Phoenix Trip, Day 1

Hood and I had a solid start to the trip, more or less. Parking was good, the flight was smooth... for me.

I flew directly from Dallas, whereas he had a freebie and had to connect in Denver for the worst flight of his life. Turbulence the whole way.

But we've found Phoenix to be easy to navigate. We got over to Phoenix Municipal Park to see future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux pitching for the Cubs as they faced the Athletics.

Maddux was streaky. One minute he was giving up weak grounders, and the next minute the batters were getting good wood on the ball. Still, Maddux went six innings in a game the Cubbies eventually won 6-4.

We came back to the hotel for a brief rest and to freshen up before meeting Mike Lopez for dinner. He's the chief engineer for Belo's Phoenix station, and I work with him on a regular basis. We hit a Black Angus for a good meal, then drove around downtown, checking out the sights. We went into the TGI Fridays at the Bank One Ballpark and checked out the field a bit. Looked pretty cool in the darkness like that.

I'd really like to see a game there in the regular season.

Tomorrow I may visit Mike at the station if I can drag my butt out of bed in time. Then we're likely to go to Peoria and see the Rangers and Padres.

I miss the wife and family already...