Cactus League

I just returned from my first trip to Phoenix, Arizona, for Cactus League spring training.  I attended six games, including one World Baseball Classic game (USA v. Mexico).  Fantastic and I truly hope to make this an annual trip.  In my following posts I will break down each stadium I visited and what my in person autograph experiences were like.  Below is the games I attended:

      Kansas City Royals     Surprise Stadium
      Los Angeles Angels    Tempe Diablo Stadium
      Colorado Rockies        Salt River Fields at Talking Stick
      Cincinnati Reds           Goodyear Ballpark
      Chicago White Sox     Camelback Ranch

I also attended the Los Angeles Dodgers and Kansas City Royals practices at their respective ballparks.

I learned a lot from my trip, especially the fact that Cactus League team's are much better signers than the Grapefruit League.  The Colorado Rockies was definitely the highest quantity, plus their stadium is the best stadium in all of Spring Training.

If you've never been to Phoenix I highly recommend the trip.  It is well worth the money.  The weather was fantastic.  The people were exetremely nice.  The baseball was great.  I love my Grapefruit League, but Arizona is the place to be!

Preparing for Spring Training 2013

Now that we have survived the new year it's time to start preparing for Spring Training.  My first purchase was actually on Black Friday where Sports Authority had all of their balls on sale for 50% off, including ROMLB!  They had a limit of 6 per customer, so I made every relative with me buy 6 until I had bought the store out.  Each ROMLB was contained in the plastic display case and ended up costing $8.99 per ball and case.  Seriously you can't beat that anywhere! My advice to those who missed the sale, please make a note and remember next Black Friday where I truly hope they run the same sale.

My next step in preparation was to begin locating high definition 8x10 photos of current players to print.  I have just about every Grapefruit League 40 man roster done, and a few Cactus League teams to finish up.  In addition to printing 8x10 photos, I finally printed the 40 man rosters for every team, including the non-roster invitees, and coaches.  I try to wait till mid January because free agents are still being signed; however, I plan to reprint and revise my master lists closer to Spring Training start date.

Currently, I'm trying to organize my cards by team.  I try to bring at least 2 cards of every player and coach listed to Spring Training games and practices.  Ebay is a good way to find individual players I may be missing.

Please let me know what everyone else is doing in preparation for this Spring Training season!