Chicago Cubs: A Cubs fan takes a tour of the Cactus League

Lots of Chicago Cubs fans make the journey to Arizona for spring training each year. Here, one Cubs fan describes his experience.

Back in 2015, I had the opportunity to go to spring training for the Chicago Cubs in Arizona for the first time. I went to a total of five games. It was a magical experience, and for the next few years, I was hoping that someday I’d get to go back.

In September of last year, I decided that I was going to go again. I saved my money doing side jobs for a few months so that I could buy plane tickets, a rental car, and game tickets, while a good friend got a career in the area and offered to let me stay with him for free. I almost couldn’t afford to go.

For six days, I followed the Cubs around the Phoenix area. I went to a total of seven games, visiting five of the Cactus League’s ten ballparks. Each one has its charm, and though I liked some better than others, each one, in its way, served as a reminder of what baseball is all about. In spring training, the ballparks are smaller, and the game is simpler. It’s preseason, so wins and losses aren’t as important as the ability to enjoy the game at the beginning of the season in (mostly) beautiful weather.

Fans also get to see players they might not usually see the rest of the year. In most spring training games, the “regular” players only play for a few innings before giving way to other guys who are trying to make the team or otherwise get the attention of the coaching staff. So don’t expect to see Kris Bryant or Anthony Rizzo play all nine innings.

Still, so many fans make the trip each year for the reasons I mentioned above. Here, I’ll describe my experiences this year, taking a little time to represent each of the stadiums I visited.

Chicago Cubs: Sloan Park

Sloan Park in Mesa has been the spring training home of the Chicago Cubs since 2014. It’s relatively easy to get to, right off the 101 and the 202 in the eastern part of the Phoenix area. I attended the first of three games there on February 26, when the Cubs were playing the Kansas City Royals. I made the mistake of parking in a $20 lot I saw when I first got off the highway. If you’re coming from the west, keep going; there’s a $5 lot just down the road on the left.

Everything about the stadium is uniquely Cubs. Try to get there early and roam around the stadium; there’s a lot of cool artwork around the exterior, including the picture that you saw on the first slide of this article. I also came early to one of the other games I went to and saw the team practicing on the diamonds behind the home plate entrance to the ballpark.

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If you’re hoping to catch players to sign autographs, I hope you have more success than I do. There’s an entrance by the public’s home plate entrance that the players and coaches come through, and this is where fans are supposed to be to collect autographs.

In 2015, I caught a ton of players there, but this year, for one game, I waited between 11:00 and 12:00 (day games are at 1:05), and not a single player or coach walked by. On another day, I waited between 10:15 and 11:15, and only a few players walked by and none of them stopped to sign.

Inside, Sloan Park is one of the more modern-looking stadiums in the league, yet it’s still a clean look. I also thought their food selection was almost as good as that of Wrigley Field. If you want to see the star players leaving the game in the middle innings, sit along the third-base line; I was close for a couple of games and saw several star players walk by.

The Cubs won all three games that I attended, and they play the “Go Cubs Go” song just like they do at Wrigley. Overall, Sloan Park is an excellent atmosphere for Cubs fans. One more tip: At all the games I’ve attended, on both trips, Fergie Jenkins and other retired stars were signing autographs for charity behind the outfield seats. Make sure you visit there too.

Chicago Cubs: Salt River Fields

On Friday, February 28, as the Cubs were set to take on the San Diego Padres in a night game, I had the opportunity to attend another day game at another stadium and had several choices. Though I had visited Salt River Fields in Scottsdale back in 2015, I decided to go again because I liked it so much.

The Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks share this facility. This afternoon, the Diamondbacks were hosting the Seattle Mariners. Though getting to the stadium itself is easy, as it’s right off the 101, the parking situation isn’t great.

It took a long time for us to park our car, and though it was only $5, it was a long walk to the stadium, by far the longest we had to take during the trip. Getting out of the stadium took even longer. And then there was a security guard who gave me a hard time for wearing my Cubs gear.

Yet if you can get past all that, Salt River Fields is a great place to watch a game. It’s a modern-looking stadium, and it feels like a major league park despite its size. We had some great seats, just a few rows behind the Mariners’ dugout, and it gave us a great view of the stadium. There was excellent food selection, while there was lots of legroom in the seats.

It’s hard not to be biased when ranking the stadiums, as I am a Cubs fan and think that Sloan Park is great. However, I believe Salt River Fields is my favorite out of the ones that I have seen. Make sure you catch a game there if you are visiting.

Chicago Cubs: Peoria Sports Complex

Peoria Sports Complex is home to the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners, and on this night, I saw the Cubs play the former. USA Today ranked this stadium as the second-best in the Cactus League. I guess I’m not sure why.

Though I didn’t have a bad experience there – far from it – I wouldn’t say that it was among my favorites. I will add to that the fact that we attended a night game there, so it’s a little challenging to compare it to the other stadiums that we visited in the daytime.

Peoria, like Surprise, is in the northwest part of the Phoenix area, though it’s a bit of a shorter drive, and there isn’t as much city traffic that we had to go through. We had little trouble finding a parking spot for $5.

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There are two things about this stadium that I liked. One was the view from the outfield, as we came in from one of the outfield gates. It was a magnificent view, though I don’t like the fact that, when you’re walking around the perimeter inside the stadium, much of it is blocked from the view of the playing field. (This is unlike Sloan Park or Salt River Fields, where you can see the action no matter where you are.)

The other thing I like is the scoreboard, which might have been the best one of the stadiums I attended. (Sloan Park’s scoreboard, for example, seems way too small.) It’s a colossal scoreboard that hovers over the otherwise pretty essential stadium like a giant. The other “scoreboards” behind home plate, for example, are not graphics-based, while the rest of the stadium lacks many frills. Meanwhile, our seats, which were in the second row on the third-base side, were pretty cramped. Food selection isn’t the best there, either.

This is not a bad stadium, but I don’t think it’s up to par with some of the other ones in the Cactus League. Visit it if you can, though don’t make it your top priority.

Chicago Cubs: Hohokam Stadium

I went to visit a long-lost relative on Saturday, February 29, as tickets were way more expensive on Saturdays than on any other day for Cactus League games. I went to Sloan Park again on March 1 and on the afternoon of March 2, which was a split-squad day for the Cubs, before heading to my final stop on tour: Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, where the other half of the team was that night. (Yes, two Cubs games in one day!)

Hohokam Stadium is the former home of Chicago Cubs spring training. The Oakland Athletics have taken it over and renovated it. The exterior is decorated in A’s green and yellow; you know before you even walk in that you’re at an A’s game. The stadium is about four miles from Sloan Park, and though it’s city driving, I found it to be relatively easy to get to. Parking was $5 and it was easy to get in and out.

Inside, the scoreboard hovers over the stadium much the same way as it does in Peoria. One difference is that Hohokam Stadium feels much more prominent, especially on a 55 degree, rainy evening where there were a lot of empty seats. Much of the concourse is also blocked from view of the field, also like at Peoria. The stadium, both inside and outside, felt a little clunky, but it still can be a decent place to watch a ballgame.

One thing that stood out to me was the A’s fans, who were more vocally supportive of their team than any other fan base I witnessed during my entire trip. As the A’s beat the Cubs that night, it was one of the few times I felt a little out of place, as the Cubs were well-represented at the other road games I attended.

So that was my 2020 tour of the Cactus League. I would be interested to hear about the experiences of other fans if you have them.