Every March, big-league baseball moves into the neighborhood and the whole city rearranges its afternoons around a 1:05 PM first pitch. The games don’t count. Half the players wearing numbers in the 80s will be in Double-A by April. None of that matters, because the product isn’t the baseball. It’s a lawn, a hot dog, 78°F, and the particular pleasure of watching professionals play a kids’ game on a Tuesday while everyone you know back home is at work.
Scottsdale has two of the best parks in the Cactus League, and they’re very different afternoons. Here’s how we do both.
The two ballparks
Scottsdale Stadium is the San Francisco Giants’ spring home, and has been since 1984. It sits on Osborn Road a couple of blocks from the Civic Center, inside a real, functioning downtown, which no other park in the league can say. The current stadium dates to 1992 and was built by the same design firm behind Camden Yards: brick, low grandstands, shade trees, and a grass berm in the outfield. Capacity is around 12,000, and Giants fans travel, so weekends sell out.
The site’s baseball history is older than the Giants. The original ballpark went up in 1956, partly bankrolled by Charlie Briley of the Pink Pony and a group of local businessmen, and the Orioles, Red Sox, Cubs, and A’s all trained here before San Francisco settled in. The 1950s page has the rest.
Salt River Fields at Talking Stick is the Diamondbacks and Rockies, about ten minutes east. Be precise about this one: it isn’t in Scottsdale. It sits on Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community land just across the city line, and it opened in 2011 as the first MLB spring facility built on tribal land. It’s the modern showpiece — a big shaded concourse you can circle without losing the game, a huge outfield berm facing the McDowells, and parking that’s free and vast. The Talking Stick page covers the rest of the district.
Locals don’t pick one. We do both in the same week without shame.
Timing the month
Workouts start in mid-February and games run from late February through late March. Schedules usually post in the fall, and that’s when the planning starts, not in March.
- Weekday over weekend, always. Half the crowd, better seats, same sun. A Tuesday lawn ticket at Scottsdale Stadium is the whole secret of March.
- Rivalry games are priced like real baseball. Giants–Dodgers and anything on a Saturday sell out well ahead.
- Split-squad days put games at both parks at once. The committed do a morning workout at Salt River Fields and an afternoon first pitch in Old Town.
- March is also everything else. The Parada del Sol Rodeo, Scottsdale Art Week and college spring break all land on top of the baseball. Rooms, tables, and tee times vanish weeks out.
Tickets and seats
Buy from the teams directly or through the official Cactus League links. Resale markups on a spring game are a tax on people who didn’t plan. Prices vary by opponent and day of the week and change every year, so we won’t quote them here, but midweek lawn tickets are among the cheapest pro-sports tickets anywhere.
The lawn is the right seat for most people. At Salt River Fields the outfield berm is the best cheap seat in the league: bring a blanket, show up at gates-open, and claim a spot with a mountain view. At Scottsdale Stadium the berm is smaller and more social, and it’s the same grass the city now opens as the free Left Field Day Park the rest of the year. Go sit there on a quiet October weekday and scout your March spot for free.
If you want shade, pay for a seat under the roof. The lawn has none. None.
Getting there
For Scottsdale Stadium, don’t drive to the gate. Park once in one of Old Town’s public garages a few blocks away and walk, or ride the Arizona Canal path in, which is the most Scottsdale way to arrive at a ballgame. If you’re staying in Old Town, the whole day is carless. Our getting-around note covers the garages and the free trolley.
For Salt River Fields, drive. The lots are huge and the exit is orderly by Valley standards.
Autographs and workouts
Spring is the best time of year for autographs, and the practice fields are better than the games. On many workout mornings the practice fields at both complexes are open to wander for free. Get there early, stand along the rail, be polite, be quick. During the game itself, the baselines during batting practice are the spot.
The sun rules
We say this every year and every year somebody ignores it. March sun at seat level burns pale winter skin in about an hour, and the breeze hides it until you’re back at the hotel glowing.
- Sunscreen before you leave, and again in the fourth inning.
- A brimmed hat. A ball cap leaves your ears and neck for the sun to find.
- A water bottle. Check each park’s current bag and bottle policy before you go; they change.
- A light layer for late innings. When the sun drops behind the grandstand, the temperature follows.
Eat outside the park
Stadium food is fine. Old Town before a Giants game is better. The old baseball clubhouses are gone — the Pink Pony and Don & Charlie’s both closed — but Goldwater Brewing is a pre-game pint a short walk away, and the Coach House takes the post-game crowd the same way it takes every crowd. Our food note has the rest of the canon.
The one-day version
One afternoon: a weekday game at Scottsdale Stadium, a lawn ticket bought ahead, sunscreen applied before you leave, and a patio happy hour two blocks from the gate afterward. Two afternoons: add Salt River Fields for the berm and the mountains.
And if you’re really baseball people, come back in October for the Arizona Fall League: the same parks, next year’s rookies, and almost nobody else in the stands.