spot, the D-Backs secured the services of former Washington National and 2005 Reds All-Star Felipe Lopez. With the departure of Orlando Hudson and David Eckstein, Arizona looked to fill the hole at second base and have some depth in that position. Lopez, 28, is excited about the opportunity to come to Phoenix and to play for Arizona and we are equally excited to have him. The unfortunate twist to this transaction was the price tag. The Diamondbacks opted to pay more for Lopez than they were willing to pay for the return of Randy Johnson. Putting things in perspective, we agree that it might be in the best interest if the team to solidify the infield before only, possibly, receiving publicity for being part of a future hall of famer’s milestone.

In an exciting and close game, the Solar Sox and the Saguaros hit a combined 25 runs on Election Day as the two teams go head-to-head in AFL action. Although Mesa only hit one home run the bats were hot collectively for the team on this afternoon. The only things hotter were the Saguaros bats. The Sags hit three home runs, two coming from New York Mets prospects, while they edged the Sox with a walk-off home run by Daniel Murphy to win the game 12-13.

Meanwhile, in Phoenix, the Desert Dogs down the Rafters by a score of 2-5. Unable to come back from an early Phoenix lead, the Rafters of Surprise as Arizona Diamondbacks’ Brooks Brown pitched an excellent five innings, allowing no runs while striking out four to take the win. Offensive support was provided by Oakland prospect Josh Donaldson as his three-run shot in the bottom of the first inning which would give Phoenix the lead and prove to be the difference in the game.

In the final matchup of the day, the early voters got in some baseball action in Scottsdale where the Scorpions took on the Javelinas. The Javelinas struck early in the second inning with a home run but, the Scorpions would bounce back with some solid offense and some strong pitching. Although Peoria hit two home runs this game, it would not prove to be enough to beat the Scottsdale Scorpions at home. The Scorpions sting the opposition in the bottom of the eighth inning with four runs to seal the victory. Scottsdale puts a stop to their two game losing streak by beating the struggling Javelinas who have now had their losing streak extended to seven games.

Although we have scheduled features out to the month of April, we are open to suggestions. Please feel free to let us know of any Major League Baseball Events that you know of, that are taking place in Phoenix, and your story may be featured on our site.

Below we have listed some of the stories that we plan on featuring on our site. We may throw our visitors a hanging curveball with stories on other local events, such as the Pat Tillman Charity Game and the Winter Meetings.

• 2008 – November: Glendale Spring Training Complex Update
• 2008 – December: Todd McFarlane Toys
• 2009 – January: Mesa Historical Museum Baseball Exhibit
• 2009 – February: Countdown to Spring Training
• 2009 – March: Scottsdale Spring Training Nights
• 2009 – April: Chase Field Tour