It may sit on the outskirts of Mesa, but briefly, Bell Bank Park became the center of the baseball universe.
The sports facility at 1 Legacy Drive just east of Gateway Airport opened its doors for players to utilize the facilities and assist with anything they needed to prepare for the season. This came as players and owners faced unprecedented times dueling over a collective bargaining agreement. Nobody knew when or if the season would begin.
On March 9, Major League Baseball announced it would cancel regular season games through April 13 but the next day all that gloom vanished with word of an agreement with the players union. A truncated Spring Training Season is scheduled to begin Friday, March 18, with games at both Sloan Park and Hohokam Stadium.
Hours before a tentative agreement was announced, San Francisco Giants’ Austin Slater said he felt optimistic. “There’s ongoing discussions happening today and hopefully they’re productive and something comes out of it,” he said.
Slater will begin his sixth MLB season all with the Giants and said he’s “grateful” to work out and get the time to prepare for the season at the park.
“It’s honestly one of the nicest facilities I’ve ever worked out at,” he said. “And the fact that they’re allowing us to use it is very generous.”
He and other players said they felt comfortable with amenities at Bell Bank Park’s 20,000-square-foot fitness center that had everything they needed to shake the offseason rust.
Chicago Cubs third baseman Nico Hoerner said, “Being able to do everything in the same place is really special.”
“They have a tremendous staff here to basically supply us with anything we need,” he said. “Any work we want to do they’re there ready for us.”
He said as a young player, it’s great to have facetime with others because it gets him better acquainted in the league.
“Putting some names to the faces in the association as a younger player has been really nice to do as well,” Hoerner said.
Chicago Cubs third baseman Patrick Wisdom said the “top notch” facility has helped bring players together as more than just competitors.
“It’s nice to just get guys from other teams around…and get to know him as a person as other than just the player on the other side of the field.
Bell Bank Park President Brett Miller said opening their facilities to the players to help them best prepare for the upcoming season showed the true capabilities of the complex.
“It was an unbelievable experience to showcase all of our state-of-the-art facilities and amenities as a one-stop shop.”
Although it was brief, Miller said lines of communications are always open to anyone of any sport who want to start a dialogue with the facility.
“We’ve got the ability to provide and serve a multitude of sporting departments all under one roof,” he said.