Tag / Cactus League

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Selling Your Soul Part II

The White Sox finally made their deal with the devil, CME Group in this case, last Wednesday, agreeing to add an advertising patch to their jerseys as part of a multiyear deal to make the company the team’s “official global exchange.”  The patches are set to make their on-field debut on February 20, when Cactus League action kicks off.

For the home pinstripes, the blue logo will be set against a white background and black border with “CME” in black lettering.  On the road grays, the blue logo will appear on a matching gray background, again with “CME” in black lettering.  The alternate black jerseys and the City Connects will feature the blue logo on a black background with “CME” in white lettering.

The White Sox become one of the last MLB teams to strike a uniform patch deal, worth an average of $7-8 million with the largest deals, believed to be with the Yankees and Blue Jays, worth over $20 million.
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Travelling The 50 States – Arizona

Over my 47 years, I’ve done my fair share of travelling across these United States.  I thought it would be an interesting experiment go look back at those trips to each of the 31 states I have visited (62% isn’t bad, is it?) and see if, and when, I may be returning.  Working in alphabetical order, we start today with the 48th state to be added to the Union: Arizona.

State: Arizona
Joined the Union: 1912
Visits: 2

Both of my trips to Arizona have occurred within the past seven years, first in 2015 and then again in 2018.  Both visits can also be connected to my job, either directly or indirectly.

In 2015, my first trip to Arizona was for a work recognition trip in March.  Staying at The Phoenician resort for three nights, we enjoyed the facilities (especially the pool), took a rafting trip down the Lower Salt River, and travelled to an offsite ranch for a farewell dinner.  Outside of the work-related activities, I also managed to sneak in a Friday afternoon trip to Sloan Park to see the Cubs battle the White Sox in exciting Cactus League action.   Rather than heading home, I extended my stay for a couple of days.

Saturday, after a trip to the airport to pick up a rental car, we headed to Camelback Ranch in Glendale to watch the White Sox take on the visiting A’s in another installment of the Cactus League.  Looking for some non-baseball activities, Sunday consisted of a lake cruise along Lake Pleasant while Monday started at Heard Museum, which claims to be one of the premier Native American museums in the United States.  When that turned into kind of a bust, we headed to nearby Chase Field for a tour of the home of the Diamondbacks.

I returned to the Phoenix area in 2018, following another work trip.  A conference in Las Vegas led to me stopping in Arizona for the weekend before heading home.  I again took in some Cactus League action, this time at Camelback Ranch and Peoria Sports Complex, seeing the White Sox, Cubs, and Mariners (twice!).  I also enjoyed a trip to the slot canyons and Horseshoe Bend in Page, followed by a quick trip to the Grand Canyon.  I also managed to see my dad for the first time in years (and, to date, the last time I’ve seen him).  He had recently moved to the Tuscon area and drove up for a quick bite to eat before going back home.

Will I return?  I have to assume that yes, I will return to Arizona someday.  Leaving aside any future spring training action, I do need to take in an actual game at Chase Field at some point.  I will also likely need to deal with something related to my dad.  So I’d say the odds are much better than 50/50.

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Everything Old Is New Again Again

As expected, the White Sox announced this morning that they will be moving their radio home back to ESPN 1000, which previously broadcast their games from 1999 – 2005.  The new agreement includes all regular season and postseason games, as well as select spring training contests, starting (hopefully) with the Cactus League opener against the Brewers optimistically planned for February 27, 2021.

The agreement also includes White Sox Weekly, a weekly wrap up show, plus pregame and postgame shows.  Strangely missing from the announcement was any word on the status of Andy Masur or Darrin Jackson, leaving open whether the duo would be retained.

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Trying To Come Back

Two weeks into what should have been the 2020 baseball season, MLB is looking at options to resume playing sooner rather than later.  The first proposal, to quarantine all 30 teams in the Phoenix area and play to empty ballparks, both Chase Field and the spring training complexes, leaked last week and was quickly pooh-poohed by Rob Manfred after some initial push back.

The newest proposal, which leaked out this morning, is even more radical: realignment for the 2020 season, with all teams based out of their spring training homes.  The American League and National League would be replaced by the Cactus League and Grapefruit League, with teams sorted geographically by the location of their facilities.  Like the earlier Arizona plan, games would be played in the team’s spring training stadiums, as well as the three major league facilities in the states.

Teams could play 12 games against each divisional opponent and six games against the other 10 teams in their league, creating a 108-game regular-season schedule, with the winner of each league facing off in the World Series in November.

This new plan removes some of the hurdles of the Arizona-only plan, with each team housed in familiar surroundings, but increases the risk of exposure to the corona virus by expanding the circle of quarantine necessary to keep players, staff, and other game day personnel safe.  While all of the Arizona-based teams are located in the greater-Phoenix area, the Florida teams are spread throughout the entire state.

As a fan, do I want baseball back?  Of course.  But bringing it back just to bring it back, before it is really safe to do so, not only puts players at risk, it puts the doctors and nurses in those communities at risk.  I don’t think that is worth it.

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Turn On The Marquee

Tomorrow, the Marquee Sports Network, the new home of the Cubs, goes live as the team kicks off their slate of games in the 2020 Cactus League.  Unfortunately, for the majority of homes in the Chicagoland area, the network will not be available.

Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies will continue on as the main announcing team for Cubs games.  They will occasionally be joined by one of the roving band of analysts that have been announced to date: Lou Piniella, Rick Sutcliffe, Mark Grace, Carlos Peña, Mark DeRosa, Ryan Dempster, Doug Glanville, Dan Plesac, and Jason Hammel.  Cole Wright, formerly of NFL Network, will be the studio host for pre- and post-game coverage and Taylor McGregor will be the sideline reporter, a role she previously held with the Rockies.

The one thing Marquee doesn’t have is a carriage agreement with Comcast, the dominant cable operator in the Chicago metropolitan area.  Comcast has 1.5 million home subscribers in the area, more than all the other metro area operators combined.  The Cubs hope to avoid the fate of the Dodgers, who created their own network in 2014 and still have not gotten full clearance in the Los Angeles market, after 7 years and 2 World Series appearances.  Tomorrow was a soft deadline to get a deal done.  If nothing happened by March 26, when the Cubs open the season in Milwaukee against the Brewers.

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Grievence Denied

After nearly 5 years, an arbitrator has ruled in favor of the Cubs in the grievance filed by the MLBPA on behalf of Kris Bryant.  The grievance, filed in May of 2015, alleged that the Cubs manipulated Bryant’s service time in an effort to keep an extra year of team control before Bryant was eligible for free agency.  The hearing took place this past October, once it became obvious that Bryant and the Cubs would not be coming to an agreement on a long term contract that would make the grievance moot.

Bryant split the 2014 season between Double A Tennessee and Triple A Iowa.  Despite hitting .325 with a combined 43 home runs and 110 RBIs between the two levels, he did not get a September call-up by the Cubs.  Determined to break camp with the big league team the next spring, Bryant slashed .425/.477/1.175 with nine home runs in 40 at-bats in the Cactus League.  However, that was not good enough to supplant Mike Olt, and Bryant was returned to Triple A to, allegedly, work on his defense.  When Olt injured his wrist on April 11, the Cubs waited until April 17 to put him on the DL and recall Bryant, the very day they gained an extra year of control.  Bryant went on to win the NL Rookie of the Year award, hitting .275 with 26 home runs and 99 RBIs while Olt, after finishing the year with the White Sox, never played in the major leagues again after the 2015 season.

So, the Cubs retain control over Bryant for an additional two years.  Whether he steps foot on the field again as a member of the team is still up in the air.  With the Cubs too close to the luxury tax threshold for Tom Ricketts’ comfort, Bryant has been rumored to be on the trading block all winter, with the result of his grievance, and the length of time before he becomes a free agent, seen as being the holdup in closing a deal.  While trading Bryant may be the best way to replenish a farm system left bare by 5 years of contention, while also lowering the team’s overall payroll commitments, doing so does not signal an intention to try and win in 2020, while the remainder of the team’s core moves closer to free agency themselves.

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2018: The Year In Travel

As I arrive home from California, I thought it would be nice to look back at the many trips I took last year.  Things got started in March, when I headed out to Las Vegas for the IBM Think conference.  Along the way, I took in a show, Absinthe, at Caesar’s Palace, a Barenaked Ladies concert at Mandalay Bay, and a show by The Chainsmokers at MGM Grand, where I was staying.

Following the conference, I took a detour to Phoenix for a long weekend, where I took in some Cactus League action at Camelback Ranch and Peoria Sports Complex, seeing the White Sox, Cubs, and Mariners (twice!).  I also enjoyed a trip to the slot canyons and Horseshoe Bend in Page, followed by a quick trip to the Grand Canyon.

About a month later, I took a short weekend trip to New York.  Danny, Michael, and I flew to New York on a Friday night, where we met up with Angelina and had dinner with the family she was nannying for.  Saturday was a glorious spring day, spent sight seeing at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, Central Park, the Guggenheim museum, and the Empire State Building.  Sunday was spent at the Lyric Theatre, watching both parts of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, before heading home early Monday morning.

My next trip came at the end of July, as Val and I headed down to Roanoke, Virginia, to celebrate Jeff’s 50th birthday.  After a day of “work”, the highlight of the trip was Saturday’s hike up Catawba Mountain to McAfee Knob.  Sunday was spent recovering, before heading home.

I spent most of September in Europe, starting with a week in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  Aside from work, there was a trip to Castle Ward in to look at Game of Thrones filming locations, a hockey game featuring the Belfast Giants, a trip to the Ulster American Folk Park and a nip across the border to the wonderful town of Muff in Ireland, and a Black Cab tour of locations in Belfast related to the Troubles. Continue reading →

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Heading To The Desert

phoenician-resortAs discussed back in December, I won another free trip, this time to Arizona, from work due to my continuing outstanding awesomeness.  Well, the time has come to cash in and today I will be heading out to the southwest, leaving the Chicago spring behind.  I’ll be spending the next three days at the beautiful Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale, before heading to Phoenix and the comforts of a Hampton Inn for another three.  Hopefully, unlike last year, I won’t come down with something and be sick for most of the trip.

Plans for the trip include my first foray in to the Cactus League, including trips to both the newly re-chsitened Sloan Park and Camelback Ranch.  Beyond that, I will be playing things by ear, hopefully enjoying some downtime in the sun.