spring training 2008 - feature story

Of Freeze Dried Grapefruit, A Frozen Ballplayer
and a Road Trip to Tucson
By Charlie Vascellaro

Maybe it’s all the sensory elements tied to memory, the warmth of the springtime sun, the sights and sounds on the ball field, and of course the scents of everything associated with the ballpark, cold beer, sausages on the grill, but it still always feels like I’m playing hooky whenever I’m at a spring training baseball game. It used to be a goal of mine to make it to as many spring training games as possible each Cactus League season, now I make it to a game just about every day on the schedule and even though it counts as work for me now, it still feels like playing hooky. The greatest joy of being at the ballpark every day comes from the likeminded folks you’ll find there, making new friends who become old friends that you see year after year. Our shared experiences become old stories that we recall when we meet again. Here’s few from last year.

The Sammy Sosa signed Grapefruit
Speaking of sausages, they still conduct the “Famous Sausage Race,” every day after the sixth inning, just before last call for beer at Maryvale Baseball Park. Like everything at Maryvale, the sausage race is light-hearted, good-humored, irreverent fun. After the race, the sausages walk up the aisle and line up on the concourse where they sign autographs and pose for pictures. Judging by the long lines, the fans seem to have more interest in the Italian, Bratwurst, Polish, Hot Dog and the Chorizo than they do in the home-team Milwaukee Brewers players, which is not a knock against a team that includes NL home run leader Prince Fielder and Rookie of the Year Ryan Braun.

I was having a particularly perfect day last spring at Maryvale catching the Rangers versus the Brewers with my good friend and ballpark companion Amanda. Looking at the bottom of our cups just after the bottom of the sixth, we rose from our seats for last call. Along the way we posed for pictures with our favorite sausages and decided to take a late-inning stroll around the concourse. Arriving at the right-field corner where players from both teams exit the clubhouse, we spied a lone kid anxiously awaiting his favorite player’s exit. He had a baseball in one hand and a pair of baseball cards in the other. I asked whom he was waiting for and he told me that Sammy Sosa had given him the ball five years ago at a Cactus League game in Mesa when Sosa was with the Cubs. The kid, now 11 was 6 when Sosa gave him the ball and because of Sosa’s subsequent departure from the Cubs and the Cactus League, he did not have the opportunity for another encounter with his hero until Sosa had signed on for a spring training tryout with the Rangers in 2007.

He showed me a pair of cards, one new and one from his hey days with the Cubs a few years back and asked me which one he should try and get Sosa to sign. I told him to go for the older one because it was more relative to the time Sosa had given him the ball. He said he had one of those ball-and-card holders ready to display his prized possession at home.

There were surprisingly few fans gathered by the players exit at the time, many of them still preoccupied with the sausages and I told the kid that he probably had a pretty good chance of getting Sosa to sign his items and instructed him on how to be politely aggressive in asking for his autograph. The kid spoke Spanish and I told him he should tell Sosa about how he had given him the ball, in Spanish, if he should have the chance.

Then, as if on cue, Sosa emerged from the clubhouse exit, in clean civis, his hair still damp from the shower. A few other autograph hounds had since gathered around the gate that separates the players from the fans, and I encouraged the kid to make his move.

“Get in there!” I said. Obviously nervous, the kid was hyperventilating in trepidation, but summoning his nerve, he reached through the fence with the ball and yelled, “Sammy, mi pelota, mi pelota, tu apprendes mi pelota, cinqo anos pasado.”

And just the way we had hoped, Sammy picked out the kid from the rest of the pack and with a warm smile on his face immediately signed both the card and ball. The kid was beaming. It all looked so easy I thought maybe I should ask Sammy for his autograph as well. Looking for something for him to sign in my bag that I always carry to the ballpark, I spotted a softball-sized bright yellow grapefruit I had picked from a tree alongside a driveway a few days earlier near Hohokam Park in Mesa. With a Sharpie felt pen I also had in the bag I quickly scribbled a small squiggly line at its base to check if ink would adhere to its surface. I handed Amanda my camera and told her to take as many pictures as she could.

Sammy had his own Sharpie, which he was using to sign everything placed before him. I jabbed my hand and grapefruit through the fence, a little higher than most of the other kids hands, which were clutching baseballs, cards and other memorabilia for him to sign. Like it had been for the kid, Sammy immediately chose my grapefruit from the plethora of offerings. He turned it around in his hands a couple of times, studying it curiously as if he were searching for the sweet spot, and showed it to another Texas Rangers employee nearby. Smiling and laughing all the while, I could read his lips asking a profane question about its origin “what the…” and I said, “Go ahead Sammy it’ll take that Sharpie.” He found the center of the fruit’s circumference and signed a perfectly legible Sammy Sosa in bright blue right along the middle with a little number 21 on top and handed it back to me with a bemused expression on his face.

I turned back to Amanda and proudly displayed the signed citrus posing for a portrait. After admiring my one-of-a-kind souvenir for the better part of the afternoon, I began to worry about its fate. I figured in a short while my once vital and vibrant, juicy and colorful fruit would begin to dry up and shrivel. I imagined it’s shiny skin shrinking, the autograph sadly fading away. I wondered if there was any way I could preserve it?

After the game we drove back to the Valley Ho Hotel in Scottsdale where I was staying. We perched the grapefruit on the balcony and took a series of photographs, I figure if the fruit could not last forever at least we would have the memories.

Later that evening I met a pair of my old newspaper pals Marcia Hammond and Mike Welton out for beers at the Four Peaks Brewing Company in Tempe. I told them about my experience with Sammy and the grapefruit and explaining my dilemma. Welton said I should take it to a taxidermist. I wrote his suggestion down on a small piece of paper and stuffed it in my pocket.

Over a couple of cups of coffee in my room back at the Valley Ho the next morning I began searching the Internet for nearby taxidermists. The first one I contacted explained that taxidermy may not be the best solution to my problem recommending instead that the fruit should be freeze-dried for optimum preservation. Just after hanging up with him, I received a call from the hotel’s concierge inquiring about the comfort of my stay and if there was anything she could do for me. I explained my predicament as succinctly as I could.

“Well that’s a new one,” she said, adding that she would get right on it and back to me as soon as possible. It didn’t take long for her to find Floral Keepsakes at 5202 North Seventh Street, which specializes in the lifelong preservation of wedding bouquets and such. She even relayed their $30 quote to me for the job and gave me the phone number. I called for and asked how quickly I could bring it in. The person on the other end of the line said I could bring it in right away but also explained that the freeze-drying process takes about two weeks and that they require a number of orders to turn the machine on, so it might be a while before my grapefruit would be returned to me.

When I arrived, the woman I had spoken with on the phone met me at the counter. She took the grapefruit from me and gave it a thorough examination. She pointed to where an incision would be made it its base to remove the fruit, replacing it with tissue paper and told me she would have to keep it in the freezer until she had enough orders to run the freeze drying machine. I expressed concern about the signature and if the frost would cause it to fade. She said that everything in the freezer had been labeled with a similar magic marker and none had faded. I couldn’t watch as she began to remove the cardboard wrapper from the razor blade she would use to cut into the grapefruit and asked if she needed anything else from me. She said that I was free to go and she would be back in touch with me when the process was completed.

I spent the following weeks continuing my regular tour of the Cactus League, telling the story of the grapefruit to all of my ballpark friends and acquaintances, who were just as anxious as me for the fruit’s safe return.

I continued with my regular spring training schedule for the rest of the month, periodically calling Floral Keepsakes to check on the condition of my grapefruit. It would be months before I would actually have it back in my hands. I ordered a glass display cube on an attractive cherry wood base with a mirrored bottom from Floral Keepsakes for $45, bring the total cost of freeze drying and presentation of the grapefruit, (which I picked with a handful of others at my $5 parking space in Mesa) to $80. But looking at it now, safe it home, for me it’s almost priceless. I wouldn’t sell it for any less than $3,000.

Visiting the Splintered Splendor at Alcor
While drinking beer with friends hounding around for autographs with kids at afternoon games in the middle of the week is reminiscent of carefree days gone by and certainly feels like playing hooky from life. The actual work I do, going to the ballparks and writing about the Cactus League every year has presented and afforded me with many relative assignments.

For more than a decade I have covered the business end of Cactus League baseball and the economic impact spring training in Arizona has on the State’s tourism related industry for publications such as Arizona Business magazine. My affiliation with the magazine has sometimes led to writing business stories having nothing to do with baseball and some relative to professional sports and the industry. While in town last year I pitched a story to the magazine on the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale which achieved national recognition and notoriety when it received its most famous patient, Ted Williams, whose frozen head and body have been cryogenically preserved in liquid nitrogen tanks since his death in 2002.

Ever since I heard of the Splendid Splinter’s strange post-life saga, I’ve wanted to gain access to Alcor’s inner workings for a first hand account of just what goes on there. Prior to arriving in Arizona for the spring training season last year, I asked then Arizona Business editor Greg Sexton if he would be interested in a straight feature story on Alcor, not focused on Ted Williams in particular. I knew I would not be able to get into Alcor if I said I was writing on Williams, as his case was a particularly controversial one, concerning a family feud being waged by his children over whether he had consciously agreed to become an Alcor member. The baseball community cast a cynical and scrutinizing eye on the whole situation which garnered Alcor its greatest if not most notorious publicity to date, resulting in internal shake ups including the resignation of Alcor’s then chief operating officer Larry Johnson who was critical of the foundation’s procedures regarding Williams’ cryopreservation.

With or without Williams, Greg still liked the idea of a story on Alcor, saying it would fit in well with an upcoming issue’s theme on Arizona and asked that I include the following information in my story: “What is cryonics and what kind of science is behind the issue? Where does the firm's funding come from, who works there, how many people are employed, etc. Besides that, let's talk to them about the technology itself, how it has evolved and where it might be 20 years from now,” wrote Greg.

Sacrificing a ball game, I made an appointment well in advance of the March 8th date when I would sit in the conference room for an interview with Aclor’s executive staff. They were obviously guarded and almost overly cautious with me, but polite and friendly just the same. I do not know if they Googled me or found out that I was a baseball writer. They probably had a prepared answer should the subject of Ted Williams arise, so to speak.
On its surface, I must admit to being skeptical of the idea of “future reanimation and future revival,” that Alcor hopes to provide for clients such as Williams, but some of my favorite movies, like Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein,” Steve Martin’s “The Man with Two Brains,” and Woody Allen’s “Sleeper” offer similar scenarios at their premise.

Alcor executive director Stephen Van Sickle brightened when I made the Sleeper analogy in my opening question. I asked if any similar piece of fiction served as an inspiration for Alcor, to which he responded that the concept of cryonics was first publicly promoted in “The Prospect of Immortality,” a non-fiction book written by a physics professor named Robert Ettinger in 1964, which has come to serve as Alcor’s doctrine. Here is a favorite passage of mine from the book:

“Clearly the freezer is more attractive than the grave, even if one has doubts about the future capabilities of science. With bad luck, the frozen people will simply remain dead, as they would have in the grave. But with good luck, the manifest destiny of science will be realized, and the, and the resuscitees will drink the wine of centuries unborn.”

I’m attracted to any scenario that includes drinking wine.

While I avoided asking questions about Williams, I did mention that his story brought national attention to the Alcor foundation and asked about the possibility of celebrity endorsements. Alcor COO Tanya Jones, whom I was originally interviewing when Van Sickle joined the conversation, responded that she didn’t think celebrity spokespeople were “a method that would work well for [Alcor’s] business model,” but Van Sickle interjected that, “On the other hand it would be nice if people didn’t feel there was any stigma to it.”
In fact it was reported in the Sports Illustrated article that previous Alcor CEO Jerry Lemler had spoken with Ted Williams son John Henry about the possibility of going public with Williams membership. In a letter acquired by Sports Illustrated, Lemler wrote that “it would be huge,” to have an endorsement of the company from Williams adding, “Stated bluntly, the Williams name can be expected to provide Alcor with a fund-raising and membership-enhancing leverage wedge it has never possessed.”

You know, like the vintage Ted Williams’ “Make mine Moxie” advertisement that says that’s been reproduced and sold as a collectible. Someone should put a fridge magnet of the ad on the side of his cryopreservation tank.

As our conversation progressed, while I remained cynical about the possibility of Ted Williams or anybody else coming back to life, I found myself rooting for Alcor. Sure it all seems nuts but wouldn’t it be great if Teddy “F’n” Ballgame would step back into the batters at some spring training game at Scottsdale Stadium in the not so distant future? Wouldn’t be great if I were there to see it while drinking the beer and eating the peanuts of centuries yet unborn?

Fred and Woody’s Wall of Fame
Having grown up in the Valley, most of my earliest spring training memories revolve around Scottsdale Stadium, Hohokan Park in Mesa, Phoenix Municipal Stadium and Tempe Diablo Stadium, we didn’t have Peoria or Maryvale yet. And while Compadre Stadium in Chandler (1986-1997, R.I.P) was on the fringe of the Valley and Desert Sun Stadium (25-year-spring home of the Padres) in Yuma was a distant outpost, the historic Cactus League road trip is the 100-mile drive from Phoenix on I-10 to Tucson’s Hi Corbett Field, the only lasting link to the Cactus League’s 1947 origin. We began making our road trips to Tucson in mid to late 80s before the Indians left for Florida and Bob Feller used to sit in the bullpen down the left-field line and sign autographs for everyone between innings.

We were heartbroken when the Tribe decided to leave Tucson but thankfully the vacancy was immediately filled by the expansion Colorado Rockies in 1993, whom we adopted as our own and kept our running road trip tradition in tact.

After living in Arizona for 20 years I moved to Baltimore, MD in December of 1998 and missed my only Cactus League season in 1999 while working as a PR director for three of the Baltimore Orioles minor league clubs. A few years later I had the greatest job in the world, working for the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum in Baltimore, transporting its traveling exhibit to minor league ballparks all across the country for two entire baseball seasons. My second tour of duty brought me right back to Arizona, setting up the exhibit, which told the story of Babe Ruth’s life, at each of the Cactus League venues. Like I said before the best part of hanging out at the ballpark on a daily basis is the people you meet and the ensuing friendships that develop. At Hi Corbett Field I met then volunteer staff supervisor Woody Duxler who was completely enthralled by our exhibit and was encouraging everyone he spoke with at the ballpark to pay us a visit. We became fast friends and spend time together at the ballpark every spring.

One of the Cactus league’s first two ballparks, Woody loves telling the story of Hi Corbett Field to anyone who’ll listen and last year with fellow staff supervisor Fred Boher and completed a Wall of Fame on the concourse, listing all of the 66 players, mangers and executives enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame that have participated in spring exhibition games at Hi Corbett since.

“We felt that there was so much history and so many ghosts at HI Corbett that while it was still being used we should bring attention to the fact that we’ve had so many greats, said Duxler. “Joe DiMaggio played his last spring training game at Hi Corbett and Mickey Mantle played his first during the same season. It was the Yankees only spring in Arizona and the Indians were the only road game that year. Obviously we’ve had some of the greats with the Indians too, Bob Feller, Bob Lemon Lou Boudreau, the office where I work in the ballpark is where Bob Feller used to negotiate his contract,” says Duxler who identifies himself as an original Rockie, joining the staff shortly after he and wife moved to Tucson.

“We came to Tucson in the fall of 1991 and I was fortunate enough to have season tickets for the Indians, but when they left after the 1992 season it looked like it was going to be the end of the Cactus League in Tucson, says Duxler, “but I give credit to Bob Gephart who was the GM of the Rockies at the time and the City of Tucson for coming up with the money (between $3-5 million) for the necessary renovations. It’s been a very important thing for Tucson it really has. Every time I walk into Hi Corbett it’s like a field of dreams.”

This year, Hi Corbett will also serve as a field-of-dreams come true, welcoming back its improbable National League champion Colorado Rockies.

As far as Woody’ Wall is concerned this year’s Hall of Fame inductee Rich Gossage spent nine spring seasons with Cactus League teams including a very productive four-year stint with the San Diego Padres from 1984-1987. Other future Wall of Famers might some day include the Rockies own Todd Helton, and other current Cactus League luminaries like the Angels Vladimir Guerrero, the Cubs Alfonso Soriano, the Mariners Ichiro Suzuki, as well as current Padres Greg Maddux and Trevor Hoffman. Though it is not certain if Randy Johnson will pitch again, the former Mariner and Diamondback should be a lock for Cooperstown. Sluggers Ken Griffey Jr. and Frank Thomas, speedster Rickey Henderson and slick fielding shortstop Omar Vizquel will most likely appear in the Hall and on the wall some day.

Why we Love Tucson
Every time I hear the new cover version of Bob Dylan’s “Senor,” from the “I’m not There,” soundtrack, sung by Willie Nelson, backed up by Tucson’s own Calexico with a wonderful cameo appearance by Mexican troubadour Salvador Duran, I’m transported back to Hotel Congress lobby where I first discovered Duran a few years ago.

It was early in the evening, I had just returned from another afternoon at the ballpark. A happy-hour crowd had already gathered in the lobby. I went to my room to clean up from the day’s activities and when I came out into the hallway, (all of the hotel’s guest rooms are on the second floor) I could hear his voice rising up the stairs from the lobby.
He was standing on a wooden milk crate banging out the percussion with his cowboy boots while playing his own unique brand of Mexican flamenco music, forcefully strumming his guitar, and occasionally accompanying himself on harmonica. Belting out the lyrics in a booming operatic baritone that resonated over the bustling lobby in a short while he had cast a mesmerizing spell over the room and entire hotel.

I remember inquiring about him at the front desk the next morning. “Who was that guy?” and being told his name and that he played regularly on Thursday nights. I began to plan my visits to the Congress accordingly, always checking in on Thursday. I remember a particularly enchanting evening in the spring of 2006, me and my friend Charlie had once again returned from the ballpark to find Salvador serenading in the lobby, the room was quite full and we found a place to sit on padded bench facing the front desk, which meant we had to crane our necks to face the music. Charlie realized that the bench was not connected to the back of another sofa it was adjacent to, and pulled it way enough for us to swing our legs around creating our own row of seating where we were joined by others.

After the show I was able to visit with Salvador over a few glasses of wine and told him that I was a tremendous fan of him and his music. I knew that since I had first heard him he had been discovered playing in the lobby by the band Iron and Wine and recorded a few tracks on their collaborative album with Calexico. He had already done some tour dates with them as the opening act on a recent U.S. tour and received some critical acclaim. I remember thinking at the time that Salvador Duran is a man realizing his full potential and how fortunate I was to have come to have heard his music and even get to know him a little before he hit the big time.

We exchanged e-mail addresses and when I returned to Tucson at the end of the Cactus League season, I checked in with him to make sure he would be performing again. He said he had not originally planned to do so, as he was preparing to embark on a European tour with Calexico and Iron and Wine, in the next couple of days, but said if I wanted him to play one more time, he would. I also invited some family members to join me at the hotel’s Cup Café for dinner that night and to hear him afterwards. I asked if he didn’t mind me taping the show on a small recorder I usually used for interviews. It’s not the best sound quality but I believe I might have the last live recording of Salvador Duran at the Hotel Congress.

Our Enduring Pastime
Somehow tumultuous doesn’t seem a strong enough word to describe this past winter’s off-season. As of this writing, all-time home run leader Barry Bonds faces an uncertain future, regardless of the results of the perjury and obstruction of justice cases being brought against him, he remains without a job and it appears we may have seen the last of him as an active major leaguer.

Sammy Sosa, who returned from a year off in 2006 amidst steroid speculation, earned a starting spot with the Texas Rangers shortly after signing my grapefruit last spring and eclipsed the 600 home run mark while driving in 92 runs in 114 games. Sosa was also among the unsigned at the time of this writing.

Roger Clemens and Andy Petitte highlighted the 88 names listed on the finally concluded 20-month-long Mitchell Report investigation of steroid use and other artificial performance enhancing substances in baseball.
Every team in the major leagues was affected by the results of former U.S. Senator and federal prosecutor George Mitchell’s findings and the fresh start of a new spring hasn’t been more eagerly anticipated since the end of the players strike in 1995. Despite it all, major league baseball as a whole achieved record attendance levels in each of the past three seasons.

From freeze dried autographed grapefruits to frozen Hall of Famers and names being added to the Wall at the oldest Cactus League ballpark, we’ll be looking forward to whatever this year’s spring season has in store.

Historic Hotel Congress at the Center of Tucson Universe

Walking into the lobby of the Hotel Congress is like stepping out of time, reminiscent of Tucson’s frontier days. Real keys are still used to lock guest room doors and are left with the receptionist, sitting in front of an old time telephone operator’s switchboard, whenever you leave the hotel.

Originally built in 1919, to accommodate the burgeoning U.S. cattle industry and as a stay-over stop for railroad travelers on the Southern Pacific line. Located across the street from the Southern Pacific Depot station, which has been there since 1907 and still serves as the Amtrak station for the Sunset Limited and Texas Depot lines. The station and its surrounding property, which also includes the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum, was purchased by the City in 1998 and restored to the stylish southwestern architectural form of it’s 1942 renovation.

The Hotel Congress continued to be a comfortable rest stop for train travelers through the hey day years of the railroad industry but achieved its greatest claim to fame, on January 22, 1934, when notorious gangster John Dillinger was snuffed out of the hotel by local police. Dillinger and his gang had booked a bunch of rooms on the third floor under aliases, for an extended stay as a hideout after a series of bank robberies netted the gang nearly $25,000. While a fire that began in the basement was burning its way up the elevator shaft, a desk clerk operator alerted Dillinger and his gang who were evacuated by fire truck ladders. After reaching ground, the gang offered firemen a reward for the rescue of the luggage containing their loot. Recognizing the gang from photos appearing in a recent issue of “True Detective,” magazine, the firemen called the cops and a few hours later the gang was rounded up and booked in the clink.

Nowadays Hotel Congress is a funky and eclectic gathering place in the heart of Tucson’s historic district, where locals and visitors have come to regard the hotel as a one-stop multi-purpose destination. With three bars including the Club Congress live music venue, the discreet Tap Room watering hole and lively lobby bar the place is a bastion of activity the place throbs with energy nearly 24-hours a day. The Cup Café restaurant has increased in stature over the years, serving up gourmet fare three meals a day, attracting a wide variety of culinary connoisseurs.

The retro chic rooms, all located on the hotel’s second floor, appointed with antique furnishings and vintage radios, (no TV’s) are affordable, charming and comfortable and the hotel will be adding another new restaurant in the Southern Pacific Depot Station across the street this spring.

About the Author - For the past six years Charlie Vascellaro has written the feature stories and team previews for Key Magazine’s Spring Training issue. He is also the author of biographies of Home Run King Hank Aaron and current Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez as well as Baseball Is America, a limited edition historical volume commissioned by the United States Department of Commerce, the first copy of which was given to the President. Vascellaro calls Baltimore, Maryland his home while traveling frequently on assignment. A former 20-year resident of Arizona, Vascellaro writes annually on the state’s spring training Cactus League for team programs and Arizona tourism and travel periodicals.