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Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.27.2008
Ten years and one month ago — to the day — 11,298 fans filled Tucson Electric Park.
It was our big-league coming-out party. The Chicago White Sox, fresh off the moving truck from Sarasota, Fla., played the first-year Arizona Diamondbacks on an unseasonably cold night. Ticket scalpers sold $14 seats for $50. TEP was praised as a $37 million, state-of-the-art baseball jewel, something Tucson could take pride in.
That was only 10 years ago. In baseball terms, it might as well be 100.
Today, the White Sox will likely play their last home game at Tucson Electric Park before probably moving to Glendale to share a $77 million facility with the Los Angeles Dodgers next year.
What becomes of Tucson baseball is anybody's guess. A prerequisite for the White Sox to leave — finding a replacement team — still hasn't happened. And the Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies could leave, too, citing a clause in their deals that mandates there be three teams in Tucson.
How in the world did we get to this point?
Here's a look at the 10 events that shaped White Sox baseball since that first game — which, incidentally, the Diamondbacks won, 6-5.
1. Feb. 27, 1998 — After playing in Sarasota from 1960 to 1997, the White Sox play their first game in the newly minted TEP.
2. March 4, 2004 — Manager Ozzie Guillen makes his debut against the D-backs at TEP. The former Florida Marlins third-base coach is the first Venezuela native to manage in the big leagues.
3. Oct. 26, 2005 — The White Sox defeat the Houston Astros, 1-0, to win their first World Series title since 1917, in their first Series appearance since 1959.
4. Spring 2006 — Buoyed by a championship the preceding season, the White Sox draw an average of 6,582 fans per game at TEP, their highest figure since moving to Arizona.
5. Nov. 14, 2006 — With a Glendale City Council meeting set for the next day, Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry says the White Sox must find a replacement team to fulfill their TEP lease — which runs through 2012 — if they plan to leave beforehand. He insists that having only one spring training tenant at TEP "destroys the economic vitality of the area."
6. Nov. 15, 2006 — The Glendale City Council approves a plan to lure the White Sox and Dodgers to their proposed facility, ending 10 months of negotiations with the teams and a collaboration with the city of Phoenix and the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority. The next day, Pima County Supervisor Ramón Valadez calls Glendale's plans to lure the White Sox using ASTA funding "cannibalism."
7. Dec. 14, 2006 — John Kaites, the White Sox team attorney, tells the ASTA that the team will leave TEP by the end of 2012 at the absolute latest.
8. Dec. 21, 2006 — The Cleveland Indians, Tucson spring training inhabitants from 1947 to 1992, announce they are moving to Goodyear. The White Sox tried to persuade Cleveland to move to TEP, but "we made the determination that logistically it was just too much of a mountain to overcome," Indians President Paul Dolan said.
9. March 2007 — White Sox outfielder Jermaine Dye tells the Chicago Tribune that "everything about spring training in Phoenix is a lot better than in Tucson." He calls Tucson too cold, the bus rides too long and the fan base not as strong as that in Phoenix.
10. March 15, 2008 — The White Sox draw 11,328 fans to TEP for a game against the Chicago Cubs, likely the last big-ticket game the team will play at TEP.
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