Rite of spring: Do-it-yourself training table

Ah, back at spring training, doing what I love. It’s a great feeling. After a long offseason (or short, depending on who you talk to), it’s great to be back out there competing. That being said, there’s only one problem — I’m without car.
You don’t really realize how much you depend on a car until you find yourself without one. Like so many others, I’m so used to just picking up the keys and going somewhere whenever I need something. Now I feel chained somehow, like a fundamental freedom has been taken away.

I’m not alone in this situation. A lot of minor-leaguers find themselves without a vehicle during spring training. We don’t make enough money to rent a car and it’s too inconvenient to drive your car here when you’re probably going to be leaving in about a month. Thus, a lot of us have somewhat limited mobility.

Luckily for us, the Giants provide us with a hotel located beside a large mall in Scottsdale. It gives us some entertainment and provides several eating options. When you’re here for a month, however, you get tired of eating at the same places and I, for one, like to cook my own meals sometimes. When you’re receiving $20 per day for meal money, you’re always looking for cost-cutting options. Of course it also can be much healthier when you know exactly what you’re eating.

The problem is, while our rooms have a small refrigerator they lack anything to cook with. This is somewhat limiting, as one can only eat so many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Yet, I would not let this limitation deter me from making some decent food. Thus, my roommate and I borrowed someone’s car and went off in search of that elusive, missing piece: a microwave.

Now as I said earlier, being minor leaguers we’re operating on a tight budget. We don’t receive paychecks in spring training so we’re living on what we’ve saved while working in the offseason. So when buying a microwave under these circumstances, there’s only one place to go: the local Goodwill. We would not be disappointed.

Scottsdale’s Goodwill has myriad microwaves, ranging from $9.99 to $29.99. We opted for a moderately priced $14.99 version from the mid-1980s, plugged it in to make sure it works and took it to the checkout counter. We get to the counter, show the clerk the microwave, and to our astonishment she tells us that it is on sale for $1. A $1 microwave . . . there is a God after all.

Deciding to press our luck, we decide to do another search. We find a George Foreman Grill in decent shape, take it to the counter, and guess what? On sale for $1.

Now having the ability to make fire (relatively speaking), we stop at a grocery store, then return to our hotel and make steak and baked potatoes in our room. Not bad for minor league spring training, and pretty good for operating on a tight budget.

Certainly better than peanut butter and jelly.
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