Wow, our trip to Arizona got off to a great start last night!  Since we are staying in Scottsdale and heard that Braun was going to be at the Scottsdale Mall promoting his t-shirt line, my wife and I thought we'd go check it out.  

We were expecting a big crowd and only hoping to get a photo from afar and possibly wait in line for an autograph.  We went inside Nordstroms and saw a table with Braun's t-shirts but no sign of any players.  Thinking we probably missed them (especially since there were very few people around), we were a bit disappointed.  Not long after, in comes Braun, Hardy, Hall, Derek Lee, Grady Sizemore, and Andre Ethier, all wearing the Remetee t-shirts!  We were first in line, and they were super nice!  We told them how we were huge Brewer fans and wished them good luck this year.  Braun signed a baseball and a baseball card we had brought, and my wife had her picture taken in between Braun and Hardy.  It was great, because there were so few people there and the players were so friendly.

Just wanted to share our experience.  We are headed to the Brewers-Giants game in Scottsdale today.  

Tonight at 8:00 CST.

Most of the regulars did not travel with the team to Surprise, so it looks those with MLB Network (and possibly FSN?) can get a good look at the battle for the final position player spots on the roster.  Lamb, McGehee, Gwynn, Nelson, and Duffy are all in the lineup.

CF Tony Gwynn Jr.
LF Chris Duffy
1B Casey McGehee
3B Bill Hall
RF Brad Nelson
DH Mike Lamb
C Mike Rivera
2B Hernan Iribarren
SS Alcides Escobar
RHP Dave Bush

My wife and I are headed to Spring Training for a mini-vacation between March 28 and April 1.  We are wondering if anyone out there has a good hotel suggestion for the Phoenix area.  We went to ST a couple years ago and stayed in a budget hotel near Maryvale, but are looking to find a deal on a little bit nicer hotel this time around, even if it is in another part of the Phoenix area.  

Thanks for any suggestions you might have!