Tour 2023: Arizona Fall League Home Run Derby

All photos of AFL HR Derby at Sloan Park available on Flickr.

Our final game of our jam-packed Tour 2023 was the AFL Home Run Derby at Sloan Park in Mesa.  Sloan Park is the relatively new Spring Training home of the Chicago Cubs, located just west of their former home at Hohokam which is now inhabited by the Oakland A's (which I visited in 2019).  This park has also hosted the Mesa Solar Sox of the AFL since the park's inception in 2014, and on this particular weekend hosted the biggest events of the Fall League calendar - the homerun derby and the Fall Stars Game.  We were planning on attending both of these events when we originally planned this trip, but unfortunately the schedule changed after we booked our flights and the Fall Stars Game moved to Sunday, the day we both flew home.  Personally I enjoy derbies much more than the actual all-star games, so this was the event I was more excited about anyways.  The derby was jacked up to a whopping $20 for this special event and we headed straight towards the outfield berm in left field when we got inside.  Sloan Park is the largest park in the circuit at a 15,000 capacity, but I never would have guessed that since the overwhelming majority of people in attendance were in the outfield as we were.

We didn't get to see as much of Sloan Park as we would have liked since we made a bee-line directly to the outfield, but from the looks of it, it is following the trend of a lot of the Grapefruit League parks that look to mimic the shape and feel of their major league tenants - a "Wrigley Field West" of sorts.  It had similar dimensions with the same deep outfield corners as Wrigley, it had some "rooftop seating" in the outfield to mimic the rooftops on Waveland and Sheffield Streets in Chicago, the same green seats and green painted structure, and even a replica of the Wrigley Field marquee.  Had this park not been in the desert, I would have fully expected to see ivy on the walls as well.  I think given the fact that it was trying to recreate a smaller Wrigley Field, it made the park kind of ordinary and simplistic in its layout.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it made it less memorable than some of the other newer parks and made it not as nice as I was expecting.  This was the one park of the week where I think being there for an AFL game as opposed to a Spring Training game negatively skewed my opinion.  It was still a great place to watch the derby, and I felt just like I was in the bleachers at Wrigley on that giant berm that was packed with fans on this night.  Much like at the bleachers at Wrigley, there were a couple of idiots that had to be escorted out.  A couple of dudes wearing GoPros were jumping in front of children left and right to snag homeruns and had literal backpacks full of balls before security finally stepped in to remind them they were grown adults and asked them to leave.

The AFL Home Run Derby had a similar format to the format that has been adopted by MLB and many other leagues in recent years, namely that rounds are timed rather than based on a number of "outs."  I love this format, as it creates less down time and more home runs, which has certainly been a goal of baseball lately.  One slight nuance to the AFL rules that I also loved is that two finalists advance to a championship matchup based on a cumulative total of two rounds.  This means that you get to see every hitter at least twice, it avoids dragging out the event and tiring out hitters, and it also avoids the common occurrence of somebody putting up a monster first round total but still not advancing.  Kala'i Rosario of the Desert Dogs/Twins ended up winning on a very impressive effort.  He finished with 25 total homeruns as well as the longest homer of the night, estimated at 465 feet.  He really impressed us in Glendale on Thursday and we were excited to see him listed as a participant at the derby, and he did not disappoint.  Damiano "Chicken Parm" Pamelgiani was leading after the first two rounds with 17 homers, and 2nd place was a 4-way tie between Ivan Melendez, Kyle Manzardo, Jase Bowen, and the aforementioned Rosario.  This led to a one-minute swing-off for the 2nd and final spot in the championship round, which was won in a walk-off fashion by Rosario over Bowen with 10 seconds left on the clock.  Pamelgiani chose to hit 2nd in the final round, and that proved to be a mistake as he lost 6-5.  In addition to winning the Derby, the Hawaii native Rosario also finished the season tied for the league lead in homers with 7.  Wes Clarke of the Saguaros/Brewers also participated and mashed a paltry 6 total dingers in his two rounds, although he did manage to crush a hot dog during one of his timeouts.

Following our visit to Sloan Park, I have now officially completed the Cactus League/AFL Tour, which is the only league outside of MLB for which I have been to every ballpark.  With that being said, I would rank the parks in this order:

1. Camelback Ranch
2. Salt River Fields at Talking Stick
3. Surprise Stadium
4. Hohokam Stadium
5. American Family Fields of Phoenix
6. Sloan Park
7. Tempe Diablo Stadium
8. Goodyear Ballpark
9. Scottsdale Stadium
10. Peoria Sports Complex

I would highly recommend the Arizona Fall League to any rabid baseball fan and especially to anybody who enjoys going to the Cactus League.  If you love Spring Training, but you also want cool evening temperatures, smaller crowds, and something a little bit more affordable, then this is the league for you.  The two of us spent a grand total of $112 on 4 AFL games and probably $20 apiece per game in concessions, and we've definitely had trips where we spend that much on one person for just one game.  It was a long wait into the year for our Tour 2023 trip, but well worth it.  It was awesome that we got to extend the season by a few days, and it makes Tour 2024 already that much closer.

park rankings and statistics:

aesthetics - 8
views from park - 4
view to field - 7 (largest park in the league)
surrounding area - 3 (nothing in immediate vicinity but 5 minutes from downtown Mesa and Tempe)
food variety - 5
nachos - 5
beer - 4 (points deducted for no Old Style)
vendor price - 8
ticket price - 8
atmosphere - 9
walk to park - 3
parking price/proximity - 10 (adjacent lot for free)
concourses - 7
team shop - 3 (points deducted for very little generic AFL gear at the jewel event)

kids area - n/a

best food - Chicago Dog
most unique stadium feature - replica Wrigley Field marquee
best jumbotron feature - player stats

best between-inning feature - live music by the Chocolate Fountain Experience

field dimensions - 360/410/360

HOMERUN DERBY PARTICIPANTS: 

Kevin Alcantara, CHC/Mesa
Jase Bowen, PIT/Salt River
Wes Clarke, MIL/Surprise
Kyle Manzardo, CLE/Peoria

Ivan Melendez, ARI/Salt River

Damiano Palmegiani, TOR/Surprise

Gabriel Rincones Jr., PHI/Scottsdale

Kala'i Rosario, MIN/Glendale

winner - Kala'i Rosario
score – 6-5 final round, 25 total
stadium - Sloan Park

Tour 2023: Surprise Stadium

All photos of Surprise Stadium available on Flickr.

Erik and I made the joke on the way out to Surprise that the city must have gotten its name from the town's founder saying "Surprise, there's more Phoenix!"  The story of Surprise is not unlike any other Phoenix suburb - it started as little more than a tiny agricultural/industrial village on the outskirts, saw modest grown up until the turn of the century, and has now ballooned to a city of nearly 150,000 people.  Surprise Stadium is right at the center of that growth, opening in late 2002 and seating over 10,000 people.  The stadium has been the Spring Training home of the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers since its inception, and followed only a couple of years later with the first incarnation of the Surprise AFL team, now known as the Saguaros.  We arrived at about 6:00pm for a 6:30 first pitch and purchased our customary $12 GA tickets as we have been at every other AFL game.

Out of all the parks I was visiting for the first time on this trip, Surprise was my favorite one.  Perhaps I was unfairly swayed by the amazing sunset as we arrived, or the calm cool breeze, but it was a very welcoming ballpark to arrive to.  It has a very enchanting courtyard with a lone mature tree at its center, with the entry point arranged in a concave shape around the courtyard set between two towers to draw you in.  There is a ring of baseball-shaped bollards around the street side of the courtyard to complete the circle, and it all makes for one of the better thought out entry sequences in the Cactus League/AFL.  When we made our way through the gate, I immediately noticed that we were entering through the outfield which is something I normally detest, but then I noticed there is a nearly identical entry sequence in the left field corner.  This gives the park a beautiful symmetry which gives the outfield entries a purpose and design intent.  We were greeted by a bosque of the Saguaros' namesake plants, and made our way down the right field line towards home plate.  On the street side of the concourse is a sort of pavilion for a lack of a better term that I'm guessing holds team offices, and it reminded me a lot of the center field pavilion at the old Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.  Again, this same type of pavilion exists in the opposite corner to reinforce the symmetry, with the RF pavilion being the Rangers side and LF being the Royals side.  As you move from the outfield toward the infield, you walk under the suite level above the concourse, and I can only imagine that the balconies overhanging the suites coupled with an array of open concession stands would make this feel like a lively pedestrian street at a crowded Spring Training game.  On this night, it just served to make me feel snug and welcomed, just as many of the details at the park do.  The relatively short lower bowl of only 15-20 rows adds to that snugness as well.  You feel like the upper deck is right on top of you when you're sitting in the lower bowl, which is a pretty cool feeling at a park of this size.  This is the only park I ate an actual meal at this week, and I had a pretty sorry excuse of a "Manager's Special" which consisted of two tiny chicken strips served on a mound of barely-cooked tater tots that have probably been sitting in the back of a freezer since March.  A 24-oz Coors Banquet quickly remedied that, and we settled into the 3rd row for the night's action.

Stadium aside, this was the ballgame I was looking forward to the most of the week as the Surprise team features Brewers prospects on it.  Three different Brewers strapped 'em on in this game in the 5-2 victory over the visiting Salt River Rafters.  Wes Clarke was actually drafted twice by the Crew and signed as a 10th round pick in 2021.  He got the start at first base and hit cleanup, and he went 1-3 with a walk.  As of that game, he was tied for the AFL lead with 5 homeruns, but he has since been surpassed.  This is on top of the 26 bombs he notched in Biloxi this year, so hopefully he can hone that power threat for the big league club someday.  Adam Seminaris and Justin Yeager both tossed a scoreless inning apiece from the mound as well.  Both of them were picked up in trades this past offseason - Seminaris in the Hunter Renfroe deal, and Yeager in the William Contreras deal.  Unfortunately Brewers shortstop prospect and 2022 1st round pick Eric Brown Jr. did not play in this game, but he has been turning a lot of heads in the Fall League by all accounts.  Trent Palmer of the Blue Jays organization got the start for Surprise and was the only pitcher we saw all week go more than 3 innings.  He gave up 2 runs over 3.2, but that was still good enough as Surprise put up a 3-spot in the 1st against the Rafters' Dylan Smith (Tigers).  We joked that there were zero Reds or Rockies prospects that got in the game for Surprise or Salt River, so I'm glad we are not fans of those particular teams.

Following the brisk game, we had a drive of over an hour back to Tempe, and we unsuccessfully tried to pretend we were young again at a bar on ASU campus before calling it a night.

park rankings and statistics:

aesthetics - 8
views from park - 2
view to field - 9 (all seats very close)
surrounding area - 1 (single family homes and vacant land)
food variety - 6
nachos - 5
beer - 7
vendor price - 8
ticket price - 9
atmosphere - 6
walk to park - 5
parking price/proximity - 10 (adjacent lot for free)
concourses - 8
team shop - 5

kids area - n/a

best food - anything but the "Manager's Special"
most unique stadium feature - entry/outfield pavilions
best jumbotron feature - n/a

best between-inning feature - n/a

field dimensions - 350/400/350

starters - Dylan Smith (SR) v. Trent Palmer (SUR)
opponent - Salt River Rafters
time of game - 2:24
attendance - 385
score - 5-2 W

Tour 2023: Peoria Sports Complex

All photos of Papago Park and Peoria Sports Complex available on Flickr.

Friday was our first of two consecutive doubleheaders, as we would be seeing 4 games in 2 different sports in the span of about 30 hours.  But I'm proud of the fact that, even with all of the ballgames we cram into our trips, we always still make time to explore the area we're staying a little bit.  We spent Friday morning hiking around Papago Park, which is a massive municipal park spanning nearly 1500 acres across Phoenix and Tempe.  It is a vast desert landscape with red sandstone as far as the eye can see and various hills and geological formations to climb, including the famous Hole-in-the-Rock landmark which we traversed to the top of.  The park also includes the Phoenix Zoo, the home of Sandra Day O'Connor, and Hunt's Tomb (all of which we somehow missed), but it was a breathtaking couple of hours that made me all too aware just how badly out of shape I am.  We grabbed a quick shower and a lunch after our hike and were off to Peoria for a 2:30pm start.

To put it bluntly, Peoria Sports Complex is the worst ballpark in the Cactus League/AFL in my opinion.  It opened for business in 1994, so in its hey-day it served a good 10-year run as the newest park in the circuit and the first shared team complex in the Valley.  Nearly 30 years later and the park now pales in comparison to all of the other new and renovated complexes that have passed it by.  The exterior is very off-putting with a lot of weird angles, lots of desert-colored EIFS, and not that many vantage points to see inside.  It is ringed by a circular road all the way around, so I thought it was cool you could essentially see the entire exterior of the stadium from your car before parking, but there wasn't much to see whether on foot or in a car.  Once inside, it is the type of park where the concourse is behind the grandstand at grade level and you have to walk through tunnels to emerge to the seating bowl.  This type of setup is always a big clue to when a park was built, and while it can be charming in very old parks, it's very antiquated in a park that is younger than me.  The seating bowl was very forgettable but we did appreciate that it was separated into essentially 3 tiers/levels to provide some shade and a variety of seating options.  We found the seats themselves to be very stiff and uncomfortable and likely would have spent our day at the Sam Adams bar/party deck up on the 3rd tier, but not surprisingly that was closed for an AFL game.  What the park lacked in pizzazz it did make up for in atmosphere, as this was by far the most well attended game of the week with over 600 people.  The Javelinas seem to have a lot of day games in the AFL while most teams play 6:30pm starts, and I suspect the reason is due to the fact that this stadium gets used for so many events year round, including the Vans Warped Tour.  There were ads for many of these of events on the jumbotron between innings.  Peoria seemed to be one of the nicer cities of the Cactus League/AFL circuit with one of the livelier central business districts, so it is clear that they take great pride in the team and stadium here, but exploring the downtown would be the only reason I ever go back to Peoria if and when I make it back out for Spring Training.

Peoria beat the Mesa Solar Sox by a score of 8-7, with Marlins prospect Jacob Berry hitting the game-winning sac fly in the 8th.  I recognized Berry from when I visited Beloit back in June and he had a nice little day with 2 RBI and solid defense at 3rd base.  There were several big name prospects in this game.  Kevin Alcantara, a Cubs top prospect, went 2-5 with a booming triple.  Max Muncy (not that Max Muncy - the A's prospect) went hitless on the day for Mesa as well.  Chase DeLauter and Kyle Manzardo, both Guardians prospects, batted 1-2 for the Javelinas and went a combined 1-8.  We had never of Shane Sasaki, but he was one of the players that Erik and I were the most impressed with.  He was a 3rd round pick of the Rays a few years ago and had 3 hits, 3 RBI, and 2 steals out of the 9-hole for Peoria.  He's only in A-ball in his 4th year in the minors so we'll see if he ends up being another classic diamond in the rough for Tampa Bay.  Nobody really stood out pitching wise as this was a back-and-forth affair all day.  There were only 2 innings in the entire game in which a run was not scored by either team.

Following the Javelinas win, with the sun setting in front of us, we drove even further west to the very outskirts of the Phoenix metro area to Surprise for game #2 of our doubleheader.

park rankings and statistics:

aesthetics - 2
views from park - 5 (can see the mountains from the upper tiers)
view to field - 8 (older park means less safety netting)
surrounding area - 8
food variety - 5 (I am judging all concessions based on average compared to other AFL games - not everything you would find at a Cactus League game was offered)
nachos - 5
beer - 6
vendor price - 8
ticket price - 9
atmosphere - 7
walk to park - 1
parking price/proximity - 10 (adjacent lot for free)
concourses - 2
team shop - 5

kids area - 8 (one of the only parks I saw that actually had one)

best food - hot dog (most parks only sold dogs, nachos, and peanuts)
most unique stadium feature - 3 seating tiers
best jumbotron feature - ads for other Peoria Sports Complex events

best between-inning feature - n/a

field dimensions - 340/410/340

starters - Nick Hull (MES) v. Ross Carver (PEO)
opponent - Mesa Solar Sox
time of game - 2:53
attendance - 635
score - 8-7 W

Tour 2023: Camelback Ranch (AFL)

All photos of Arizona State University and Camelback Ranch available on Flickr.

My Thursday began with a way too early wakeup call due to the 2-hour time change and just generally not knowing how to sleep in anymore.  I took advantage of this extra time in my day by enjoying the weather before the desert sun got too hot.  I took a nice relaxing swim in our luxurious rooftop pool, grabbed a shower and a coffee, and then took a nice long stroll around the Arizona State campus.  Our hotel was right in the middle of ASU and across the street from some of their major sport venues - so close in fact that the visiting Stonehill College men's hockey team was staying at our hotel.  It was a beautiful campus and a peaceful walk, and I enjoyed analyzing what architecture looks like in a hot and arid climate while also trying to remember what it was like to be in college.  I picked up Erik at the airport around 11am, and not surprisingly he also wanted to take a dip in the pool.  By this time however, it was packed to the gills with teenage hockey bros, so after a few minutes we got dressed and hit up a couple of breweries before our ballgame that evening.  Four Peaks Brewing Company had some delicious food and we also thoroughly enjoyed Pedal Haus Brewery's outdoor space.

Our first game together of the trip was in Glendale for a 6:30pm first pitch.  It was quite a stark contrast from nearly 50,000 people at Chase Field the night before to generously 100 people in Glendale.  This was my third visit to Camelback Ranch and I've had wildly different experiences all 3 times.  The first time was when I was young and untethered on a scorching hot day with Phil in 2011, the second time was with my wife and 1-year old daughter, and this visit was on a cool and eerily quiet night for a Fall League game.  All three visits have netted the same result, and that is that Camelback Ranch was and remains my favorite Cactus League/AFL park.  It's admittedly hard to judge the merits and ambiance of a stadium in this league given the low attendance and laid-back atmosphere, so I'm glad I had been to Camelback before in a Spring Training environment.  But this was the only AFL park of the week that I had already been to, so it was interesting to contrast the two leagues.  Spectators at the Cactus League are really just looking to get out of whatever cold weather state they live in, get ripped, and have good time while seeing a few familiar faces.  The Arizona Fall League is not for the faint of heart and it truly meant for those few dedicated fans that are really up on their farm systems and are keen to all of the subtle nuances of the game.  Most of the parks only keep one concession stand and one small souvenir stand open and the focus is entirely on the game.  It offered Erik and I a lot of time to just relax and talk baseball and not having to stress about much of anything.  About half of the people in attendance at this game were scouts, and also Tony LaRussa was there for some reason.  He was trying to go incognito by wearing a backwards cap and being sober, but I still found him in the sea of the 12 people in our section.  The one bummer of AFL versus a Cactus League game is that the back complexes were all closed and only the main stadium was open, but nonetheless it was great to be back at Camelback Ranch again.

The Glendale Desert Dogs walked off the Peoria Javelinas with a grand slam in the 9th inning to complete a 9-5 victory.  Glendale and Peoria are two of six teams in this league, and each of the 6 teams is represented by prospects from 5 major league clubs, usually with a minimum of 6 guys from every club.  The types of prospects that get sent to this league typically range from players who were just drafted, to big name prospects that are getting a reward for a good season, or sometimes it is just a minor leaguer that may have been hurt or scuffling a lot of the year and the parent club wants to see them get some more work.  There was a wide array of all these types in the game, as the player ages ranged from teenagers all the way to 27, and from Low-A all the way to AAA.  This game represented a bullpen game of sorts for both teams, as the starters only went 2.1 and 3 innings respectively.  Kala'i Rosario was the star of the night and also one of the most impressive players of the entire weekend.  He is currently in High-A for the Twins and crushed a 2nd inning homer, and he would later go on to win the AFL Homerun Derby on Saturday - more on that in a later post.  There were a total of 5 homeruns in the game, including the walk-off slam by Bryan Ramos of the White Sox organization.  It was his 4th bomb of the year and he had an .833 OPS as of this game.  One of the bigger names in the game and the highest ranked prospect was Colson Montgomery of the White Sox/Desert Dogs.  He went 1-3 with 2 RBI out of the 3-hole.

After the game, we enjoyed a night cap at a nearby Twin Peaks, which is kind of like a classy Hooters.  Mostly we went there because we assumed Mr. LaRussa would be there, but he must wisely do all of his drinking at home these days.  We had one of our many long drives back to Tempe from the western edge of the PHX metro area, and rested up for a long day on Friday.

park rankings and statistics - unchanged
(see last post from 03/11/19)

starters - Patrick Wicklander (PEO) v. Josimar Cousin (GLE)
opponent - Peoria Javelinas
time of game - 2:36
attendance - 198
score - 9-5 W

Tour 2023

With pitchers & catchers reporting next week, the snow continuing to melt here in Milwaukee, and Serie del Caribe playing in the background on my TV, all are sure signs that another spring and another baseball season are rapidly approaching.  After three consecutive years affected by Covid and a lockout, I'm feeling more rejuvenated than I've felt in a long time for a new season.  And with that rejuvenation comes one of the more exciting days on our early baseball calendar - the announcement of our 2023 ball trip slate!  This year, Erik and I have decided to cross off an item that has been on our list for probably the entire existence of "The List" - the Arizona Fall League.  I've probably mentioned this league as our "backup plan" at least 10 times over the years, so to say it's long overdue would be an understatement.  The AFL is primarily an instructional/showcase league for top prospects, and each of the 30 MLB teams send representatives that are dispersed into 6 teams in the league, who play roughly a 6-week schedule that begins at the conclusion of the MLB regular season.  So it's basically like a spring training vibe, except it is entirely made up of prospects and much smaller crowds.  They don't use all of the parks that the Cactus League uses - only the 6 - but there are a number of them that Erik and I have not yet been to, and I'm excited to cross some more off of my list.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that, while for MLB and the baseball world it might be a "normal" offseason," it certainly is not in the E & P world, as Erik is preparing to welcome his second child in March.  While obviously very exciting, it does inherently make anything we plan this year far less than a guarantee, as you can never really plan too far ahead with small children.  We originally toyed around with the idea of doing a trip closer to home, centered around the new Beloit ballpark and the Wrigley renovations, just to give Erik an opportunity to visit his family here with the baby, but the summer just proved to be too difficult to count on, understandably.  So, we're pushing our chips in on the AFL, and we're cautiously optimistic that we will be parked behind the dugout, frosty beverage in hand, heckling players and shoving children out of the way for foul balls in 8 months.  The AFL also allows us to not have to commit to any sort of flights or accommodations until August or September when the schedule is normally released, so we shouldn't have to scramble to cancel anything like we did in 2020 and 2021 for Texas.

I mentioned Beloit and Wrigley Field in the last paragraph, and I do still fully intend on going to those ballparks this year.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned this on the blog before, but my family and I are planning to move to Minnesota in 2024 to be closer to my wife's family, so these are a couple of ballparks I'd like to get to before we move, possibly for the last time in a very long time if not ever.  I swore after we stumbled out of Wrigley in 2014 when we were there for its 100th Anniversary celebration that I would not be setting foot back there until all of the renovations were complete, and I have held true to that, and am eager to see what the remodeled ballpark looks like (and if there are still pee troughs).  As for Beloit, I have not been there since 2016 and it's still hard for me to even fathom that they actually got a new ballpark built in Beloit.  ABC Supply Stadium looks like a gorgeous addition to the stateline area and I can't wait to see it.

My other major trip for 2023 will be my annual trip with my daughter Molly.  This will be our 3rd installment of "Tour Molly" and I'm likely taking her to either Lansing, Michigan or Lafayette, Indiana for a weekend.  Again, after we move to Minnesota, it will be very impractical to get back to Indiana or Michigan anytime soon, so I'm heading out that way one last time this year.  As always, stay tuned throughout the year for ballpark reviews and visits, Brewers news, and general stadium news.  T-minus 50 days until Opening Day!