Dodgers’ spring training experience in Arizona puts fans first

Spring training games can be hit or miss.

Lineups are unpredictable, especially in the early parts of the exhibition season. Players are gradually built up over camp, meaning Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman could be held out one day and Mookie Betts and Kyle Tucker the next. When they do play, they could be limited to just a couple of at-bats.

As it is, watching a game at the Dodgers’ spring training stadium in Phoenix can feel like being subjected to a form of torture that was invented by the Romans. Because the main stadium at Camelback Ranch faces southeast, most of the seats receive maximum sun exposure. There is minimal shade, leading to spectators congregating in the area under the luxury suites and press box.

There are better stadiums in the Cactus League. But there isn’t a better facility.

Starting Friday, the Dodgers will once again open their morning workouts to the public for free.

Fans will be able to access the practice fields at 10 a.m. on most days.

The Dodgers’ side of the complex is unlike any other in baseball. Not even Camelback Ranch’s other tenant, the White Sox, have a setup like theirs.

Whereas the White Sox have a tunnel between their clubhouse and practice fields that prevents fans from approaching players, the layout of the Dodgers’ facilities is designed to encourage such interactions.

To access their practice fields, Dodgers players have to walk down dirt paths, with only waist-high steel barricades between them and the fans. Some players stop to sign autographs or take pictures.

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There’s a feeling of proximity to the players that doesn’t exist in any other camp.

Crowds gather behind the backstops of the practice fields, as they would at high school games.

The players are right there.

Crowds form near the bullpen mounds.

The players are right there.

You never know what you will see.

A group of executives is lined up by mounds on the minor-league backfields? Maybe they’re checking in to see if Roki Sasaki will be able to move back into the rotation. Or if Tanner Scott has recovered from a nightmare season.

A middle-aged man in uniform is catching up with reporters? Could be a retired player in camp as a guest instructor, maybe Andre Ethier.

Hear a roar? Ohtani is probably nearby. 

Fans are sprinting from one field to another? Ohtani could be on the move.

Tony Gonsolin once rolled an ankle on these practice fields, which ultimately resulted in him missing Opening Day that season. Long before that, the organization’s reigning Minor League Player of the Year broke his leg in a “B” game.

Under then-owner Frank McCourt, the Dodgers moved to this facility in 2009 from their longtime spring training home in Vero Beach, Florida. Because of the relative proximity to Los Angeles, they quickly established records for exhibition-season attendance.

Countless stars walked down the dirt paths on the complex. Manny Ramirez. Matt Kemp. Yasiel Puig. Clayton Kershaw. There was a time when Sandy Koufax used to show up.

But no person changed the atmosphere of this place as much as Ohtani, who joined the Dodgers before the 2024 season. 

The crowds have grown. The number of visitors from Japan seems to have multiplied. Every workout now feels like a major event.

All the while, the Dodgers’ side of the complex has maintained its intimate charm.

McCourt at least got this right.