Chasing The Darkness, Rounding Third & Still Wanting To Just Go Home…

When I was a couple of decades younger than I am now, I used to spend a lot of time driving the back roads of this rural area I call the center of my spider’s web with a variety of combinations of friends and several packs of Camel filters. Often on these mini-adventures I’d mention how someday I’d hope to wake up just before sunrise and trade the back roads for the highway heading west and see just how far I could make it before the sun set. Be careful what you wish for children. That was eighteen years ago and I’ve been chasing the darkness ever since.

So fittingly, it’s just before the sunrise as I sit here pounding away on the keyboard far too many days removed from my previous writing session with western travel on my mind and 7 days in my way of being surrounded by the game of baseball.

The motivation that sent me on this quest has resurfaced as the winter weather gives way to the time of spring, when a man’s heart turns to love and the game, and frankly the love of the game. There’s a  pounding in my chest tonight and that feeling remains just as it always did.  That desire to go where one can when they can not go where they want. The need for familiarity in an unfamiliar place. A face in the crowd at peace among strangers. A face in a mind that still laughs, still smiles, still looks like it used to.  The need for that breathless feeling that overtakes you when you walk in and the whole world opens up.

Voices of distress and the bark of the black dog of winter are replaced with the one that says, “spring will be here, soon.” and a whisper that softly speaks the phrase, “Go west, young man.”

Where have all the cowboys gone you ask? Riding off into the sunset, to kiss the horse and chase the darkness one more time. A pilgrimage in the Sonoran, to a baseball Mecca, a desert search for baseball Allah.

Friday March 9th

– Cleveland Indians @ Milwaukee Brewers – Maryvale Baseball Park – Phoenix, AZ

Saturday March 10th

– Texas Rangers @ Chicago White Sox – Camelback Ranch – Glendale, AZ

– Los Angeles Dodgers @ Chicago White Sox – Camelback Ranch – Glendale, AZ

Sunday March 11th – Texas Rangers v. Cleveland Indians – Surprise Stadium – Surprise, AZ

Monday March 12th – Texas Rangers @ Seattle Mariners – Peoria Sports Complex – Peoria, AZ

Tuesday March 13th

– Texas Rangers @ Cleveland Indians – Goodyear Ballpark – Goodyear, AZ

Wednesday March 14th

– Texas Rangers v. Colorado Rockies – Surprise Stadium – Surprise, AZ

– Los Angeles Dodgers @ Cincinnati Reds – Goodyear Ballpark – Goodyear, AZ

Thursday March 15th

– Texas Rangers v. Oakland Athletics – Surprise Stadium – Surprise, AZ

– San Francisco Giants @ Seattle Mariners – Peoria Sports Complex – Peoria, AZ

Friday March 16th

– Texas Rangers @ Los Angeles Dodgers – Camelback Ranch – Glendale, AZ

– Seattle Mariners @ Oakland Athletics – Phoenix Municipal Stadium – Phoenix, AZ

Saturday March 17th

– Los Angeles Dodgers @ Colorado Rockies – Salt River Field At Talking Stick – Scottsdale, AZ

– San Francisco Giants @ Los Angeles Dodgers – Camelback Ranch – Glendale, AZ