Viva Medias B's
03-31-2010, 07:38 PM
Today marked the final Major League Baseball spring training game (http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2010_03_31_arimlb_colmlb_1) to take place in Tucson, Arizona. 6,817 people were at Hi Corbett Field today for the final game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the homestanding Colorado Rockies, a 4-3 Rockies victory. Yesteday marked the final game at Tucson Electric Park. And so ends a 63-year marriage of spring training baseball and the Old Pueblo. Both teams are leaving Tucson for a shared complex in Scottsdale, in spite of the fact they are division rivals.
Here (http://azstarnet.com/sports/baseball/professional/mlb/article_4174c62a-5004-5959-a675-63829ec1c0be.html) is an article in today's Arizona Daily Star that previewed this last game and the future of baseball in Tucson. Columnist Greg Hansen offered his thoughts in this (http://azstarnet.com/sports/baseball/article_4b5ba496-e06a-50b2-845c-ab824ff524b5.html) column. Tucson is hoping to lure Japanese teams to the Old Pueblo next season to replace the MLB teams that abandoned them. Some of the teams that will compose the Maricopa Monopoly starting in 2011, including the White Sox, are considering exhibition games in Tucson against the Japanese teams provided that MLB approves it. It would be helpful if the Japanese teams came to Tucson, but it would not be the same as before.
Maricopa County stole the White Sox, Diamondbacks, and Rockies from Tucson. It is a shame that Tucson's tenure as a real spring training town comes to an end after these 63 years. However, Tucson and Pima County deserve at least a substantial portion of the blame themselves because they basically sat on their hands and let it happen. In Tucson, sports is usually all about the Arizona Wildcats. If Tucson wants to be the Ann Arbor or Gainesville of the Southwest and be all about the U of A, that's fine in and of itself. However, the Old Pueblo stands to lose millions of dollars that spring training baseball poured into the local economy. Tucson will be suffering from that for the years to come, and they'll be kicking themselves for not stepping to the plate when Maricopa County's greedy tentacles began to stretch down I-10.
Here (http://azstarnet.com/sports/baseball/professional/mlb/article_4174c62a-5004-5959-a675-63829ec1c0be.html) is an article in today's Arizona Daily Star that previewed this last game and the future of baseball in Tucson. Columnist Greg Hansen offered his thoughts in this (http://azstarnet.com/sports/baseball/article_4b5ba496-e06a-50b2-845c-ab824ff524b5.html) column. Tucson is hoping to lure Japanese teams to the Old Pueblo next season to replace the MLB teams that abandoned them. Some of the teams that will compose the Maricopa Monopoly starting in 2011, including the White Sox, are considering exhibition games in Tucson against the Japanese teams provided that MLB approves it. It would be helpful if the Japanese teams came to Tucson, but it would not be the same as before.
Maricopa County stole the White Sox, Diamondbacks, and Rockies from Tucson. It is a shame that Tucson's tenure as a real spring training town comes to an end after these 63 years. However, Tucson and Pima County deserve at least a substantial portion of the blame themselves because they basically sat on their hands and let it happen. In Tucson, sports is usually all about the Arizona Wildcats. If Tucson wants to be the Ann Arbor or Gainesville of the Southwest and be all about the U of A, that's fine in and of itself. However, the Old Pueblo stands to lose millions of dollars that spring training baseball poured into the local economy. Tucson will be suffering from that for the years to come, and they'll be kicking themselves for not stepping to the plate when Maricopa County's greedy tentacles began to stretch down I-10.