Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 10 years and 1 month old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

“People ask me what I do in the winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” —Rogers Hornsby

My brother and I had to skip our annual Spring Training trip out to Arizona last year due to the arrival of his first-born child (priorities, right?) 🙂 but this year we’re heading back to the Cactus League for three days of spring baseball with our hometown Cleveland Indians.

As usual, the first day is the longest and starts early: by 5:45am EDT I was at the gate for my flight from Tampa International Airport to Phoenix Sky Harbor. The flight was uneventful and we landed a full 30 minutes early at 8:30am MST. My brother wasn’t due to arrive from Cleveland (connecting through Chicago Midway) for another 2 hours so I retrieved my luggage and then hung out in Terminal 4. I found some comfy chairs with USB and power jacks and settled down with my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 to catch up on e-mail and watch some videos while I waited.

This year’s tech “arsenal” is slimmed down from year’s past: just my Android tablet (with Bluetooth keyboard case and mouse), iPhone 4S, and Canon PowerShot digital camera (with EyeFi card). I didn’t bother bringing my old Garmin nüvi GPS since I plan on just using Waze on my iPhone.

Speaking of tech, I hope Sky Harbor updates their display systems before Windows XP expires next month. 😉

Once my bother arrived (also slightly early) we were in our rental car and heading to our hotel in short order. We’re staying in the Tempe area this year, which is further from Goodyear but closer to a lot of the other activities we have planned.

We were able to get an early check-in at the hotel so we had time to unpack and change before heading out to our first game at Salt River Fields, home to the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies. This was a new park for us and it didn’t disappoint. The complexes in Arizona are just amazing … I’m not surprised more teams are leaving the Grapefruit league in Florida and heading west.

It was a beautiful day for baseball and we had a great view from our seats next to the Indians’ dugout.

It’s always good to start the trip with a win, and the Indians soundly beat the D’Backs 7-1 in front of a sellout crowd of 11,807 (not bad for a Tuesday afternoon, but then the D’Backs are the local team).

By 5:00pm we were back at the hotel where we changed, relaxed for a bit, and then headed out to dinner at the Original Blue Adobe Grille in Mesa based on a recommendation from one of my brother’s colleagues. It did not disappoint and the “Cuisine of New Mexico” was fantastic.

As usual, we went to bed a little early since we were tired from the early flights, time change, and resulting long day.