This spring training thing...or lack of, is getting to me

I can't speak for all my readers, but I know for a fact many of them feel the same way I do about this spring training thing...or, should I say, lack of. And now after three cups of coffee this morning and a glance through the local paper, I'm steaming!

I like a good soccer matchup, don't get me wrong, in fact, I have a good friend who coaches the top prep boys' team in the state of Arizona...and man can his players play the game. So, this soccer tournament to be played at Hi Corbett Field in the coming weeks may turn out to be a good sporting event and worth the admission fee to attend. But I can't help feeling a little sick after I read about all the changes to the turf and the grounds at Hi Corbett to change the face of the Tucson spring training complex from baseball to soccer.

Us old timers remember the days of the Cleveland Indians as they strutted their stuff every spring, during the 1950s and 1960s at Hi Corbett. The Colorado Rockies in recent years, throw in the ole Tucson Toros from yesteryear, the movie "Major League" with hard-throwing Charlie Sheen (is that the same fella that's currently in the news...sounds like he's lost more than his fastball), and the list goes on with even more historic events at the beautiful baseball field, located near what we, the locals, refer to the area as Randolph Park.

Followed, of course, in more modern times by the Diamondbacks and the White Sox at the field on the southside of Tucson, known as TEP. Why? Why did we let spring training get away? I guess the number one culprit is money, but my goodness what a loss. A young whippersnapper, who loves baseball, may not take it so hard, but us old timers who remember Herb Score, Rocky Colavito, Duke Snider, Mickey Mantle and thousands more who have donned a uniform and participated in a game at Hi Corbett and TEP, will, and do, feel that twinge in the heart strings.

In the baseball movie, The Rookie", one of my favorite lines from the flick was in the very end when the great character actor Brian Cox, who played the father of Jimmy Morris (Dennis Quaid) in the film, said to his son, following Jimmy's first relief appearance in the Majors, "I guess I let a lot of those things get away...and I wasn't gonna miss this one."

 We certainly let spring training get away from Tucson. Shame on the powers to be that let that happen.