The Chicago Cubs traveled the Southwest playing local teams in 1917 while training that spring at Tournament Park in Pasadena, Calif.
The Coconino Sun reported in late January of ’17 that a Flagstaff team could play the Cubs if locals could raise $100 to lure the ballclub to town. To put that into perspective, that’s about the price of two good tickets these days to a Cubs game in Mesa’s Sloan Park.
The Flagstaff newspaper noted “the only drawback to the plan is the possibility of some snow in March which is not conducive to good ball playing.” Apparently, Flagstaff did not land a game.
But a Kingman team took on the Cubs on March 31 and got walloped 22-4. The Mohave County Miner reported the game attracted one of the largest crowds ever assembled in Kingman.
Teams from the mining towns of Miami and Hayden each hosted the Cubs in their local ballparks.
The Cubs also beat a team in Gallup, N.M., on their return trip to Chicago.
The Cubs trained in Mesa from 1952 to 1965 before splitting for one spring in Long Beach, Calif. They moved to Scottsdale Stadium starting in 1967 to 1978 and have been back in Mesa since 1979.
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