A Bird's-eye view of Surprise Stadium

I've got 9 days left until the end of Spring Training. The time has flown by as quickly as the heat has risen. Yesterday's game between the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners saw temps hit 97 degrees and the folks who had flown down from the Pacific Northwest were paying the price. Lots of creamy white skin left the stadium deep red  and I don't think there was enough sunblock in the stadium to go around. There was though enough beer, brats, hotdogs, and all the other goodies folks consume at ballparks so they all seemed to leave happy and satisfied.

Surprise Stadium was built 15 years ago in 2002. At yesterday's game they honored the Sundancer volunteers who have been helping with games all of those years. These folks, clad in yellow shirts are all volunteers and act as ushers, parking attendants, and all sorts of other duties required to keep upwards of 10,000 fans happy. Each game fans can buy raffle tickets for $5 with the daily winner taking home half of the pot with the reminder going to help fund local charities the Sundancers support. Best known as the spring training home of the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals the stadium also hosts the Arizona Fall League team, the Surprise Saguaros. The stadium sits in the middle of the Surprise Recreation Campus which is also home to swimming pools, library, ball fields, tennis and pickleball courts as well as a small lake and playgrounds. As is the stadium, everything seems to be immaculately maintained and the people of this Phoenix suburb really have something to be proud of. The drone video above gives a quick bird's-eye view of the stadium. Not quite the same as the pilots of the F35's and F16's from Luke Air Force Base get as they zoom over the stadium on a daily basis but not bad...