Dodgers Diaries

I’m back from my third visit to Camelback Ranch in two years. Let me first say I’m ecstatic at the notion of being able to see Dodgers baseball within a six-hour drive of my home. Spring training visits used to be something of a necessity when I lived in the bleak northeast; now, they’re more of a diversion.

Camelback is big and beautiful and fits in with its desert environment beautifully. The sight lines are excellent, it has the kind of grass berms that picnickers prefer over bleachers, and the parking is even free. It’s a long way from anywhere you’d actually want to spend time, but that’s the price you pay for having this much land. And it’s a cash cow for the Dodgers, who must be wondering why it took them 50 years to move their spring headquarters to within driving distance of Los Angeles.

But Camelback has always seemed lacking for reasons I couldn’t articulate until this most recent trip. Then I realized what I dislike about it: It’s completely charm-free. It’s anonymous. There’s nothing that identifies it as being related to the Dodgers or the White Sox, save for two small logos on the scoreboard. There’s no Dodgers (or White Sox) lore about the place, no retired numbers, no banners hanging in the outfield, no photos of the teams from years gone by. If I told you the stadium was hosting a game between the Seattle Mariners and the Milwaukee Brewers, you’d hardly know the difference.

There’s nothing that even identifies it as being a part of the surrounding community (perhaps because Glendale, a former cowtown in the desert, doesn’t really have much of a surrounding community. There’s no local advertising on the outfield walls the way there is at other stadiums. In fact, there are no billboards at all, no O’Flaherty’s bar and grill, no local Chevron station, not even a Spongetech ad. Budweiser has stuck a banner over the tarp in right field, but that’s it.

It’s as though Camelback were built to be uprooted and moved to another place in the desert to house two other teams at a moment’s notice. Given the way the Cubs are trying to hold the city of Mesa hostage -- just 13 years after getting the city to build them a state-of-the-art stadium, the Cubs now have White Sox envy -- that may not be such a bad idea. If the White Sox were to try to force Camelback to sweeten their deal (not so farfetched if the Cubs’ proposed $84 million complex in Mesa soon raises the bar for cutting edge facilities), Camelback would have little trouble calling their bluff and replacing them with a new tenant. Just rip down the SOX logo and put up an MB, a KC or an AZ (The Diamondbacks want a new park too!).

For now, I’ll enjoy the beauty of the place. It’s still a little too manicured and anonymous for me. But it beats a cross-country flight to Florida.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL