Better late than never seemed to sum up the vibe among fans Thursday at spring training in Glendale, on the eve of the first games of what will be an abbreviated schedule.
One week earlier Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association reached a new collective bargaining agreement to halt a 99-day owner-imposed lockout that was the second longest labor dispute in league history. Based on the original 2022 spring training schedule, including split-squad games, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who call Glendale their spring home along with the Chicago White Sox, lost 20 exhibition games in the desert.
“It was disappointing at first,” Dodger fan and Seattle resident Bill Gatlin said Thursday during open workouts at Camelback Ranch-Glendale. With his blue Dodger cap, Gatlin watched the players work drills under a bright blue sky and 72-degree morning. “This is a cool thing I like to do every year is come down here and watch spring training, so I thought I was gonna miss out on it.”
He was hardly the only out-of-town fan whose plans to visit the Valley for spring baseball were jumbled.
Leah Randall and her mom Lisa were enjoying Thursday workouts while sporting their best St. Patrick’s Day-green Dodgers shirts and hats. They arrived a few days ago from Atlanta, and they weren’t quite sure what to expect until the last minute.
“We had our trip booked last year. And so we were just waiting and waiting, and they announced the lockout was over the day before we flew out here,” she said while sitting in a lounging chair behind the backstop at one of the Camelback Ranch-Glendale practice fields. “It was perfect. Just being out here for practice is the best part of spring training.”
The two were going to fly to Arizona no matter what happened with the lockout. The baseball fun probably would have turned into an “outdoorsy trip,” she said with plenty of hiking on their revised itinerary.
“We basically packed hiking clothes and baseball clothes,” she added. “The weather’s so beautiful. It’s so nice to just sit out here and get to see the players up close and hear them talking to each other.”
They’ll be going to Friday’s Dodger game in Glendale against the Milwaukee Brewers as well as Saturday’s dip in Peoria against the Seattle Mariners before flying out Sunday.
“We were lucky to get a couple games in at least,” she added.
Also heading over to Peoria on Saturday for that Dodgers-Mariners game will be Gatlin. He has a buddy in the Valley he can crash with during spring training visits, so those accommodations are easy to put together on short notice. Once the lockout was settled, though, he had to scramble for a flight just last week.
He’ll also squeeze in the Dodgers’ home game against the Chicago Cubs in Glendale Sunday before flying out Monday.
“I went to a lot of games with my dad growing up,” the Southern California native said of his beloved Dodgers. “One my first baseball memories is the Kirk Gibson home run in ’88. I remember watching that with my family and just thinking, ‘Wow, this sport is awesome.’ I was only 7 or 8 at the time.”
When he’s not at the ballpark, Gatlin will get in some golf and, while visiting from Seattle, basically be “soaking up some sun.”
Steve Stockmar News Editor | Sun Life Magazine & Arts & Entertainment
YourValley.net @stevestockmar
Meet Steve Steve Stockmar joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2017, and has been an Arizona journalist for almost 30 years. He serves as editor of Sun Life Magazine and contributes to West Valley communities where he focuses mostly on arts & culture, education, and profiles of neighbors making a difference.
Community: Every season Steve serves as a “buddy” with the Miracle League of Arizona in Scottsdale, has volunteered his time with Family Promise in Glendale, and previously served on the Ghostlight Theatre board in Sun City West.
Education: Graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff with a Journalism major and English minor.
Random Fact: Steve once won a 50-player live Texas Hold ’Em poker tournament.
Hobbies: Anguishing over his beloved Chicago Cubs and Bears; listening to Beatles and Grateful Dead music.
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