I’m always willing and able to speak and write about the nuts and bolts of the AFL and any specific season or player that I covered, but the real joy I get from the league is the people I’ve met over the years.

Baseball and watching baseball offers fans the unique ability to connect with other fans. Whether you attend ML or minor league games regularly or only occasionally, you see some of the same faces over and over again. It may just be the vendors and ushers that you notice at first. Maybe you get to know other aisle mates or attend games with a specific group of friends.

My first season in the AFL (2006), I had no idea what to expect and I had no idea how the league conducted its business. The editors that I reached out to had even less knowledge about the AFL or professional baseball. I offered (pitched) to write about some local kid that was working his way up a particular organization and playing in the AFL. They didn’t know what the daily protocol was and really didn’t offer me any guidelines or parameters (or much money). It was kind of a dream opportunity for someone with zero journalistic chops. However, I didn’t pretend to be a beat reporter. I was merely a freelance, feature writer who was interested in telling a story.

That first season, I only featured a few individuals and didn’t interview too many people beyond the subjects themselves. I did know that nobody was going to get to the park before me and that I’d respect the system. Suffice to say, I didn’t expect the initial cold shoulder I received from the media liaison, but it informed me that I could operate on my own, and I did for the next 14 years.

The baseball community is smaller than most people would imagine and the AFL community is even smaller. Back in the earlier days, it seemed like there were fewer Arizona residents covering the league. My first contact in the AFL was with a former Midwesterner, Dick Beverage, a native of Omaha that relocated to California. We met on the field one day before Dick conducted his business in one of the clubhouses. He was a longtime veteran of the AFL in his role as secretary-treasurer of the Association of Professional Ballplayers in America-a non-profit working to help retired ballplayers in need. Dick would speak to each of the teams and present the benefits of joining at this point in their careers. He worked closely with Roland Hemond for years. He had everyone’s respect and the regulars looked forward to his arrival every season.

I mention all of this because of how much his friendship means to me. Dick recently passed away at the age of 86. I’m linking to SABR’s death notice. He was a proud member and contributor over the years. He also introduced me to several of his friends, some of whom are good friends of mine now. Aside from spending time on the field together before games, we watched the games from the stands, and had breakfast at the local Paradise Bakery in Old Town Scottsdale. His wife Rae would attend some of the games and I would join them for postgame pops every so often. He loved his kids, Rae, the Cornhuskers, Angels, Warriors and Cubs. Due to some health issues, he wasn’t in Arizona when the Cubs won it all in 2016.

Over the last 7 or 8 seasons, I’ve spent more of game time on the field in the camera wells with my photographer friends. I’ve also met some other writers over the years, but because our styles and subjects didn’t cross over, I didn’t connect with as many of them. They spent more time in the press box than on the field. And even in my last season (2021), I was always at the park much earlier than anyone not working for a stadium. Unless you’re an antisocial mope, it’s hard not to connect with people that you see every day like grounds people, stadium employees, clubhouse men, trainers, ushers/security and techs. One recognizes the same fans that make the trip in every season, or the various vendors hawking their bats or gloves to the young ballplayers before they hit it big. I’ve also surveyed the cultural, dining and entertainment aspects in the city with the hope of sharing my experiences with readers. I’m lucky that dear friends of mine moved to the Valley years ago and they’ve been part of all of that. I’ve also had the pleasure of attending games with friends from Chicago, Tim, Jon and Vince-although I may have had to work a little.

As the title of the blog suggests, there’s nowhere I’d rather be than sitting in a ballpark, but what I miss most is being on the field hours before a game.

God willing, I’ll be back on a field before you can say Skeeter Barnes.