March 8 - Sports Double Header

If you are from the west coast you will know that you are blessed with that unique ability to “double” in many sports at any time of year. For example, Ski in the morning; Golf in the afternoon. That’s an easy one and you can do that in many locations. Another one might be, Cycle in the morning; Surf in the afternoon. I like that one. So, I want to introduce a “Sport Double” in the Valley of the Sun: Baseball in the afternoon; Hockey in the evening.

On March 8, my brother Mike and I attended a Seattle Mariners vs SF Giants baseball game, the M’s won 2-1, then attended the Vancouver Canucks vs Phoenix Coyotes game in the evening, Canucks won 4-3 in overtime. If you are a sports fan from the great Pacific Northwest you will truly appreciate how fantastic this was.

The Seattle Mariners play their Cactus League games in a sweet little ballpark in Peoria. The ballpark has a capacity of around 6,000 fans. This day the park was mostly filled as the competition was the World Champion San Francisco Giants. Granted this is spring training and neither team fielded many of their starters from last season. However, under clear skies and temperatures hovering around 75F, both teams put on a spirited effort in a fast paced game. I have included a couple of pictures to try and get you in the game, so to speak.

After the ball game we made the short drive to Jobing.com arena in Glendale for the hockey game. For anyone, and I guess that is most of you reading this blog entry, who has not been to a hockey game in Phoenix (Glendale), you are in for a treat. Jobing.com arena and the surrounding entertainment district is fantastic. I wrote about this last year but it bears repeating. This entertainment district and area is unlike anything anywhere else. Nothing, not the Staple’s Centre in L.A., Roger’s Centre in Vancouver or the Bell Centre in Montreal, compares to this district and arena. Too bad hockey is not supported in Glendale/Phoenix. If the Canucks are playing, 50-60% of the fans are from the Canucks Nation, resplendent in Canucks jerseys some going back several editions. If the Detroit Red Wings are playing, same thing. This is somewhat unfortunate as the Phoenix Coyotes are a very good team. Also, even with all the Canuck fans in attendance the area was only filled to about 75% capacity. If Nashville is in town I would be surprised if they draw anymore than 5,000 fans to the game.

The long and the short of it all is that we enjoyed both games. The 2010-11 edition of the Vancouver Canucks could be one of the best teams to ever play for Vancouver. Of course, as Dana says every year about this time, “they will only break your heart”. Maybe, but I have a feeling that this is our year to go all the way! Okay, I’ve said that before. like almost every year. As for the Seattle Mariners, well, I think some of their players are hoping for “one more good year in the sun”, which is a quote from one of my favorite sports movies, Major League. Let’s hope no one tries to relocate this team to Florida. Ha!

Let's play ball........