Franklin Quest Field Salt Lake City Buzz Pacific Coast League (AAA)

This is without a doubt the most most beautiful setting I've ever seen for a baseball game. Not that there is not stiff competition. Cobb Field in Billings, Montana, has a butte behind it; the Appalachian Mountains form the backdrop for several teams in the Shenandoah Valley League. And, if you like manmade physical features, there's the CN Tower overlooking the SkyDome in Toronto or the hulking dry docks beyond the outfield walls at Harbor Park in Norfolk. But none of these is up to the majesty of the snow-capped Wasatch Mountains that surround Franklin Quest Field. Some consider Salt Lake City a backwater because it only has one major-league franchise, i.e., the NBA Utah Jazz. These critics are petty snobs. To satisfy them and their own civic pride, the civic leaders in Salt Lake City pursued the role of hosting the winter Olympics. Following the abysmally low ethical standards established by the despicable hypocrite Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympics Committee, they outbribed the competition. Over twenty years ago, back in high school I wrote a paper advocating that the United States pull out of the fraudulent Olympic Games. While I still hold the Olympics in contempt, I would greatly regret the good people of Salt Lake City losing them. Salt Lake City bore witness to the Cincinnati Red Stockings on a barn-storming trip back in 1869. The city's first professional franchise debuted in 1903. Since then the city has gone back and forth between the highest levels of minor league ball and several rookie league teams. Fans there have seen Tony Lazzeri hit 60 homers in 1925 and a professional record 29-game winning streak by the Trappers of the short season rookie Pioneer League. Even with the low-level ball of the Trappers, Salt Lake City consistently outdrew the majority of minor league affiliates across the country. The citizens of Utah deserve the AAA quality of the Pacific Coast League in their current franchise the Buzz. Joe Buzas, described by The Sporting News as the "king of minor league baseball," brought the Portland Beavers to Salt Lake City in 1994 when he was promised a state-of-the-art facility to replace Derks Field. He surely also lusted after their attendance figures. In fact, since 1986, Buzas has owned 17 franchises for 77 baseball operations. Any way you cut it, that's a lot of relocations. Unfortunately that is the nature of minor league ball. Interestingly enough, I saw the last season of the Portland Beavers and the debut season of the Salt Lake City Buzz. Portland got another team and the Pioneer League got a monetary settlement for getting squeezed out of their territorial rights. What's the Buzz? The nickname is a natural fit: Utah is the Beehive State, a previous team was called the Bees, their competition is the Jazz, and their owner is Buzas. Perhaps the last two are a stretch. In any event, the logo is sharp, appeals to kids, and can be adapted readily to catchy product designs. On the other hand, the food was only standard fare and a little bland at that. They have the usual huge number of promotional nights which have become the minor-league standard. Franklin Quest Field is a terrific and well maintained facility. It also has two of my favorite architectural features that all the newer ballparks are emulating. One, grassy slopes behind the outfield fences provide a picnic setting for families and good cheap seats. Two, there is a gap between the upper grandstand and the lower box seats, which provides a view of the game from the concourse. You can mingle or stand in concession lines and still watch the game. I first saw these features at Stanley Covelski Field in South Bend, Indiana, back in 1992. It is such an improvement over the claustrophobic concrete dungeons of Ewing M. Kauffman (nee Royals) Stadium in Kansas City one must explore to check out the concession stands or find the lavatories. I hate to mention this, but I saw John Stockton at Franklin Quest Field after what was once then a typical early playoff exit by the Utah Jazz. I snapped a photograph and later sent him a print to autograph and a SASE. As with every other major leaguer I've ever tried this with, he didn't respond. Sports may be fun to watch, but I've given up expecting decent behavior from the players. Giving him the benefit of the doubt that he deserves his privacy, I'm not posting that picture here. If he's anything like his fellow NBA basketballer Latrell Sprewell I'll be sued from now until Doomsday. To end on a better note, I'll mention some local destinations. The Temple Square and the Great Salt Lake are both nearby. Even better though in the southern part of the state are Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Their names accurately describe their contents but not how spectacular they are. Zion National Park is pretty good, and while I didn't see them firsthand, Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon National Parks come highly recommended. Actually, anywhere you go in Utah it's beautiful, one of the most scenic states in the Union.

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Stockton, California
California League (A)

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