{"id":6082,"date":"2012-03-26T10:16:43","date_gmt":"2012-03-26T15:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/?p=6082"},"modified":"2012-03-26T10:16:43","modified_gmt":"2012-03-26T15:16:43","slug":"just-a-few-reasons-i-love-this-time-of-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/archives\/6082","title":{"rendered":"Just a Few Reasons I Love this Time of Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I recently returned to Dallas after a spring break that took me to Scottsdale and Farmington to visit the people I love as well as to visit a residency that hopefully I will be a part of once I graduate from dental school.\u00a0 During my time off I was able to watch several Cactus League games at the finest baseball venue on the planet: Salt River.\u00a0 Holy shit.\u00a0 That place makes Camelback look like a JV complex.\u00a0 After a decade in Tucson, the Rox and Diamondbacks deserve this place.<\/p>\n

When I got home Griff allowed me to work out his C-Team guys in the infield and at the dish for a couple of days.\u00a0 I was able to watch his guys play Durango (CO) High\u2019s C squad a couple times later in the week.\u00a0 A friend and former teammate of ours manages the DHS boys, and that entire program is doing a terrific job in no small part due to what he brings to the lower levels.\u00a0 It was a great little break from the daily grind of dental school, and it reminded me of what makes this time of year so special.<\/p>\n

I was fortunate enough to watch some of the younger guys for Arizona and Colorado take part in an afternoon Minor League contest on some of the practice fields at Salt River, and it was easy to see in their faces how grateful they were to be doing what they were for a living.\u00a0 They were nearly all around 3 or 4 years, if ever, from breaking camp with the big club, but that was nowhere to be seen in the way they carried themselves regardless of the fact that it was Minor League Spring Training.<\/p>\n

Over on the big field, Colorado utility guy and fellow New Mexican, Jordan Pacheco, was demolishing Cactus League pitching as he has done all spring.\u00a0 It would take a real group of idiots to send this guy back to Triple-A.\u00a0 He represented the state, as he has always done, spectacularly.\u00a0 With upwards of five New Mexican players cracking Major League rosters this spring, there\u2019s never been a better time to grow up a ballplayer back home.<\/p>\n

As I worked out Griff\u2019s boys, it was obvious how into the game the youth around Farmington is today.\u00a0 Farmington High and Piedra Vista are the two best AAAA teams in the state and probably the two best regardless of class.\u00a0 Shilo McCall (PVHS) is now the top draft prospect statewide following an Alex Bregman (Abq. Academy) hand injury.\u00a0 PV defeated several very high quality teams in Phoenix last week including nationally ranked Santa Fe High (OK), and both Farmington schools are poised for what will prove to be a dogfight of a district season.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the one thing that stuck out in my mind the most vibrantly while I was home was the generational aspect of the game.\u00a0 Several of Griff\u2019s kids have family members that I either played with or against or even watched as a kid myself.\u00a0 Two good friends and former teammates watched the births of their first children this month as well.\u00a0 This time of year reminds us all to look positively toward the future and toward the upcoming months and to treat today as exactly what it is: an opportunity to grow within the game and within life that we will never get back.\u00a0 It reminds us that last season, last month, and yesterday are all distant memories and that today and every single day after it deserve to be approached positively.\u00a0 Also, the weather in the desert southwest in March cannot be beat.
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently returned to Dallas after a spring break that took me to Scottsdale and Farmington to visit the people I love as well as to visit a residency that hopefully I will be a part of once I graduate from dental school.\u00a0 During my time off I was able to watch several Cactus League […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,15,1300,8,6,13,10,14],"tags":[2278,509,2007,2014,3242,3245,2304,3243,3244,3246,2282],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6082"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6082"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6085,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6082\/revisions\/6085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}