There is nothing quite like walking through the turnstiles for the first game of the season. It really doesn’t matter if it is a regular season game, an exhibition game, or an instructional league game. It’s just exciting knowing that you survived another off-season and baseball is back.

Non-baseball fans or even fans that only go to one or two games a year don’t understand what it’s like when you devote 83 days a season to supporting your favorite team or favorite sport. When you mention that, most will shake their heads and quickly begin to question your sanity. “How can you go to 83 games a year?” they will ask. My response is usually, “Because Major League Baseball refuses to expand the season so there are more home games.”

Tonight, marked the first game at Chase Field for the 2019 season. It was an exhibition game against the Chicago White Sox. The teams were not exactly the draw most people were hoping for. After all, these two teams used to share a Spring Training facility in Tucson and still play each other in Cactus League action each February and March.

Today’s game was more about the stadium. After not having been at Chase Field in 179 days 20 hours and 46 minutes I was eager to see what had changed. We should probably address the elephant in the room up front. The natural grass playing surface that has been used since Bank One Ballpark opened in 1998 is now gone.

The grass has been replaced with an artificial grass playing surface. The reasoning but the Diamondbacks is maintenance costs. With grass they needed to keep the roof open to allow the grass to receive sunlight. They needed grow lamps for those areas that still did not get enough sun. There was also the cost of upkeep not to mention the water required to keep the grass looking good throughout the season.

At first glance the field looks good. The Diamondbacks selected a turf that had a pattern that looks as though it has just been mowed with different color green to simulate a pattern normally seen on a natural grass field.

There are some differences. When a ball hits or a player runs, they seem to leave a trail of black infill that is embedded in the turf. The dirt path from home plate to the pitcher’s mound which has been a traditional part of Chase Field since it opened is gone. We were told that during installation it was decided that would be too difficult to maintain as the infill and dirt would intersperse. Not exactly sure I understand that explanation. How would that be any different than the edge of the infield grass? Regardless, it’s gone and with it a piece of history. Now the Detroit Tigers have the only stadium with this cutout. I’m going to miss that.

Besides the grass the other major changes revolve around sponsorships. Ram Trucks is no longer sponsoring the pool. Apparently, they felt they were not getting enough value from the cost of the sponsorship. There is currently not a pool sponsor with the Diamondbacks name being shown on the back wall instead.

The other missing major sponsor you wouldn’t know was missing. PetSmart has been a sponsor for the last few years and had their signage over what used to be the picnic area in left field. They also sponsored the dog days with their logo on the play area underneath the picnic area where the dogs could play. We were told they are no longer a sponsor and that the signs would be removed. No one seemed to know why PetSmart pulled out, that seems to have happened just recently hence why the signs are still up for now.

The rest of the ballpark looks very similar. Many things like the electronic menu displays in most of the concessions were not working. Not sure if they were just not programmed before these two exhibition games arrived or if there are issues. It led to a lot of confusion by the fans and those working the food spots. Hopefully that gets resolved before the home opener on April 5th.

The wi-fi in the stadium seemed more responsive than last season but that’s really not a fair assessment since there were only 16,468 announced fans in attendance. It will probably be a different story when the place is filled to capacity of 48,500 for Opening Day against the Boston Red Sox.

Overall the stadium looks almost ready for the regular season to begin and it feels good to be home.