Packard Stands

By Nate McWhorter for DieHardDevil.com

History

When I was 7 years-old growing up in Phoenix, my family moved from Ahwatukee to Cave Creek. Now that move from the South-Valley suburb to the North-Valley suburb may seem like a ridiculous thing to be upset about now, but to a 7 year-old kid, I might as well have been moving to Cave Creek, Afghanistan. I had the same feeling today when ASU officially announced that beginning in 2015, Phoenix Municipal, not Packard Stadium would be the home of Sun Devil Baseball.

I understand the reasons why they have decided to make the move, but it doesn’t mean I like it. Just like I understood that my Dad got a new job and we needed to move closer to his workplace, but I still didn’t like it. Sun Devil Baseball, like my Dad all those years ago, has a new job…and it pays.

Maybe the main reason I don’t like it is because of what Packard is to become…a parking lot with plans for a commercial development. If it were to become a new facility for athletics or academics that would propel the university even further up the ranks of North American and worldwide institutions, then I probably wouldn’t have such a hard time with the move.

Packard Stadium

Family

Packard is where I grew up. We’ve frozen together, we’ve fried together, we’ve laughed and we’ve cried together. Some of my highest moments of joy (Joey DiMichele home run in the regional vs New Mexico 2011) and some of my deepest moments of sorrow (2008 defeat in the Super Regional vs Fresno State) have happened at Packard. And there are too many others to mention. At Packard, I’ve had friendships forged, ended and mended. I’ve watched kids grow up there just as folks watched me grow up in the same bleachers. Packard is family. Talk to anyone who has spent a weekend in Section A and they’ll tell you the same.

In the winter of 2013 I moved to Alabama, leaving behind my friends and family. Most notable among them was my Dad. The man who forced me to move to Cave Creek, who brought me to my first game at Packard (Florida State as far as I remember), who spent money we probably didn’t have to buy tickets to a game we could have watched on TV at home, and who I had convinced to buy season tickets in 2012 so we could spend more time together, I had now left. He still texts me updates every inning of every game.

Packard is family.

Future

Sentiment aside we move on. As I have discussed on DieHard Devil in the past, we must accept the university and athletics trying to keep up in the arms

ASU Baseball

race that is collegiate athletics. However, long ago, when ASU announced they would be leaving Packard in the near future, we started running the “what if” scenarios. Phoenix Muni was my favorite option.

I promise this has nothing to do with me being a life-long A’s fan, BUT Phoenix Muni is similar in style to Packard. It has a great view like Packard. It is close to campus, it has a small feel and Reggie Jackson still played there. Phoenix Muni brings its own history along with it, Willie Mays hit the first ever home run in Muni, and the Dodgers first ever Spring Training game in Arizona was played in Muni, a year or two before they moved Dodgertown to Glendale.

The other benefit of Muni over other options is that it will be ours. We won’t have to share it with a big league club. We’ll have big league facilities which will attract even more big league recruits. We can say to top kids in the valley “Would you rather play in an old spring training park in Tucson, or right here where all your friends and family can come every weekend?”

Future Home to ASU Baseball

Phoenix Muni makes sense.

So this is the world we live in. Even though I knew months ago what the plans were, today feels like I’m losing a home. However looking back on it, I would not have met some of my closest and dearest friends had I not moved to Cave Creek.

Forever a Sun Devil,

The Guy with the Beard.

Video:

The Future Home to Sun Devil Baseball

Phoenix Municipal Stadium, prior home to the Oakland A’s Spring ballpark