While optimism generally abounds at this time of year, it seems like the Yellow Springs Nine front office is making a statement, moving their spring facility to Fool’s Gulch, Arizona, an abandoned mining town that once hauled gold bullion out of the core of the earth faster than it could be stolen. The facility, in Yavapai county and nestled in the Weaver Mountains (south of Prescott, north of Wickenburg), is damned hard to get to. I mean, if you’re wondering where the hell Prescott and Wickenburg are, you’re getting the idea. Bottom line: it’s maybe an hour and change from Phoenix on a rackety buss, which the team has kindly provided for Spring Training Road Trips.
“I think they’re trying to remind us that it’s a privilege to play ball,” said three-time Nebraska winner Lawrence Columbus LaLoosh as he gazed over the harsh dun, brown, and green landscape while a flock of crimson-headed turkey buzzards wheeled about overhead.
Or maybe, Crash, just maybe, the team’s front office is trying to tell you that the team has been playing like road-kill carrion in October, so might as well just cut straight to the chase.
Whatever.
The bottom line is that it’s hot and desolate out here in the daytime and cold and desolate in the nighttime. The barracks are just that, hastily constructed shacks that aren’t going to be great housing and that a record 70 players will be populating. Ballparks are carved into hard dirt that will certainly provide for some marvelously arcane hops. The dugouts are freshly-laid cinder block.
There might be 600 people in the area. Or 800. Whatever. Mostly there’s coyote, bob cat, rattlesnakes and scorpions. Heavy on the scorpions.
As usual, the first few weeks will be the realm of kids, and the last couple weeks will be the place of the veterans. Though, to be fair, that’s changed a bit too. The club traded Victor Guerra and let Miguel Macias and Felix Alvarado go Free Agent in return for supplemental draft picks. So that means that for the first time in a little while, the Nine will see some competition for slots—which will mean that potential starters like George Robertson, Carlos Camacho, and Pat Allen will see time early. Likewise a pitcher or two.
The team also has a few prospects in camps who aren’t expected to see much, if any, time in games. “We wanted to see them here, though,” said assistant GM Jim Pickett. “Having them in camp will let our coaches get a feel for them.”
“Great timing,” one anonymous prospect said when he saw the cot he’d been assigned.