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I got to watch two innings of baseball in Surprise, Ariz., on my way from San Diego to Albuquerque. Games in the Arizona League — the lowest level of Rookie ball in the minors — are unbelievably informal. There are two teams, two umpires, and maybe two fans.
The game I saw, between the A’s and Royals, was held on one of the practice fields at Kansas City’s spring training complex. No public address announcer, no mascot, no concession stands. You share a port-a-potty with the players, many of whom also sit around you behind home plate. One or two are assigned to operate the scoreboard.
In such an intimate setting, you get to hear on-field exchanges. One batter came to the plate without his helmet, took crap from his teammates for it, ran back to the dugout to put on the helmet, and returned to the plate for this:
batter: Sorry ’bout that.
plate umpire: It’s not a problem for me.
Priceless.
Sam Runion, the Royals’ second-round pick in 2007, delivers a pitch to an unidentified A’s batter.
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[...] over and, after 16 hours of driving, I was in no mood to do anything. Still, I managed to catch a few innings of an Arizona League game that morning in Surprise, so all was not [...]