Arizona Fall League Mock Trip (part 1)

By Josh (9 Inning Know It All):

Previously I’ve talked about my suggestions as to where people should go during spring training and I plan on doing a mock up of what my 2013 spring training trip would look like if I was going, which I’m not.  I do have a 2014 trip planned.  However, because the Arizona Fall league starts next month, and I do plan on going to Arizona Fall league in 2013, I thought I would write up a mock trip for 2012 so people can see how I think (Yes it is kind of scary to get into my thought process).

To begin with the Arizona Fall league is very different than spring training and not just because it is only prospects that play.  There are only 6 teams in the Arizona Fall League and those 6 teams are made up of representatives from every major league team.  This makes planning a little bit easier because the choices for games to attend isn’t very big, but what days you go is really important because there are some stretches of the season where there is a night game every night of the week.

If I was going to go down this year I would go Wednesday, October 17^th through Saturday, October 20^th.  The reason I chose these dates is very simple, there is a night game each of the four nights which means 8 games in 4 days.

I would either fly out late Tuesday night or really early on Wednesday morning so I could get to the first game I have planned to attend.  Yes, I would be a little tired at the first game and probably even more so at the night game but its baseball, we all have to make sacrifices don’t we?

I would fly out either late Saturday night after the final game, which would be really late, or have a nice rest and fly out any time during the day on Sunday.  I would probably choose the any time Sunday route but if I can save some money by flying out at midnight I’m okay with that as well.

Now for the important part, the schedule of games.  The first game I would go to is the Salt River vs Peoria.  This is a 12:35 start and is at Peoria which in my opinion is the best place for autographs.  Find out why at my previous blog. Spring Training Guide – The Stadiums  This is followed by the 6:35 game of Mesa  playing at Scottsdale.

Thursday’s schedule would be Surprise at Phoenix at the 12:35 time slot followed by Peoria at Salt River in the night game at 6:35.

Friday would be Mesa at Phoenix at 12:35 followed by Surprise at Peoria at 6:35.  The final day would be Mesa at Surprise for the day game and Scottsdale at Salt River for the night game.

The nice thing about the 12:35 and 6:35 start times is that even if you are going to a game on the west side and a game on the east side of Phoenix you can still watch an entire game, pick up dinner and still be at the stadium for the night game one to two hours before the game starts.

I would recommend staying in Peoria simply because it is a little bit cheaper in that area.  Surprise and Peoria are only 10 to 15 minutes apart so if you are staying in Peoria you can make it to three of the games with barely any drive time.  The other five games are on the other side of Phoenix but even from Peoria the longest drive time is 40 minutes which is to the Phoenix stadium.  To Salt River and Scottsdale it is 30 minutes and 35 minutes respectively.  Not that bad really.

So here is a quick summary of the hypothetical trip that I wish I was taking this year.  In the first three games you would see all 6 teams play.  Over the course of the 4 days you would see Phoenix and Scottsdale each twice, while seeing Mesa, Peoria, Salt River and Surprise each 3 times.  You would go to every stadium in the league except Mesa and would see two games at Peoria, which like I said is the best place for autographs.

Now I really want to go, really, really, badly.  The good thing is I am going to do everything I can to make it in 2013 for the Arizona Fall League.  Check for part two of this blog when I discuss what you need to bring with you and prepare for long before you start your Arizona Fall League trip.