For all the Normal Guys of the world who are forced by the circumstance of their employment to have a paging device clipped to their belt–and who hate every minute of being eternally tethered to responsibility–there now comes a unit that might actually be fun to wear. Called the Sports…
Earl Platt leans his old body on his battered pickup and points to the mountains beyond his sprawling ranch in eastern Arizona. It’s way out there, he says, where the Zunis say they have to pray. “Those Indians say it’s important that they cross my land,” Platt starts. “It’s important…
Investment bankers who specialize in handling government bond debt stand to make huge fees if the $8.5 billion ValTrans project is approved by voters later this month. So it’s no surprise that a gaggle of investment houses are pouring money into the campaign. But one company, bond giant Rauscher Pierce…
In 1923, circus czar and Florida land owner Charles Ringling decided a major league baseball team should do its spring training in Sarasota. With the help of Al Lang, the entrepreneurial mayor of St. Petersburg, he lured the New York Giants to the Grapefruit League from San Antonio. When the…
The Republic and Gazette’s latest attempt to check the Mesa Tribune’s growing influence in the sprawling East Valley hit the front lawns of subscribers February 27. But talk of a suburban newspaper war between the Trib and the monolithic downtown dailies already has given way to quiet snickering. You’ve heard…
The residents of Sun City and Sun City West just want some equity. But not too much. To hear state Representative Nancy Wessel tell it, the huge retirement communities are being treated unfairly because state lawmakers last year began requiring them to help support public schools. The residents figured they…
In 1923, circus czar and Florida land owner Charles Ringling decided a major league baseball team should do its spring training in Sarasota. With the help of Al Lang, the entrepreneurial mayor of St. Petersburg, he lured the New York Giants to the Grapefruit League from San Antonio. When the…
Wherever you go during spring training they talk about the great Ted Williams. In my dream, I was still in high school. Our football practice field was at Macombs Dam Park in the Bronx. It was across the street from Yankee Stadium. Suddenly, Ted Williams showed up. Williams was wearing…
I blame Ronald Reagan for many things, but most of all I blame him for his polyp. I remember his polyp almost as clearly as I remember his face. And during the polyp’s heyday, I saw nearly as many likenesses of it: It stared out at me, puffy and pink,…
The young television producer was hesitant. He stood on the top step of the dugout. He looked down to where Jimmy Piersall was sitting. “Jimmy, could you spare a couple of minutes?” the producer asked. “We’d like to get your thoughts on the Strawberry incident?” Although the Chicago Cubs were…
I started out as a model parent. And I’d still be a model parent if my wife had had a hysterical pregnancy instead of a kid. Before my son was born, the rules by which he’d live his life were all charted out. I’d witnessed the mistakes of other parents…
I have never seen John Tower drunk. Am I the only American who can say that? Hell, even Earl de Berge saw Tower bombed on three occasions. De Berge wrote to Arizona’s senior U.S. senator and premier real estate speculator, Dennis DeConcini, to say that he, Earl, had seen the…
If you asked I would have told you: The University of Arizona may rank No. 1, but I don’t see them making the Final Four. Putting Kemper Marley on the cover ensures Phoenix Metro magazine’s place as Arizona’s most contemptible publication. The rise of Sam Skinner from lickspittle to U.S…
When you get right down to it, there are just two kinds of people in this world: There are people who like Steve Garvey, and there are people who don’t. Every single person, be they young or old, thin or fat, Pentecostal televangelist or Satan-worshiping heavy-metal bass-guitar player, shakes down…
Twenty years ago, the parents of a child like Jenna barely flinched when they encountered discrimination. From the moment a sympathetic obstetrician offered to whisk their little tragedy off to an institution, the family of a child born with Down’s syndrome learned that all other doors–to schools, workplaces, society itself–would…
Home base for the San Francisco Giants, this charming park is a big favorite with fans of the truly hep persuasion. Many absolutists hold that Scottsdale is the absolute best place to catch a game, because of primo sightlines throughout and the cozy feel of the grandstands in relationship to…
This is where the Seattle Mariners “play” their spring games, where every new line-up card brims with the promise of the franchise’s first halfway successful season, and where I sold beer for a living exactly five years ago right this minute. Hawking cold bullets up and down the gently sloping…
When the wickedly popular Chicago Cubs come to the Valley every spring, this ballpark becomes the epicenter of more activity than it can really stand. After all, the address says Mesa. HoHoKam has some charm, but it is in no way charming enough to make up for the March madness…
The Angels have their cleats in two worlds. For the first two weeks of spring training, the club practices and plays exclusively in the Valley, based at the Gene Autry complex on East McKellips. For the second half of March, the squad spends its time exclusively in Palm Springs. So…
?By whatever weird twist of logic, the San Diego Padres do their spring training in Yuma. This is a city of military people and retired people, two groups I don’t fit in with too well. Otherwise, Yuma is a good place to get gasoline on your way back from San…
In spring, Muni is home field for the Oakland Athletics, an American League team that I may never forgive for losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in last year’s World Series. Still, the A’s probably will be the best team to watch, baseball-wise, during this year’s spring training, if that’s…
You’d think that a ballclub with a name like “Brewers” would play in a place suited for rollicking good times. But Compadre Stadium, the spring field for the Milwaukee baseball team, is located in the wilds of exurban Chandler, Arizona, the national center for overbuilt subdivisions. And, as such, not…
