The season that wasn't...

I spent much of my free time recently trying to wrap up completion of the videos from our Panama Canal cruise so I'm a little behind on updating what I was up to in Arizona. This was the fourth season I've headed down to Surprise Stadium (in where else - Surprise, AZ) to work Baseball Spring Training. Surprise Stadium hosts two teams, the Kansas City Royals and the Texas Rangers and I think it's the nicest stadium in the entire Cactus League.

The weather saw a mix of cold and wet interspersed with a couple of nice days but the Arizona warmth that draws folks to the desert southwest in February and March never really took hold while I was there this year. And of course March 12 will go down in the history books as the day Major League Baseball canceled the remainder of Spring Training due to the Corona Virus. At Surprise Stadium they had opened the gates as usual an hour and a half ahead of the 1:05 start time and fans were flocking in despite the twofold threat of stormy skies and a pending decision on the season being canceled. I think most fans there that day felt relieved once in the stadium and were fully expecting the game that day to be played. Forty minutes prior to the start however their hopes were dashed as coldly as the water that was soon destined to pour from the leaden skies. There were more than a few fans who had only arrived in town that morning looking forward to watching grown men play what is after all a child's game under the blazing Arizona sun. Such was not to be and disappointment cast a gloom on the stadium almost as dark as the skies. Still, hope springs eternal and if Spring Training is about anything its hope and the promise of new beginnings. So while the Corona Virus is still with us, and likely is going to get worse before it gets better let us not forget that there will come a day in the hopefully not too distant future where we can sit in shirt sleeves, eat hot dogs and drink cold beer, and cheer when once again the ump calls out "Play ball!" once more.

And lest we forget, it wasn't all doom and gloom. Here are some of the highlights of the season that was while we console ourselves on the part that wasn't.