My last opportunity to explore Arizona’s Spring Training facilities was last Thursday, February 15th. Earlier in the day, I had texted back and forth with Dave Kopack, whose son Addison played for the University of Rhode Island and is now a minor league catching prospect with the San Diego Padres. Addison, according to his father, was already in Padres camp, which was in Peoria, AZ. I messaged Dave that I would be heading up to Peoria after work to hopefully check out the stadium, and possibly run into the RI native who is making his way up the depth chart for the Padres Organization.

I pulled up to the parking lot and saw a ton of people at the stadium. Fans were crammed at the front gate entrance, there was a parking lot attendant who greeted me, and I asked the dumb question of the day. “What’s going on here, is there a game tonight?” Without hesitation, the parking lot attendant answered, “yeah man, the Bananas are playing!!!” It was game night, it was time for entertainment. Without further interruption, The Savannah Bananas…

Except for me, ticketless and to be honest, not that interested in seeing the traveling show that the Bananas are putting out there for baseball fans. No offense to the Bananas, but my time was limited and the sun was setting on my last night in Arizona. I politely asked the attendant if I could pull a “U-ey” and he showed me the way. I flipped around, stopped at the stop sign at the end of the stadium entrance, and typed “surprise stadium” into my rental car’s map program. 25 minutes away, golden!!!

I arrived in Surprise, Arizona in just about 25 minutes with traffic and I still had plenty of sunlight left for photos and exploring. I parked in the visitors lot and began my search for an open gate, a security guard, a someone who would let me into to take a few photos. I walked up to the first gate, which had the Kansas City Royals logo on the side of the building. Locked.

Then, I found some others looking at the ticket window and main gate entrance. Locked and no one around. Okay, time to move on to the next gate, and the next gate, and the next gate. Locked, locked, and more locked. There were some people inside, but (as they should be) no one was interested in letting me inside. I understood and took whatever photos I could from the outside looking in.

This was pretty interesting. Buck O’Neil’s place in Kansas City Royals history is the stuff of legends. His place in baseball history is the stuff of legends. And here I was standing and viewing the Royals baseball complex on Buck O’Neil Way. Very cool experience.

There were far too many baseballs outside the outfield fence to count, and all completely not reachable by the sidewalk I was standing on. I would have needed a really long device or stick to snag these baseballs. And I wasn’t about to attempt to do so. Just seeing them there was cool enough for me.

There was this giant, comfy Adirondack chair ready for someone to sit and enjoy the game. I thought, that looks very enticing and I will have to try it out in a few weeks time, if the chair is available when I see a Royals or Rangers game.

Here is one of the few decent photos I took of the stadium and baseball field. It was from the left field concession stand area on the side walk facing the visitors parking lot. Notice the two signs on the right of the photo – Kansas City, MO – 1035 miles that way and Arlington, TX – 885 miles that way also.

So, I struck out in Peoria with the Bananas in town. And I sort of struck out at Surprise Stadium because I couldn’t get in and I couldn’t snag a souvenir baseball. No worries, for my Arizona week I went a solid 4 for 4 in visiting stadiums and complexes. In a few weeks time, I will be back in Phoenix and will look to attend a few live Spring Training games. And get some more photos and experience more of the stadiums I didn’t get into on my first trip. Still a very fun experience in Peoria as well as Surprise. I normally despise Surprises, but this Surprise I really liked!