Brewers: Spring sights and sounds
Posted: Saturday February 27, 1999 11:08 AM
By David Fleming, Sports Illustrated
MARYVALE, Ariz. -- Only at spring training.
I think that's why so many people love this part of baseball. You see
things and you hear things and you experience things down here -- in this
case the Cactus League in the Phoenix area -- that you would never get to
see in a million years during the regular season.
Like the golden sun, clearing the mountains and warming a freshly cut
infield. Like grass hills beyond the outfield, instead of beer gardens and
hot tubs. Like players coming into the clubhouse first thing in the morning
-- one of them carrying a newspaper, a bag of donuts and two bags of
chewing tobacco. Like yawning kids and retired couples with matching shorts
and black socks, waiting in the same line for autographs, debating
on-base-percentage versus batting average for leadoff hitters. Like players
changing into their spikes and just leaving their sneakers all in a row
along the fence down the third-base line, like a class of middle schoolers.
Like sitting down with Milwaukee Brewers
manager Phil Garner inside the offices of the Maryvale Baseball
Park -- a complex so pristine and understated it's a pure slice of baseball
heaven -- and talking about American literature for a half-hour rather than
baseball.
"You know, the beginning of spring training is fun for everyone," Garner
told me, his hair stuck up in back like a little kid's, a stubby, half-lit
stogie in the corner of his mouth at 8 a.m. "Not just for the fans but the
players and coaches, too. The season ends and it gets cold and you need a
few weeks off, but then you start longing for spring to come.
"Spring is just the best time of year. It's a time of beginning for
everyone. A time for endless opportunities, especially for ballplayers. One
thing that makes baseball different is the camaraderie. And you miss it. Of
course, you miss the paychecks, too. And by the time spring training rolls
around most of us have depleted our savings accounts."
Like a field so quiet that when the players line up to play catch, the
patter of balls hitting mitts sounds like thick rain drops landing on a
tent top. Like watching players during batting practice make a game out of
hitting homers in order to pound a pair of pickup trucks parked just past
centerfield.
The sights and sounds of the first day of spring training -- all of it
like some kind of spiritual revival for the world's most cynical
sportswriter.
Sports Illustrated staff writer David Fleming will check in with
periodic Postcards from his tour of spring camps.
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