Three teams train here, but an exodus is under way

This spring, SI.com senior writer John Donovan is touring the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues to cover baseball's biggest newsmakers. Today, he files his final Hot Spot of the spring from Tucson, Arizona, home to the Diamondbacks, Rockies and White Sox.

Both the Rockies and Diamondbacks are in Tucson for now, but that could soon change. Jeff Gross/Getty Images

TUCSON, Ariz. -- The scene at Tucson Electric Park is a practical postcard, with the Santa Catalina Mountains rising proudly on one side and the Rincon Mountains framing the field on the other. It's the kind of breathtaking view that you simply can't get in the flatlands of Florida or the sprawl of Phoenix. So no matter what problems this picture may be hiding, there's at least this much you have to say for spring training here: It is, uniquely, Tucson.

Yet these are nervous times for the city and its floundering winter baseball market. One major-league team is definitely fleeing up I-10, relocating to a new stadium being built in a Phoenix suburb. The others here have talked about the same thing. And when the moving trucks start packing up -- maybe as early as next spring, and no later than the spring of 2013 -- the fallout could be devastating, financially and otherwise, for Tucson and Pima County.

In a few more seasons, if nothing changes soon, Tucson could be a spring training ghost town.

Welcome to Tucson

About a million people live in the Tucson metropolitan area, located about 115 miles southeast of Phoenix. Tucson -- locals are fond of calling the city the "Old Pueblo" -- has lived in the shadow of Phoenix and the Valley of the Sun for forever, but the people down here will tell you that they enjoy smaller crowds, cleaner air and better scenery.

And they'll point out, when things get really testy, that the University of Arizona, in Tucson, made the NCAA Tournament field. Arizona State, in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, did not.

Three big-league teams train in Tucson at two different places. The National League champion Rockies go it solo in Hi Corbett Field, a 9,500-seat stadium built in 1937 and stuck in the center of a midtown park, bordered by a golf course and surrounded by a pricey neighborhood, Colonia Solana. Hi Corbett has maybe the funkiest dimensions of any spring training park anywhere, with an asymmetrical field that goes to 410 feet in left center and 405 in right center.

The Diamondbacks and White Sox share Tucson Electric Park, a modern stadium located near I-10 and featuring the views of the Catalina and Rincon mountains as a backdrop. TEP, unlike aging Hi Corbett, has all the latest amenities for fans and players, including ample parking and quick access to the freeways.

Two big problems exist with spring training in Tucson. One is that Hi Corbett needs millions of dollars in improvements to bring it up to the standards of other spring training sites. That can be remedied, though it'll take some doing.

The second problem is that the spring training scene in Tucson ... well, it's just not Phoenix. It's an hour and a half drive away from Phoenix, maybe more. Nine teams train in Phoenix, with at least two more (the Dodgers and Indians) coming from Florida next year. The White Sox won't be far behind, if at all. That simply makes scheduling and traveling better on everyone in the Valley, and harder for anyone left in Tucson.

And, let's face it: The scenery might be better to look at down south, but there's more of everything else to do in Phoenix. That's simply one of the reasons why the Sox plan on abandoning their state-of-the-art facility at Tucson Electric Park to move to Glendale, where they will share the facility that the Dodgers are moving into next spring.

That's just the start of the problems in Tucson.

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