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Our favorite part of the baseball season every year is our annual Spring Training trip to Mesa, Arizona. Nothing beats seeing the Cubs close up in beautiful warm weather in a fantastic destination, particularly in March when most of the country is just trying to thaw out. This year’s trip was extra enjoyable thanks to the fine folks at VisitMesa.com who allowed us a very special glimpse at the new Play Ball Exhibit at the Arizona Museum for youth.

This exhibit, officially known as “Play Ball! The Cactus League Experience” is kind of like a Cactus League Hall of Fame, a mini-Cooperstown West if you will, complete with memorabilia, interactive exhibits, info on all 15 current Cactus League teams, and plenty to look at and enjoy for baseball fans of all ages.

The following video clips will give you your own look at this impressive exhibit, a must for anyone visiting Mesa or the Phoenix area for Spring Training, or anytime in the next several months. The exhibit will be housed at the Arizona Museum for Youth at 35 N. Robson in Mesa until November 7, with hopes of a permanent home to follow. Our tour guide is Mr. Robert Brinton, Cactus League Association and HoHoKam President, and all around great guy.

Our thanks to Mr. Robert Brinton and to Michelle from the Mesa Convention & Visitors Bureau for treating us so well. We hope you enjoyed this mini-tour, and encourage you to see the exhibit in person, as this really is just a glimpse.

For more info on the Play Ball exhibit, you can call (480) 644-2468 or check out playballexperience.com. And for everything Mesa, be sure to visit visitmesa.com.

The tickets are booked, the bags are packed and Sheps and I are very excited to be heading down to Mesa later today. We’ll be attending all 3 Cubs games at HoHoKam this weekend starting this Friday, and have some plans to bring some special coverage live from inside and outside the park. This is my 5th consecutive season heading down for a weekend, and it’s probably the 9th or 10th for Sheps.

Stayed tuned for our 600th episode, which we plan to release very soon. This weekend also marks our foray into a new medium for the first time — probably not too difficult to figure out what I mean by that. Nevertheless, we’re excited about that, too.

If you’re at all considering a trip to see the Cubs this spring, please tune in to the upcoming shows as we’ll be discussing some of the great places to go before and after spring games. It’s an awesome experience so I can’t wait for this flight to leave!

If you’d like to research the area offerings a bit more I encourage you to check out Visit Mesa, an awesome resource for Cubs fans. They offer free guides (online and in print mailed to you for free), ticket packages and much more. They’re also up to speed on new media and have a Twitter presence worth following – @CubsInMesa. Also our friend Tim Sheridan’s site, Boys of Spring, is a nice way to keep up with the latest spring happenings.

Stay tuned and as always, Go Cubs!

As mentioned in Monday’s episode, awards season is upon us and we at Cubscast would like to honor those that have operated the best Cubs-related websites in 2009. The aptly named “Best Cubs Website Awards” (or “The Strodes” for short) will be broadcast in a special episode on Monday March 8th.

We need to know what you consider to be the best Cubs websites — and we’re taking nominations in each of the following categories:

Best Cubs Blog – Individual Author

Cubs Personality Lifetime Achievement Award

The sort-of-fine print:

Our goal in doing this is to draw attention to the best Cubs websites currently available. Cubscast is not eligible for any awards, please do not nominate this site. All other nominations will be considered by the Cubscast hosts, unless at our discretion a nominated website is deemed inappropriate, ineligible (does not fit into the category it was nominated for), or deemed to contain or promote illegal or pornographic content. Anyone is eligible to nominate a site. All decisions regarding nominations and awards are final.

How this works:

To participate, simply nominate your favorite Cubs website(s) today in the comments on this post. At the end of every week (or sooner), nominated sites will be added to an online voting feature on this site. Nominations will be closed at the end of the day on Friday February 26, 2010.

When nominations are closed, the top 3 vote-getters in each category will be considered finalists. The award winner in each category will then be decided upon by the two Cubscast hosts. Winners will be announced on Monday March 8, 2010. Good luck!

Just a quick note for everyone out there that we met at the Cubs Convention last weekend as well as any Cub fan that just happened to stumble across this site. Cubscast is completely FREE audio show hosted by two die-hard fans, Lou and Sheps (pictured – below). If you’re looking for a consistent, humorous, and knowledgable source for Cubs news from people that aren’t paid to care about the team or talk about the team, you just found it.

You can subscribe via iTunes or listen right from this website (audio player is on the right). We get this comment a lot — you don’t need an iPod to listen! You can listen on an iPod, of course, or you can tune in from any internet-connected device, like the one you’re using right now.

Schedule note: In the offseason new Cubscast episodes debut each Monday and Thursday, and once the regular season begins we release three episodes a week (M, W, and F).

In addition to our audio broadcasts, which you can listen to at any time for free, right now we’re accepting entries for a random drawing for a pair of Cubs tickets to any regular season game of your choice. Please enter and tell your friends! That may seem counter-intuitive, however, since by not telling your friends you technically will have a better chance at winning. Hmm. It’s up to you. We won’t judge.

Soon we will start taking nominations for our annual Best Cubs Website Awards, affectionately known as “The Strodes.” So please be thinking of a few of your favorite Cubs websites and stay tuned to the show and this space for more news on that. Here are links to the 2008 winners, and the 2007 winners.

We can’t wait for Spring Training to start!

In the meantime, thanks again for listening, we’re glad you found us, and Go Cubs!

Sheps and Lou
Cubscast Hosts

As we discussed in today’s deluxe episode of Cubscast (download – mp3), all signs finally point to the Chicago Cubs remaining in Mesa for Spring Training for the foreseeable future. Whew, what a relief! Undoubtedly a lot of Florida fans are going to be disappointed, but the overwhelming majority of fans knew that it would have been a mistake for the Cubs to leave sunny AZ and the Cactus League.

Originally reported by the Phoenix Fox TV affiliate, Dave van Dyck of the Trib is now reporting this as well. Van Dyck shares some of the details of the upcoming deal that Mesa is about to approve, which includes a brand new $84 million facility for the Cubs.

I’ve been impressed from the beginning with the way that Mesa has handled everything, and when this thing is signed they deserve the biggest congrats of all. Not that Naples came out of nowhere, but from all the reports and quotes I’ve seen from back in November until now, neither the former nor current Cubs ownership ever said that they favored staying in Mesa, despite the fan outcry and despite some huge efforts (to say the least) to meet with the Cubs in Chicago several times and also subsidize their batting cages this spring in good faith.

Mesa could have saved a ton of money and just said, “We’ve been good to you for decades. Here’s what we can offer, take it or leave it.” But they didn’t. They didn’t want to end up looking like NBC. If that’s the metaphor, I guess the Cubs are Conan. At least, I’d like to think so. I’m not sure who Leno would be. Fort Myers? Switching gears…

Sheps and I plan to bring some new coverage this spring before, during, and after our annual trek out to Mesa. I personally can’t wait to toast to the Cubs’ next 25 years in the valley. We’ve mentioned this on the show a few times recently, but if you’ve ever thought about heading down this season it’s well worth it.

We’re tentatively planning on making our trip earlier this year than normal, March 5-7. Stay tuned for more details on that. It looks like we’re going to get a chance to see plenty of new faces this Spring. It’s unbelievable that we’re only weeks away from pitchers and catchers meeting.

Anyway, congrats again to Mesa and all the Cubs fans that wanted this to happen, and long live the Cubs in the Cactus League!

As mentioned in our shows leading up to the Cubs Convention, Cubscast hosts Lou and Sheps are giving away two tickets to any regular season game this season. We’ll choose 1 winner at random from all the entries, and that person gets to choose from any regular season game this season. Opening Day. Cubs/Sox. Cubs/Cardinals. Whatever you want. We figured this was the most convenient way to give away Cubs tickets to our listeners and/or people that we meet at this year’s Cubs Convention.

To enter, simply click here or on the graphic below and fill out the entry form.

We’ll hold the drawing “live” on the episode that airs on Wednesday, February 17th, the day that pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in sunny Mesa.

Here’s the fine print.

The contest ends mid-afternoon on Feb. 16th, so get your entry in now (click the graphic above). Good luck!

UPDATE: This meetup is for “all ages,” as we’ll be in the lobby and not the bar area! Thanks to Melissa for asking us to clarify this.

As mentioned in our last two episodes, Sheps and I are hosting our annual Cubscast listener meetup this Saturday in the lobby of the Chicago Hilton which is at 720 S. Michigan Ave. We’ll be near the Northeast corner of the lobby (near Michigan and Balbo), at the tables immediately behind the bar area. Join us from 2-3 PM and we’ll have a limited open tab going until it runs out.

You don’t need a convention pass to attend, so even if you’re not planning on being at the convention all weekend, feel free to drop by, we’d love to hang out. Also, in case you’re wondering what goes on at a listener meetup, here’s a few reasons to attend:

* Vent, commiserate, receive therapy regarding the 2009 season
* Share convention stories from the weekend so far
* Toast to Hall-of-Famer Andre Dawson
* Hear about the new giveaway we’re launching this weekend
* Get the lowdown on our plans for the 2010 season

We’re also thankful for several listeners that let us know they couldn’t attend this year and sent in donations to help us offset the costs. If that’s something you’re interested in, please visit our support/donation page. One listener even sent a donation and said it was for the beer we’d be buying him. Ha.

Go Cubs! See you in a few days!

Lou and Sheps