Be sure to check out this month’s Let’s Go that is inserted in this week’s edition of The Times.
In addition to the regular features such as Ryan Winslett’s Movie preview and his Tech Talk column, where this month he compares portable computing options and things to look for when buying a laptop or a tablet to replace your PC.
Editor Linda McThrall has a touching column about the passing of her mom, known by family members as Llama. There are previews of special events such as the annual St. Patrick’s celebration at Fountain Park and the Wisconsinfest museum fund-raiser at the Community Center on March 28.
Also for your reading information, it is our annual Health and Fitness issue as well as the annual Spring Training Preview by nationally recognized baseball writer Charlie Vascellaro.
Charlie worked at The Times, covering sports, while attending ASU in his pursuit of a journalism degree.
After graduation he went to work for Diamond magazine in Scottsdale. He later went on his own as a free-lance baseball and travel writer based in Baltimore, Md. He has authored several baseball books and his stories have been published in many airline magazines and newspapers across the country.
He has always made a point of spending Spring Training in Arizona since moving to Maryland. Last year, he spent half of Spring Training in Arizona and the other half covering the Grapefruit League in Florida.
Charlie and I share seats at the Giants’ Spring Training stadium in old town Scottsdale. They are in the second row behind the Giants’ dugout. We always manage to go to at least one game together each year and we talk baseball and early-day Fountain Hills.
It’s a day I look forward to each year.
Charlie also has a story in the Let’s Go about the new Spring Training home of the Oakland A’s. The newly renovated Hohokam stadium is where the Cubs used to play.
Actually, the A’s originally trained in Mesa from 1969 to 1978. They even contributed $9.4 million to the construction of Hohokam Stadium in 1997.
The Chicago Cubs trained there until last year when they moved into a new stadium that resembles Wrigley field in Chicago.
The City of Mesa and Oakland Athletics reached a 20-year agreement in March 2013 that returns the A’s to Mesa.
I attended an open house that the Athletics held last Saturday to show off their new stadium.
Pitchers and catchers reported last week and the remainder of the players are to report today, Wednesday.
It’s time to play ball and I can’t wait!
The first Spring Training games are played on Tuesday, March 3. The full Cactus League schedule is on Page 15 of the Let’s Go.
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It was a good crowd on hand for the Great Fair over the weekend.
The weather couldn’t have been better. Diane and I stopped at the Chamber of Commerce booth on Sunday afternoon and found a smiling Sharon Morgan.
The Special Events Coordinator for the Chamber said she was “smiling because the artists are smiling. Most of them did very well.”
