Originally written December 3, 2011

For reasons completely beyond me, the Scottsdale Scorpions were easily the most popular team in the Arizona Fall League.  In retrospect, I guess it’s not hard to believe, considering the teams that make up the Scorpions are none other than the Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Angels and Washington Nationals.  The Phillies and Red Sox have enormous followings of varying degree of dedication, and the Giants are almost at their level. And the Angels and Nationals each had sent highly touted and reputable prospects, whom even the most fairweather of baseball fans had heard of.

But regardless of such information, most of the hysteria behind the Scorpions revolved around Giants shortstop prospect, Joe Panik.  From Phoenix, all the way out to Surprise, the 20-year old kid had a following that was intent on cheering his praise at every single Scorpions game they could get to.  In spite of the low attendances throughout my visit, it was very easy to tell whenever Joe Panik was on deck, due to the boisterous announcing by the fans of WHO’S ON DECK?

But anyway, Scottsdale Stadium, I would easily rank #3 on my list of Arizona Fall League ballparks.  Home to the San Francisco Giants during the spring, it houses the Scottsdale Scorpions during the fall.  It’s a beautiful park, and from what I could tell during my visit to the area, Scottsdale seemed like the supposedly “classy” part of town, in which they tried to integrate everything from an old, historic district, shopping areas, a waterfront region, as well as all sorts of kind of yuppie lifestyle businesses.

The park itself, kind of radiates an air of “the city of Scottsdale needs a sporting venue, so let’s stick it here” vibe, from the way the park is right on the edge of the historic district, which is also next to a hospital, library, museum, and city hall.  It’s easily meant to be an activity option, to those in the area, but not necessarily a destination to make on its own, like ballpark trips tend to be for dedicated fans.

Regardless of such opinion, Scottsdale Stadium is a fine venue for baseball.  It’s slightly smaller in capacity than Surprise, but slightly larger than Salt River, but it’s hard to tell from looking at the seats alone.  The bern outfield area of Scottsdale is probably the most pleasant, with several trees providing an inviting look and shade for those in the spring.  Mimicking the high right field wall in San Francisco’s AT&T Park is a section of seats that was closed off during the AFL, but I imagine are some popular seats during the spring.

Like at Surprise and Salt River, it’s evident that there is a great deal of care done at Scottsdale in keeping the field looking pristine and clean.  My only gripe of my experience at Scottsdale was simply the fact that I didn’t stay the entire game; due to the time I had in Arizona, I made the executive decision to forego the remaining six innings of the game in Scottsdale, and head out to Mesa, so that I could squeeze in a fifth ballpark in my trip.  It’s not a decision that I regret in the least bit, but Scottsdale’s nice enough to warrant an entire ballgame in the future, easily.

Notable Performances: There wasn’t a monstrous standout in this particular game, and for the matter, I was only at the game for a total of three innings.  But from what I witnessed, and upon looking at the box score, Salt River’s Tim Wheeler, of the Colorado Rockies had the most impressive day, going 3-for-5 with a double and two RBI.  I was however very impressed with top-prospect Mike Trout, who clubbed a home run along with stellar foot speed and fielding prowess out in center field.

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