Tuesday March 12th, after finishing work at ABF Freight in Phoenix, I took a peek at the Arizona Cactus League Spring Training schedule of games. Most of the Cactus League games are afternoon games around 1pm, so at best I could catch the last few innings live or on TV back at the hotel. However, on Tuesday, the Chicago Cubs were playing a night game against their NL Central rivals the Milwaukee Brewers, 6:05 start. I thought, ‘well, this fits very nicely into my schedule, doesn’t it?’ and then I asked myself who I was talking to. Regardless… me, myself, and I decided to attend my first Cactus League night game at the Cubs’ Sloan Park.

Sloan Park is the Spring Training home of the Chicago Cubs. From my hotel in Scottsdale, it was only about a 15 minute ride. I parked in a giant lawn area, sort of like parking for a concert at Fort Adams State Park in Newport or the Washington County Fair. I looked around, at around 5:25pm or so, and realized that this game might actually be sold out, so I hustled up to the ticket window and hoped that I could get a general admission ticket for the game. I was in luck and my ticket was ripped by the gate attendant around 5:40. I had a huge grin on my face.

I love buying general admission tickets now at baseball games. If I absolutely have to, I will purchase specific seats in a specific section, but I prefer to go the GA route. It gives you so much more freedom to walk around, sit in different places, see different views of the game, meet a ton more people, take interesting photos of all of the park’s angles, interact with security guards and ticket attendants, and just be a friendly baseball person in a mostly friendly environment. My message to every and any one that has a ticket for a seat that I am sitting in “illegally,” just be nice and tell me I am in your seat. I promise I will move without any resistance.

I walked from the main gate all the way around the park once before taking a single photo. It is a beautiful baseball park with zero obstructed views. You can sit, stand, recline in just about every square inch of Sloan Park and get a decent view of the baseball game going on. There were Chicago themed concession stands, Chicago fans galore, and tons of souvenir shoppes all over the park. I loved the layout in the outfield area, which was mostly a grassy hill for couples and families to stretch out their blankets. Behind the outfield viewing area was a huge vendor section with food, drinks, and more Chicago stuff. Very cool walk around the park before I settled into my photo taking portion of the evening.

After I completed my second pass around the stadium, I noticed it was almost first pitch time so I settled in behind the Cubs Dugout on the third base side, on the concession stand level. I “pulled” up next to a man about my age, who was wearing a Cubs shirt, and he had his camera out videotaping/filming the field. Nothing out of the ordinary, we said hello, and that was about it for the time being. As I watched the Cubs run out to the field, I noticed that the starting pitcher for the Cubs was Lefty Justin Steele, an up and comer for the Cubs, and a 2023 NL All-Star selection. Definitely a player on the rise and I was excited to see him pitch in person. As Steele took the mound, a few golfer looking guys walked behind me and the man with the camera and stopped behind us. The three had some off color comments to make about Justin Steele, to which the man to my right spun around to face them. The golfing trio left before any incident and the man next to me turned around to refocus on the game. A light went off in my head and I turned to the man and asked “Is the starting pitcher out there your son?” The man nodded and said “Yep.” I said to him, “only a father would turn around like that if his son was being cursed at. It takes one to know one, my name is Noel.”

The man accepted my handshake and responded, “nice to meet you, Ben Steele.” I had guessed right and wow was I lucky to spend the next 20 minutes or so with Ben Steele. Ben talked about Justin’s rise through the minors and how he had progressed yearly to get to this point on the mound in Mesa. He mentioned the minor league stops and that Justin’s older brother was a ball player as well. He mentioned his playing career at Alabama (briefly) on the Crimson Tide Football team. He mentioned his place in Mississippi and his travels to see his son play in the show. He has hopes to visit Fenway Park this summer and I highly encouraged him. Ben was a great interview and I loved every minute of it. I just kept asking question after question, I couldn’t help myself. And Ben answered everything, all while taking photos and video of his son on the mound, a Chicago Cub Pitcher on the rise in the organization. It was a fantastic 20 minutes and I can’t thank Ben Steele enough for being so friendly with me.

After the first inning or so, I moved around quite a bit during the game. As the sun was setting, my photos got worse so I decided to just park it out in outfield for an inning or two to let the sun set and the stadium lights take full effect. As the MLB season is just around the corner, many of the everyday Cubs and everyday Brewers were in the lineup and they played multiple innings. The stadium was packed, maybe even sold out. I spoke to a security guard in the center field area and he thought they were going to have to shut off ticket sales. Fans were everywhere and were loud and it felt great to be out at a ballpark for a night game.

I hug around until about the 6th inning before departing Sloan Park. I took one more loop around the stadium, even peeking in to see if Ben Steele was still in his spot. He had left as well. Justin pitched into the 4th inning, I believe – most likely on a pitch count and had nothing to do with the score. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you the score. It was just so awesome to be at Sloan Park, walk around the stadium, meet Ben Steele, chat with the security guards and ticket attendants, and catch a night game in the Cactus League. Just an amazing baseball experience there in Cubs Land, Arizona edition, Sloan Park, Mesa, Arizona.