notes from arizona

Day 8 - Phoenix

First I should point out - just in case anyone reading this doesn't know - that I love bacon. I've said it before and it's still true: never have I eaten anything involving bacon where bacon did not improve on the balance of the ingredients. That said, however, on this day the bacon I had for breakfast at The Original Pancake House in Scottsdale, which was well-prepared and delicious, paled in comparison to the best pancakes I have ever enjoyed. Having recommended the restuarant, Mom of Katz was absolutely right, and our only mistake was waiting until today to go (although we wouldn't have been able to go on most days, with our call times between 6-6:30 and the restaurant opening at 7).

The perfect texture (not too fluffy yet not too thin) and flavor (no need for butter, numerous fruits and other toppings available inside and on top of the cakes), and extremely reasonably priced. Scrambled eggs, three strips of bacon and a short stack (one of my favorite expressions/nicknames) for $6.99. The chocolate chip pancakes were impressive; even better were the banana pancakes, with the right batter:banana ratio and shaved coconut (!!!) on top. What a great start to the day; I'll be back tomorrow.

From there it was a quick trip to A's camp in Phoenix. Having now visited all of the camps in Arizona during the past few years, I have to say that the Athletics facility, while not one of the newest, is my favorite camp to shoot. With the mountains directly overlooking the fields, the non-interview footage at A's camp is always beautiful. On this particular visit, however, the weather was far from ideal - rain most of the morning shortened the workout and the sun didn't come out until most of the players had left for the day.

Nonetheless, our final camp was a successful one, primarily because we got most of the interviews we needed and Big Time was able to meet the star of her rotating office computer screen-saver: pitcher Mark Mulder. We wired him for the workout and interviewed him afterwards. Once we finished a few more interviews, it was time to assess Big Time's Top 5 Spring Training Hotties of 2004, with her comments on each:

5 - Scott Podsednik, Brewers ("great eyes")
4 - Barry Zito, Athletics ("I wasn't expecting him to be so good-looking")
3 - Joel Piniero, Mariners ("so pretty to look at")
2 - Bobby Crosby, Athletics ("This team is so good-looking I'd consider moving to Oakland")
1 - Mark Mulder, Athletics ("He didn't disappoint at all")

I'm picking the handsome A's to finish with 87-90 wins and take the AL West in a very tight race with the Angels and Mariners.

I deposited (strange word choice, I guess, but it seemed appropriate) Katz and Big Time at the airport earlier this evening (where they scored $50 upgrades to first class!); next is the end-of-the-work-portion-of-the-trip-celebratory-dinner with Schulzie and Fortch. They were a great group to work and travel with, and it was a very successful week. Tomorrow I'll be hitting the road in the Lancer for a quick look at the Grand Canyon before returning to NY. Thanks to the staff at balgavy.com headquarters for the space to share my ramblings, and thanks for reading and commenting...for more information, feel free to call...M.

Posted by Mitch at March 2, 2004 11:09 PM