Bill Mitchell's Minor League Ramblings

Minor League Ramblings For the week of :
May 27, 2002

Minor League Ramblings is produced by Bill Mitchell for Minor League Watch.

Minor league road trip # 1 - Tucson, Arizona
June 2, 2002

The state of Arizona, especially the Phoenix metropolitan area, is a wonderful place for the serious baseball fan. One can watch good quality ball nearly year round.

The view from the press box
at Tucson Electric Park.

Through the first five months of the year, this particular seamhead had already watched nearly 50 pro or college games, nearly all of them in Phoenix or its suburbs.

But it was time to expand the horizons. The highway, and distant stadiums, kept calling my name. A long overdue road trip was necessary, especially with the Memorial Day weekend ahead. It was time to hit the road for Tucson.

The city of Tucson is 110 miles southeast of Phoenix. The two largest metropolitan areas in Arizona are connected by Interstate 10, passing through a beautiful piece of the Sonoran Desert, with sweeping vistas marked by ranges of jutting buttes and saguaro cactuses, in full bloom in late May. The speed limit on this stretch of the interstate is set at 75 MPH, so the trip from Phoenix passes quickly.

The "Old Pueblo," as Tucson is frequently called, has a long history of minor league baseball, as well as more than 50 years of hosting major leagues teams during spring training. Now called the Sidewinders, loosely named after their parent team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Tucson franchise has been a member of Pacific Coast League since 1969. But the minor league baseball legacy in Tucson goes back much further, with a class D team in the Arizona State League as long ago as 1928.

A Sidewinder fan awaits his Mexican food.

The Sidewinders moved from older Hi Corbett Field to Tucson Electric Park, built five years ago for spring training use by the Diamondbacks and Chicago White Sox. It's a clean, modern facility, with stunning views of the Santa Catalina Mountains from all points in the stadium.

The stadium is very fan friendly, especially geared towards families. Spacious lawn seating areas run down the left field line and around the outfield fence. A little train for the kiddies goes back and forth along the outfield concourse throughout the game, as well as other attractions designed to keep the younger set occupied.

The Tucson area is famous for its Mexican cuisine, and Tucson Electric Park is no exception. The most popular concession stand is the one dispensing "healthy" Mexican food --- red and green chili burritos, nachos and refried beans. Hungry fans keep this stand busy throughout the entire game.

Fans relax in the "Snakepit"
before the game.

The beer selection is good, with the vendors offering a wide range of brews, both regular domestic varieties and a few local microbrews. The fan wanting to get away from the action for a spell can stop by the "Snakepit," a tented area beyond left field, complete with a bar, tables and chairs, and a big screen TV.

Sidewinder owner Jay Zucker is an active and gracious host at the games. He regularly makes his rounds throughout the night, greeting fans and taking part in "on field" promotions.

In short, there are a lot of good reasons for seeing a baseball game at Tucson Electric Park.

So why don't the Sidewinders draw more fans? The Tucson franchise is third from the bottom in average attendance in the Pacific Coast League as of the Memorial Day weekend, averaging only 3,021 average per game. Only Tacoma and Calgary, the latter with abysmal early season weather, attracted fewer fans to their home games. By comparison, the Sacramento RiverCats had already pulled in over 11,000 per game.

It's "Hat Night" in Tucson, and this fan earned more than his share of the loot.

In talking to fans and Sidewinder officials, there just don't seem to be a lot of good reasons why attendance has dropped over the years. The crowds here are not as enthusiastic as the fans found at minor league hotbeds like Indianapolis and Boise. But no one in Tucson seemed to be having a bad time. There just aren't enough Tucsonans making their way out to Tucson Electric Park for Sidewinders games.

It's not for the lack of effort on the part of the Sidewinder staff. A special promotion takes place nearly every night, like the weekly "Thirsty Thursdays" (all drinks for a buck), and regular "between inning" fan contests such as a mini-car race, the Kit Kat sing along and a sumo wrestling match.

Some fans miss the old days at Hi Corbett Field, now the spring training home of the Colorado Rockies after nearly 50 years of affiliation with the Cleveland Indians, and also the summer headquarters of USA Baseball. But other Sidewinder supporters, like Booster Club members Patricia and Carl Moseby, prefer the new stadium due to the open feel and good sightlines. "You can be at the concession stand and still watch the game," commented Carl Moseby.

Sidewinders shortstop Alex Cintron
during batting practice

I arrived in time to watch both teams take batting practice. There's a great feeling in roaming around a nearly empty stadium, while the concessionaires stock their booths, ushers clean the seats, and a few early arriving autograph hounds seek out the hot prospects.

The Sidewinders hosted the Omaha Royals, Kansas City's AAA affiliate, on this night. Manager Bucky Dent, former New York Yankee shortstop, was not pleased with the way his team had performed lately, putting the starters through extra fielding drills before the game.

The extra work didn't seem to help, as a pair of first inning errors by the Royals infielders set the tone for the entire game. It was a sloppy contest, with four total errors and five hit batters.

Omaha manager Bucky Dent
argues with the umpire.

Dent protested in the top of the second inning when starting pitcher Chris Fussell was warned by the umpire after drilling a Sidewinder batter in apparent retaliation for a previous hit batter. Sidewinder shortstop Alex Cintron was then ejected in the bottom half of the second inning for arguing a called third strike. But no one else was tossed, even though three subsequent batters were plunked by opposing pitchers.

The Sidewinders pounded Omaha pitching for five runs in the third inning and six more in the fifth. The Royals' Dee Brown smacked the only homerun of the game, a line drive shot into the right field bullpen to lead off the eighth inning.

The game finally came to a merciful end nearly three and a half hours after it started, with Tucson winning handily, 13-5.

The atmosphere in the Omaha clubhouse after the game was very subdued. Dent, who had used the extra pre-game work to demonstrate his displeasure with the Royals' recent performances, went through the locker room consoling the players and reminding them that there would be another chance the next day.

I then headed back to the parking lot, popped a blues CD into the disc player, set the cruise control on 72 miles per hour, and directed my Plymouth Neon back up Interstate 10 towards Phoenix. A full moon provided a much-appreciated beacon as I traversed the lonely, uninhabited stretches of I-10.

I arrived back in my driveway just before midnight. Minor League road trip #1 was over.

--- Bill Mitchell