Bring on Baseball Season

My favorite time of the year has arrived...Spring! Which means lots of birthdays, Easter, sunshine, beautiful flowers, and baseball season!

I was lucky enough to be able to take Thursday and Friday of last week off of work to take a mini-vacation to Tempe, Arizona for some Cactus League Spring Training action. We arrived in Tempe early Thursday evening and checked into the Aloft Hotel which is a new, modern Starwood chain.

We had a huge group of friends with us who traveled out to see Chris Pettit play. Chris is John's best friend who he's known since Kindergarten. Oddly enough, Chris played baseball at LMU, which is how I know him. What a small world. Now Chris is on the 40-man roster for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. (Still such a terrible team name, if you ask me.) He's coming off of shoulder surgery but is getting some playing time and was also able to come hang out with us in the evenings.

The weekend also ended up being a birthday celebration for Chris' sister Allison (Feb 26), Me, and Chris' girlfriend, Lindsay (Mar 5)!

Thursday Night we headed to downtown Scottsdale where we found a fun Mexican restaurant and bar called Dos Gringos.

Allison (Chris' Sister) & I with Birthday Treats

Me, Allison & Sarah (you might remember Sarah as one of my fellow Seniors on the LMU Softball team)

The weather was great all weekend. We were lucky because apparently it was cold with hail and snow the weekend before. Friday we caught the Angels game at Tempe Diablo Stadium. They played the White Sox so we got to see former Pad Jake Peavy pitch. It was so nice to get some sun and enjoy America's pasttime.

Friday night we grabbed a quick bite to eat at In N Out and headed to Fat Tuesday located on Mill Ave in Tempe...which is a long street full of great shopping, restaurants and bars.

Kind of a goofy picture of us but I love our color coordination! :)

Jason, John & Dave (another longtime friend of John & Chris)

Birthday Girls! Allison, Britt and Lindsay

I guess John wanted a birthday treat too.

Got him!

Boys will be boys. Dave, John  & Chris.

John & I considered going to the Padres/Cubs game at HoHoKam Park on Saturday since the Pads will always have a place in my heart and John is a big Chicago fan. But Chris hadn't played since Wednesday so he had a feeling he might start that day. (Apparently, the usual starters don't tend to travel much...even though it's only a 20-30 minute commute.) So we went to the Brewers stadium in Phoenix to watch the Angels play. Chris didn't get in but it was still a great atmosphere and lots of fun.

Manager Mike Scioscia signing autographs before the game

Chris coming out for warmups before the game

Angels owner Arty something mingling with the crowd

Chris #33 & Pete #25

Peter Bourjous (Chris' AZ roommate and Angels starting CF)

Prince Fielder!

Saturday night we did a group dinner at PF Changs before heading to Big Bang which is an awesome dueling piano bar!

John & I before dinner

Lindsay on stage doing the birthday Hokey Pokey! (She's the one in the blue shirt)

Jason, John, Dave, Nick

Dave, Chris, John



We tried to get a picture but nobody could get it together. At least Lindsay had a good birthday!



Since Sunday came and we hadn't seen Chris play yet, we decided to show up early to watch batting practice. The practice fields at Diablo Stadium are set up like a tourist attraction so that you can watch batting practice and infield. It was really cool! Afterwards Chris stopped by to talk with us a bit and we followed him out as he signed autographs.

Chris signing autographs

Chris walking out. Lindsay on his left, John on his right

We had great seats for the game...

ToriiTown for Right Fielder Torii Hunter!

...And Chris went into left field in the 6th inning.

And got two ABs

Dave and John with Chris in the background

John & I (with my awesome new hat from Kylie!)

All in all it was a great weekend and it went by way too fast. This weekend my friends are coming out to San Dimas for dinner and a visit to my favorite local country bar, Montana's! So stay tuned for next week's post!