Milford Muscle Baseball Team Travels to Arizona

The Milford Muscle travel baseball team recently traveled to Arizona for the start of their 2011 season.

Before the tournament began, the players spent much of their time at Major League Baseball spring training camps.

The Muscle players spent time at the Giants, A’s, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Rangers and Cubs training camps watching drills and getting autographs from players such as Tim Lincecum, Buster Posey, and Josh Hamilton, just to name a few.

The players also took a tour of the Arizona State University football facility and got to walk up Pat Tillman Tunnel out to the football field. The stadium was named for the former NFL pro football star who retired to become a U.S. Army Ranger later killed in Afghanistan.

From the football field they proceeded to the baseball stadium to watch the Sun Devil’s season opener against the New Mexico Lobos. On Saturday, Feb. 19 they voyaged to Gilbert, AZ, to play their first games.

They played two innings against the Arizona Xtreme before the rain started to fall. However, the Muscle players didn’t let that stop their fun as the two teams then battled each other in a sing-and-dance-off to entertain the fans during the rain delay.

The tournament ended up getting canceled due to rain, but the Muscle were still able to get in three exhibition games against the AZ Xtreme on Monday, Feb 21.

Then on Tuesday, the Milford Muscle players went to the Texas Rangers camp in Surprise, AZ, and they will never forget that trip. They got a team photo posted on the Chicago Cubs website, got to shag balls for the Oakland A’s batting practice, got tons of autographs and got to see how hard the major league players work to get ready for the season.

It was truly a major league trip to remember.

This trip summary was written by David Payne, a student at East Shore Middle School, and a member of the Milford Muscle baseball team.