My Quest for Baseball Info
So I got roped into figuring out this whole Sanderson Ford Baseball Classic thing happening in 2025. Seriously, where even is this tournament? Right? Started out totally clueless, sitting at my messy desk, cold coffee beside me. Figured someone online must have the map already, so I dove into the usual spots first. Guess what? Zip. Nada. Big fat zero useful maps anywhere. Typical.
Plan B: Hit up the official league website. Let’s be real, navigating those things is like trying to assemble flat-pack furniture without the instructions. Slow, clunky, and after clicking through menus feeling like I was walking through mud, I finally, finally found a tiny little section labeled “Participating Teams”. My head started hurting just looking at the list.
Alright, fine. If the map didn’t exist, I guess I had to make the map myself. Dumb. But here we go.
Building the Dang Map Piece by Piece
Armed with just a list of team names and locations from the website (barely scraping by), my hunt began. Poured another cup of coffee – lukewarm by now.
- Scavenged Online Forums: Spent ages sifting through dusty old baseball discussion boards. Imagine shouting into a void: “Hey, anyone recall where [Team Name Redacted] usually plays this time of year?” Replies trickled in days later, sometimes helpful, mostly not. “Yeah pretty sure they use Surprise Stadium some years…” Okay, cool, maybe?
- Social Media Deep Dive: Dug into the official accounts for every single team listed. Seriously, some of these teams have social media pages that look like they haven’t been updated since the last time I used MySpace. Found a random post from last year’s event by one team mentioning playing at “Camelback Ranch Field 7”. Jackpot! One down, a zillion to go.
- Venue Detective: This part sucked. Jumped over to the actual complex websites. For example, checked the City of Surprise Rec page, hunted down Peoria Sports Complex schedules. Was looking for anything mentioning “Sanderson Ford Classic” bookings for Feb 2025. Found bits and pieces confirming fields. Another venue website showed their Feb 2025 calendar as totally blank. Fantastic. Guessed they’d be used again, based on past years. Heavy sigh.
My phone overheated from constant scrolling. My back ached. But slowly, painfully, I started piecing together where each game slot likely happened:
- Surprise Stadium (main field)
- Camelback Ranch (various diamonds)
- Peoria Sports Complex fields
Figured out the main cluster was around the Surprise/Glendale/Peoria area. Had to pencil in dates too – most chatter pinned it around Feb 13-15, give or take.
The Guide Stuff (Parking is a Nightmare)
No point knowing the where without the how. So I dug into the annoying realities:
- Parking: Every single forum and review site complained about parking at Surprise Stadium during big tourneys. The phrase “total zoo” kept popping up. Official websites said vague things like “additional lots may open”. Great. Translated that to “Expect chaos. Show up stupid early. Bring cash for the ‘convenient’ overflow lots run by randos.”
- Weather Woes: February in AZ isn’t usually arctic, but mornings are freezing? Had to look up average temps. Google spat back like 40s°F early AM, 70s°F afternoon. So the guide absolutely needed a huge: LAYERS LAYERS LAYERS! Seriously, a jacket for the morning you’ll tie around your waist later!
Finished Product (And Why I’m Tired)
Finally, after way more hours than anyone should spend on this, I mashed it all together. Made a simple custom map showing those 3 main complexes. Tagged Surprise Stadium as the hub. Wrote a guide hammering home:
Parking: It sucks. Be early. Bring cash.
Weather: Wild swings. Dress like you’re packing for two seasons.
Dates: Mark Feb 13-15 tentatively, but seriously double-check closer to the time because these things move.
Double-Checking: Yelled this from the digital rooftops. Teams drop out, fields change, who knows? Told everyone to confirm schedules with the actual team playing or the complex the week before.
And that’s it. Why share all this? Because I stumbled through the dark so maybe someone else won’t have to. Also, my research notes looked like a spider crawled through ink and had a seizure on my notebook. Might as well make that mess useful to someone! Now excuse me while I finally drink a fresh coffee before it goes cold.