Praising Arizona: Chicago Cubs to Stay in Spring Training Home

According to Chicago Tribune and WGN reporter David Kaplan, the Chicago Cubs intend to maintain their spring residence in Mesa, Ariz., pending a vote on the financial package needed to upgrade their facilities.

After a long and often tedious tug-of-war between Mesa and Naples, Fla., Chicago appears ready to make its final choice the same one it made over 30 years ago, when it set up its first camp in Mesa in 1979. 

By choosing to stay in Arizona, the Cubs help maintain a balance created when the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers moved to Arizona last spring.

Fifteen teams, exactly half of Major League Baseball's clubs, now play in each of its two Spring Training leagues. They also save themselves a good deal of hassle: travel is notoriously more difficult in Florida than in Arizona, and there would be an obvious adjustment period to the move if one had occurred.

Such a move seems unlikely now, however, and it appears Cubs fans looking forward to retiring to Arizona's easy-going Cactus League need not fear anymore. Details of the new development continue to trickle out, but it appears much of the revamping and expansion could be finished by 2011 or 2012.

Barring an unforeseen failure of the referendum the plan must pass, the Cubs will remain a solid mainstay in the Cactus League for decades to come.

What does the non-move mean for the team? Hopefully, that the Ricketts family was able to broker a good deal, that will get Chicago the larger, state-of-the-art training facilities they need to prepare thoroughly for the upcoming seasons. Chicago already has a well-publicized facility deficit, as Chicago's beautiful Wrigley Field lacks certain modern amenities and features boasted by nearly all other Major-League parks.

With luck, this new deal will allow them to erase whatever such shortfall may exist in Arizona. 

Ultimately, this deal will not turn the Cubs franchise around overnight. It does, however, prove that the Rickett's are committed and comprehensive in their determination to bring the team bravely forward into the new decade, and to change the culture of baseball on Chicago's North Side for the better.