Spring Training Anyone?

Spring training is like nothing else. It is simultaneously magical, meaningless, exciting, quiet, new and familiar — that is if you have gone for 10 or so years in a row as I did prior to the pandemic.

Spring Training & Me

In 2020 I was supposed to fly to Phoenix on March 13th and luckily made the decision not to board the plane or I might have been stuck in Arizona for who knows how long as baseball and the world were shutting down.

2021 did not feel safe to travel or mingle and so I once again skipped my annual spring training ritual, putting my life ahead of the A’s in what can only be described as terrible priorities.

In 2022 I made my triumphant return to the Cactus League, flying from an east bay that was all about vaccines and masks to a Phoenix area community that didn’t seem to believe there had ever been a pandemic or a need for masks and safety precautions.

When I came back from spring training I tested positive for COVID, my one and only bout.

I didn’t make it to spring training in 2023 or 2024, putting me on quite the losing skid of being absent 4 of 5 years. That is why I have decided to partake once again in 2025.

Usually I try to go early in the month of March because the weather tends to be more mild and more of the younger prospects are still in camp. However, Southwest decided I should go, this year, the weekend of March 21-22. Their way of telling me was to make all the affordable seats unavailable other weekends. I did not choose their “Wanna get reamed?” fare and will cross my fingers that the temperatures stay below 90 that late into the month.

How About You?

This thread is an opportunity for you to tell the community of your 2025 plans, your pre-2025 history with the Cactus League — or the Grapefruit League if applicable. Are you going and if so when? Have you ever been and if so how was it? Is it something you have never done but is on your “bucket list” or is it something you’ve never done because it’s something you never really want to do?

If you are going the weekend of the 21st-22nd, maybe we can meet up. Though if you are a lurker I’ve never heard of with the user name ActualAxemurderer I might pass. (That reminds me of an actual conversation I had with my brother and mom yesterday about what were the limits of what you could legally change your name to. I used the example: would they let you fly with a Real ID that showed your name to be Amana Killingspree?)

Anyway, I have to go meet Amana for lunch so please use this thread to discuss all things spring training and don’t forget to answer the poll!