The classic poem, "Casey at the Bat" contains the famous line, "There is no joy in Mudville" when Mighty Casey strikes out. But after examining the latest baseball news, fans might want to paraphrase that line into "There is no joy in Tucson or Sarasota" not because a famous slugger has struck out, but because both cities are losing lucrative contracts to host major league baseball spring training. In Tucson it's a question of when, not if, the Chicago White Sox will pull up stakes on their baseball spring training camp in Tucson. But don't shed too many tears over the Old Pueblo's loss. There are still two teams that have their baseball spring training in Tucson, the native Diamondbacks, which are based just up the road apiece in Phoenix, and the Colorado Rockies. However, if Tucson is going to retain its baseball spring training contracts, the city will have to spend some money to upgrade the aging and rundown Hi Corbett Field and probably shell out to build another more modern sports complex to fill the Diamondbacks' baseball spring training needs and possibly attract another team to replace the White Sox. Because there is so little industry in Tucson and the economy is basically moribund, this is no small matter to the mayor and city council, so I won't be at all surprised if they try to float a bond issue in the next year or so to finance the new sports complex, since there's no way the local political establishment will try raising taxes to raise the 50 million bucks or so that such an undertaking would require.

        On the other side of the continent, it looks like Sarasota, Florida's loss in the baseball spring training derby will be Goodyear, Arizona's gain, with Goodyear getting a deal to host the Cincinnati Reds' baseball spring training, and baseball spring training for the Cleveland Indians, too. The Goodyear Ballpark and Recreation Sports Complex is where these two teams will be having their baseball spring training, and from the sound of things, I imagine they'll both be more than comfortable. The Goodyear Ballpark and Recreation Sports Complex boasts a huge 40,700 foot clubhouse, 6 practice fields, 2 half fields, a 10,000 seat stadium that includes 500 premium box seats. This baseball spring training deal for both teams will commence in 2010, and baseball fans in Goodyear are already rejoincing. Really, it only makes sense for all these teams to stage their baseball spring training in Arizona. The weather's great; teams won't have to worry too much about getting rained out, and there're plenty of great restaurants and recreational activities for the players and staff in Phoenix and Scottsdale. Phoenix hasn't been a hick cowtown for a long time and boasts many world-class restaurants and other diversions. Oh, and you could always catch a baseball spring training game.