Cactus League Day 1

Ready to hit the hay after our first full day here in temporarily sunny Arizona and the Cactus League.

My flight got in around 11:15PM last night and Ron and his brother were kind enough to pick me up. We found our hotel here in Tempe and settled in for the night.


This morning we got a bit of a late start heading out to Surprise and found ourselves at the Royals and Rangers beautiful complex around 11AM. After taking in a little BP (with an Alex Gordon sighting shown below) and fielding practice by the major leaguers on the two southern diamonds on the Royals side of the complex we headed over to catch the minor league action.


Most of our time was spent at the AA game where we saw J.P. Howell throw an inning (caught by Paul Bako) and then watched as prospects Chris Lubanski and Billy Butler played center and left field and got in a couple at bats.



We headed into the main stadium around 12:30PM where the Royals took on the Brewers. I noted that Robin Yount and George Brett exchanged lineup cards.


The game was all Royals as everyone hit the Brewers Tomokazu Ohka on the way to a 9-4 win. Reggie Sanders was 3-3 with a walk, Shane Costa and John Buck both hit the ball hard and Doug Mienk had a good day at the plate and in the field making several fine plays. Denny Bautista started and gave up 2 runs on 3 hits in 4 innings. Until the fourth he was dominant and had his mid 90s fastball and good breaking ball.

Sunny weather, 78 degrees. Can't ask for more than that. Heading to Tucson tomorrow to take in the White Sox camp and see them take on the Cubs. Should be fun.