Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 15 years and 1 month old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

We wanted to get to the park early today so we got up and went over to Native New Yorker hoping for a good breakfast. Unfortunately, unlike the actual city that never sleeps, the restaurant  didn’t open until lunchtime. So we headed north to Surprise (yes, that’s a city) to check out the Texas Rangers/Kansas City Royals training facility, hoping to find a local breakfast place along the way.

So we kept driving saying “we’ll grab something at the next place” and soon we were back in Goodyear and hungry. Based on our good experience yesterday, we went back to the Paradise Bakery before driving to the ballpark.

I have a pattern of not being on time for baseball games so this was the first time that not only was I on time, I was there before the park opened! We arrived at the Goodyear Ballpark just after 10am and went into the Team Shop to pick up some souvenier t-shirts. This way we were able to put our purchases back in the car as we had a nice close parking spot. The gates opened at 11 and we hung out watching them ready the field for the game. My brother also got some of the Indians players to sign a baseball. Bob Feller was also in attendance.

The game was shaping up to be a good one, with the Indians ahead 3-1 going into the 8th inning, but then everything broke down and the Dodgers scored 5 runs in the 8th and 9th innings, winning the game 4-6. This was the first sellout at the Goodyear Ballpark, with 10,749 attending! It was the longest game we had been to while we’ve been out here as well, at 3 hours and 15 minutes.

On the way back to the hotel we swung past Camelback Ranch, the new home of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago White Sox that is also celebrating its inaugural season. A lot of these new parks in the Cactus League are shared by two teams, something you don’t really see in the Grapefruit League stadiums back home.

We drove back to the hotel to clean up and relax a bit before heading out to dinner. It being our last night in Arizona, and wanting to celebrate our first trip to the Cactus League, we went to Rustler’s Rooste in the hills of Tempe, a local cowboy steakhouse complete with a live bull, live country western music, and really good food (“beef and brew with a view”).

We had to wait just over an hour (even with call-ahead seating!) but it was worth it. The steaks were fantastic and the atmosphere was as western as you could get. No, we did not try the rattlesnake. 😮

We got home late and need to get up in about 5 hours to get to the airport for our flights home. It went by fast, but it was a blast …