The Arizona Baseball Trail gets its own web page

Our Arizona Baseball Trail project has its own web page and logo.

The idea behind the trail is to identify and celebrate Arizona landmarks that have an historic or cultural connection to baseball.

Well before Arizona was a state, baseball played a significant role in the region’s social, recreational and economic development. Even while the Indian wars raged and outlaws roamed the territory, there was baseball.

The Trail will be a self-guided tour of landmark sites that not only tells the story of pioneer baseball, but also the rowdy and competitive mining leagues, the barnstorming days of Major League Baseball, the rich legacy of championship high school and college programs, the beginnings of the Cactus League and the current era of sprawling baseball campuses that support a billion-dollar industry.

The trail begins with a “Starting Nine” list of historic sites that played a critical role in the development of Arizona baseball. Additional sites will be added in the future. The plan is to celebrate each location with a plaque, a web page description and a place on the Arizona Baseball Trail map.

Participants who follow the trail will discover fresh insights into America’s Pastime and a mosaic of frontier landmarks, hidden gems and living history that tell the story of both Arizona and baseball.

Contests, collectables, exhibits and other activities will also be part of the trail – a modern adventure that will honor the past, celebrate the present and peer into the future.

Our tentative plan is to dedicate the first landmark later this summer in Prescott. Arizona’s former territorial capital played host to the first recorded baseball game in the region on a site that would later become Yavapai County Courthouse Plaza.

Special thanks to Scottsdale artist and muralist LuAnn Beardmore for dedicating her time and talents in creating the distinctive Arizona Baseball Trail logo!