Picture Post: 2012 Spring Training Opening Day Game: Rockies vs. Diamondbacks

It was a battle of the prospect pitchers: Colorado’s Drew Pomeranz against Arizona’s Trevor Bauer. In here, you’ll see all the pictures I snapped from this game on March 3rd. Enjoy!

More Pictures To get You Jazzed For The Upcoming Season

All these pix are mine except for the last one…I saw it and had to add it :)

Pictures For Your Enjoyment

Here are some of the many pictures I got that day…enjoy!

It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!!!

It’s the time of year that all baseball fans wait for…it’s the time of year that is like Christmas Day to each fan…it’s the start of Spring Training camps all over the Cactus & Grapefruit Leagues. I love seeing the Boys Of Summer do what they do best: prepare for the season and also greet their fans with smiles, hugs, autographs, and pictures.

Like many fans, I was out at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick to see the Arizona Diamondbacks have their first full-squad workout of 2012. My friend and I were out there with cameras in hand ready to snap pictures of our favourite players, in hope to capture the perfect action shot, awesome smile shot, or just a random shot to portray the events of the day. I captured many a shot that day, and my friend captured what turned out to be my favourite picture of all: Geoff Blum & I together. Geoff is a longtime favourite of mine and is an all-around wonderful guy and great athlete. His smile and personality are as warm as the Arizona sunshine. His sense of humor is one of the absolute best, and I give him kudos for sporting the best hair on the team. He’s one in a million and he knows how much I adore him :)

I got to see the pitchers and fielders all do their thing that day, but the ones missing were the catchers. I got to talk to one of them after the workouts (Konrad Schmidt) and saw Miguel Montero whiz past me on a scooter. These catchers have to protect their knees somehow, so Miggy’s idea is in the form of a scooter. Whatever it takes, right?

Spring Training 2011…Two Teams, One House

My two favourite teams, the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks, are now joined together in the same Spring Training facility in Scottsdale, Arizona. Salt River Fields at Talking Stick is the name and it’s home to a very beautiful facility, which both teams are enjoying tremendously. The park opened last Saturday to avery favorable review by fans and scouts alike. 

The Opening Day game at SRF was played by the Rockies and Diamondbacks and my friend and I were fans #5 & #6 going through the center field gates that morning, as they opened at 10:30, a half hour earlier than the rest of the ballpark. So it was a grand feeling, being part of history in the making! This very game also reunited me with two friends of mine from my former stompin’ grounds of Colorado. I still get back there from time to time for visits since my dad and brother, as well as many friends, are still there. This game will remain very special in my heart for many reasons too!


Goodbye Dear Friend…You’ll Be Sorely Missed!

A few days ago, my pal Augie Ojeda received news from his agent that he would not be returning to the Diamondbacks for the 2011 season. Always the class act, Augie took the news with dignity. It will be very strange and empty for me, not seeing Augie at Fan Fest, Spring Training, and on the field at Diamondbacks games. His leaving has left a very big hole and void in my heart, as he and I befriended each other during 2007 upon his arrival to the team and we have been friends ever since. 


It is always hard to see a fan favourite go but even harder when you have gotten to know the person like I have with Augie. He will always remain a Diamondback in my eyes and heart and I wish him the very best wherever he ends up. 

I LOVE YOU AUGIE!!! OY OY OY!!

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Thanksgiving, Christmas, & Randomness

Good morning to all of my readers! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. I had a nice, quiet one with a small turkey breast, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing. It was a small meal but good enough to satisfy the appetite. For dessert, it was apple pudding cake and egg nog. Oh how I love the holiday meals and everything about the holidays :)


Speaking of the holidays, Christmas is just around the corner and today is Black Friday. Rather than go out and join the mayhem and chaos this morning, I am going out this afternoon, making my first stop the Verizon store. I recently got the Droid Incredible phone and while I love it, I don’t like the fact my battery dies rather fast, even when I am not goofing off with the apps or even using it! 

Also, speaking of Christmas, a trip to see the lights in Chandler and Ahwatukee is in order soon. I have a new camera so this year the pictures will be even better than the last ones I got. 

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When it comes to Baseball and Christmas, I got a present early recently, in the form of a black Arizona Diamondbacks Augie Ojeda jersey. I am hoping Santa DBack will grant me my one wish…for Augie to be re-signed to the team. This I want more than any present! Augie is my favourite player and also a dear friend of mine and I would love to see him return in 2011. In the past 3 1/2 years, he and I have developed a good bond with each other and I know he really wants to finish his career in Arizona, so hopefully he will get to fulfill his wish. 

Well, I’m sure if you love music like I do, you now know that the Beatles are available on iTunes…

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I love this since they are one of my very faves in music…so naturally I had to pose by the poster in front of the Apple store at Chandler Fashion Center…and sporting my OJEDA 11 jersey I aforementioned in the previous paragraph :)

Well, it’s time to go do my share of the Mall Crawl and get started on the holiday shopping…



Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

It’s a few days before Thanksgiving and about 2 weeks before the MLB Winter Meetings. I am hoping that my favourite Diamondback, infielder Augie Ojeda, will return to the Diamondbacks in 2011. Augie has told me a few times how much he’d love to be here this coming season and he has the desire to end his career (when the time comes) as a Diamondback, so I am hoping Kevin Towers will decide to keep him.


On another note, I am sad that one of my favourite Colorado Rockies players,, Clint Barmes, was recently traded to the Houston Astros. I will miss seeing and talking to Clint at Spring Training, as well as catching up on things with him during the season when the Rockies come to Chase Field. I will see Clint with his new team though. I wish Barmey the very best and hope this move will give him a lot more playing time and starts. 

Things with me lately have been going very well. I passed my Ethics class this month with an A, I got a new phone (the Droid Incredible through Verizon), and things are looking up. It’s been a tough year, as I was laid off from my job at the end of January, then lost my grandmother to congestive heart failure in February, started school in February, and the first two months of this year were the toughest two months in a LONG time! I am very grateful to good things happening now. 


Baseball & The Offseason

I always dread the offseason…first of all because I miss going to Chase Field for games. Second, because I worry if my favourite players will return the next year or not. Third, I am not as big into football or basketball as I used to be. Fourth, I don’t follow hockey much anymore either. But I do go to Arizona Fall League games here and there to get my fix of live baseball and to cure the Offseason Blues, I watch baseball movies. “Major League” tops my list of baseball movies (and movies overall) that I love. I can never get sick of Ricky ‘Wild Thing’ Vaughn, Pedro Cerrano, Willie Mays Hayes, and Jake Taylor!


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The offseason is also a great time to catch up on my scrapbooking. I have made (and helped my best friend make) a few for players: Jeff Salazar, Augie Ojeda, Luis Gonzalez (helped make), Mark Reynolds (helped make), and Clint Barmes (helped make) so far, and am in the midst of starting one for Chris Young. During the season I take as many pix as possible for the scrapbooks and then sort out the good ones from the bad, deciding which to use for the player’s scrapbook. 

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I love photography and would like to someday do a photo shoot with any of my faves…maybe do a calendar for the team like the Baby Backs did a few seasons back. Those were awesome (and very appealing) calendars! 

Another thing that happens in the offseason is the Arizona Diamondbacks Fan Fest at Chase Field. This happens in February, usually a couple weeks prior to the players reporting for Spring Training. This is one of the best times to meet your faves, as they are very accessible to the fans. I enjoy talking to the players and getting a picture with them to remember the moments by.

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I am looking very forward to Spring Training 2011, with the Diamondbacks & Rockies having theirs at the new Talking Stick Fields. It’ll be great for me, having both my teams at the same place! By the way, not only are the Diamondbacks players some of the most awesome guys around, so are the Rockies players!

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Arizona Fall League games are another great way, as I mentioned previously, to get some live baseball during the offseason. It’s also a great way to meet the up-and-coming talents in the sport!

So there you have it, fellow baseball fans! I hope you got some good ideas on how to cure the Offseason Blues and pass the time away until Spring Training starts up again. 

Welcome To My Blog!

Now that you’ve found me, allow me to introduce myself to you. My name is April and I am a diehard baseballaholic, if you will. I follow two teams: the Arizona Diamondbacks & the Colorado Rockies. I know they are in the same division, but let me explain why I follow them both: I was raised in Colorado, spending a great majority of my life there since the age of 6, and have followed the Rockies since their Inaugural Year, 1993. In 1998 when the Arizona Diamondbacks came along, I began to follow them, being they were a new team in the National League West and one of my best friends went to work for the team at the time, so it was hard for me NOT to follow them!


In 1999, I took my vacation during Spring Break and went to Arizona for a week. I went to a few Spring Training games and also met country singer Garth Brooks, as he was playing baseball with the San Diego Padres for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. I decided that a year later I would make my move to Arizona and become a full-time resident. 

I have lived in AZ since the summer of 2000 and while I miss my beloved Colorado, I love it here. I do get back to Colorado for visits as my dad and brother still live there. Maybe someday I can be a snowbird and have a place in each state…wouldn’t that be awesome?! Until then, I call Arizona my home and am happy to have year-round baseball and amazing weather! I have made many wonderful friends here and I also keep in touch with the longtime, awesome friends I have back home too. God bless the invention of the internet!

You’ve followed me this far, so I must not be boring you…that’s a good thing! Keep following, because I post about everything and anything imaginable, including baseball. 


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