PHOENIX – Admittedly I've only seen two Cactus League venues so far, but when we visited Maryvale yesterday to watch the Brewers beat the Padres, I wondered why everyone disses the stadium.
Like the Brewers, Maryvale is not glitzy, and it's located in a real working class neighborhood rather than a swanky suburb.
But it's got a lot of space, allowing the major league and minor league clubs to work out in adjacent facilities. It's got good sightlines and the berm is ace.
There's no denying it needs a real scoreboard, but beyond that, I feel a little poorly served by the advance reviews on the Brewers' 15-year-old spring home.
I thought maybe once I'd seen other places, I'd change my mind on Maryvale.
But today we went to Surprise to see the Brewers play a split-squad game with the Royals and my view didn't budge.
Surprise is newer and shinier and certainly has a much more adequate scoreboard, but it's a long ride on city streets to get out to Surprise, where the Texas Rangers also spend March.
As a fan I'd much rather make the commute to Maryvale from the Phoenix hotels than to a relatively far-flung place like Surprise.
I'd bet the players, coaches, trainers and others who have to travel to camp daily would agree. But you'd have to ask them about the adequacy of the behind the scenes facilities at Maryvale, too. That's an aspect upon which I'm in no position to pass judgment.
I'll keep an open mind when we visit Tempe tomorrow, to see how it compares, but I hope the Brewers come to terms on a deal to stay in Maryvale. I suspect their presence is a boon to a neighborhood that looks like it needs them to stay.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
