Phoenix, AZ: World Baseball Classic, USA vs Canada

All right. I think I am all caught up on our adventures since April. I am going to really try to keep on top of write-ups, because I definitely forget a lot of details in the time that passes. For now, I'll continue going back in time in the spaces between our trips and sightseeing. Here is more from this year's Spring Break.

Back when I left off from Spring Break, we were in Phoenix for the SABR Analytics Conference. Besides doing that, we had also gone to a Reds' Spring Training game, a Phoenix Suns game, and wandered around ASU. The other big thing that was going on in Phoenix (besides the SABR Conference, of course!) was the World Baseball Classic. 

The WBC is a chance for players from all over the world to play baseball. I would say it's kind of like if baseball was in the Olympics, except you don't get any medals at the end. Countries ask players (both from  Major League Baseball and all sorts of other leagues around the world) to play for their home country. A player can say yes or no (or be, cough, encouraged to say no). The WBC happens during Spring Training so it doesn't really disrupt too much. There are sites all over the world, and one of them happened to be Phoenix.

The Diamondbacks' Chase Field is pretty cool. On the outside they have a crazy machine that is baseball-centric (that's a mitt above); it's one of those kinds that have balls going everywhere and they do things depending on the area they go into. It reminded me a lot of the Chaos I machine that is in the downtown of my hometown. We watched it for probably half an hour after buying our tickets, before the gates opened.

Inside the park is lovely. We thought we had good seats, and they ended up being underneath an overhang and we couldn't see the scoreboard. But that's all right. We had the privilege of watching the USA vs Canada, so we got to see two Reds players. Joey Votto was playing for Canada and Brandon Phillips was playing for the United States. (Spoiler alert: the USA won.)

We had a pretty good time! Besides seeing our first baseball game of the year (I don't think the rainout at Goodyear really counts as baseball), we got to add another ballpark to our list and enjoy the Arizona springtime sunshine.

Have you ever been to a sporting event that has only happened a few times? The other WBC were in 2006 and 2009.