Chicago Cubs - Spring Training...Mesa, Arizona

DATE:  03/29/2016 & 03/30/2016

SITE:  The Chicago Cubs – Spring Training

LOCATION:  2330 W. Rio Salado Parkway, Mesa, Maricopa County, Arizona

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS: 

Honestly, there wasn’t anything “historic” about our visit to watch the Chicago Cubs play during Spring Training. Dirk has been a long time Cubs fan and this was a great opportunity for us to take in a couple of games. He was pretty darn excited and I loved experiencing it with him.

 In 1876, the Cubs, then known as the Chicago White Stockings, were one of the original teams in the National League. In 1890, they were known as the Chicago Colts and finally becoming the Chicago Cubs in 1907.

The last time the Cubs won the World Series was in 1907 and 1908. The team has appeared in 7 World Series since than; losing each time. The Cubs have not won the World Series in 107 years, the longest championship drought of ANY North American professional sports team…meaning all sports, not just baseball.

There is a rivalry between the Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1885, a version of the World Series was played against the St. Louis Brown Stockings. They tied in 1885 and St. Louis won in 1886. This is often touted as the reason for the extreme rivalry that exists even today. Let me tell you…I’ve seen it first hand!

In 1916, the Cubs made the move from the “West Side Grounds” to “Weeghman Park”, where they still are located although it is now called Wrigley Field.

A funny story exists about a goat and a curse. I guess in 1945, a person brought a goat to a game but was eventually thrown out because of the stench. He was said to have uttered “The Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more”. True or not, there are people who believe in, and still talk about, the “curse”.

In 1886, the Chicago White Stockings held their first spring training camp in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The idea was to get the team ready for the season with practice and then utilizing the hot springs after. The team successfully won the pennant that year and other teams started showing up in Hot Springs.

 

Before settling in Mesa, Arizona, the Cubs also held spring training in New Orleans; Champaign, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, French Lick, Tampa, Pasadena, Long Beach, Scottsdale and Catalina Island.

From 1979 to 1996, the Cubs trained and played at the original Hohokam Stadium until it was demolished. The rebuilt Hohokam Stadium housed the Cubs from 1997 to 2013. The Cubs established records for both single game attendance and overall season attendance.

The citizens of Mesa, by ballot measure, voted to finance a new facility to house spring training for the Cubs in order to keep the Cubs in Mesa and the dollars flowing from the tourists who flock there each year. Initially called Wrigleyville in the plans, the field opened as “Cubs Park” in 2014.

For their $99 million dollars, Mesa got a promise from the Cubs to stay 30 years with an option for 50. If the Cubs were to leave before the deal is through, they must pay $1 million for each missed year.

The name was changed to “Sloan Park” in 2015 after a naming rights deal with the ballpark.

The park is really beautiful. The facility, the largest spring training facility in MLB, has a capacity for 15,000 fans and the two days we were there? They filled them. As an aside, it was announced that the Cubs had the largest attendance of any MLB team in spring training this year.

We were able to see the Cubs beat the Oakland A’s; 9 to 5 and the Colorado Rockies; 10 to 0.

Dirk swears I’ll be a Cubs fan and darn it if I don’t know more about this baseball team than any others. 

By the way, Dirk has found a particular song on the jukebox at the Pub he hangs out with friends at. The song, called “Go Cubs Go”, isn’t all that popular, as you can imagine, in the midst of St. Louis Cardinals territory. Dirk takes a lot of enjoyment playing that song. In fact, because his phone is hooked up to the jukebox, he was able to play the song once when he was at home watching a Cubs win.