Arizona
San Francisco Giants: Arizona Spring Training Baseball
Program No. 7197RJ
Cheer on your San Francisco Giants as you head to Scottsdale Stadium to celebrate all things baseball. Attend four games and meet baseball insiders who share their love of the game.
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DATES
& starting prices
PRICES
DATES
& starting prices
PRICES
Mar 9 - Mar 14, 2025
Starting at
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6 days
5 nights
10 meals
5B 0L 5D
1
Check-in, Program Registration, Orientation, Welcome Dinner
Scottsdale Old Town
2
Sportswriter, Spring Fever, Game 1, Baseball Historian
Scottsdale Old Town
3
Humm Baby Giants, Game 2
Scottsdale Old Town
4
Baseball Legacy Exhibit, Game 3, AZ D'Backs Organist.
Scottsdale Old Town
5
Broadcaster, Game 4
Scottsdale Old Town
6
Program Concludes, Independent Departures
Scottsdale Old Town
At a Glance
Enjoy the intimate and casual atmosphere of spring training baseball as you cheer on your San Francisco Giants. Before the Giants hit a single home run into McCovey Cove, they prepare for the season at Scottsdale Stadium, their Arizona home since 1992. Study baseball in-depth as you meet baseball “lifers” from a variety of backgrounds in the game, whose insider experiences and storytelling talents will keep you on the edge of your seat. Scottsdale is buzzing with baseball come March and you will be right in the thick of it!
Activity Level
On Your Feet
Walk one-half mile; stairs at ballparks. Games attended are dependent on Cactus League schedule, which is finalized in December.
Best of all, you’ll…
- Enjoy America’s pastime with great seats at four spring training games.
- Meet a slew of baseball insiders including authors, reporters, broadcasters and more.
- Rekindle your love of the game, watch the current team up close and get excited for the upcoming season!
General Notes
Transportation on this program is by full sized motorcoach which seats about 40 participants.
Featured Expert
All trip experts
Charlie Vascellaro
Author, traveler, historian, bibliophile, and baseball fan, when Charlie Vascellaro first discovered Major League Baseball in Arizona, his junior high school attendance suffered. Thirty years later, Vascellaro still takes a month-long hiatus from his life in Baltimore, MD to make an annual pilgrimage to Arizona for Cactus League spring training. Vascellaro is a constant contributor to many of the Cactus League teams’ spring training programs, appearing in national papers and authoring a limited edition historical volume commissioned by the United States Department of Commerce.
Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.
Charlie Vascellaro
View biography
Author, traveler, historian, bibliophile, and baseball fan, when Charlie Vascellaro first discovered Major League Baseball in Arizona, his junior high school attendance suffered. Thirty years later, Vascellaro still takes a month-long hiatus from his life in Baltimore, MD to make an annual pilgrimage to Arizona for Cactus League spring training. Vascellaro is a constant contributor to many of the Cactus League teams’ spring training programs, appearing in national papers and authoring a limited edition historical volume commissioned by the United States Department of Commerce.
Marty Lurie
View biography
Nobody logs more hours on KNBR 680 during the San Francisco Giants season than Marty Lurie. A former attorney with a true love of the game, Marty decided years ago to put away the law books and focus on the scorebooks. Marty remembers everything when it comes to baseball. You can catch Marty Lurie broadcasting from the patio of the Public House restaurant and will be on the air for about three hours after the game taking phone calls from across the Giants’ fan base.
Bill Staples
View biography
Bill Staples is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) in Arizona with a passion for researching and telling the untold stories of the “international pastime.” His areas of expertise include Japanese American and Negro Leagues baseball history as a context for exploring the themes of civil rights, cross-cultural relations and globalization.
Robert Garratt
View biography
Robert Garratt grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area an ardent fan of the San Francisco Giants. Upon his retirement from full-time teaching at a university, he began research on major league baseball’s move in 1958 to California. That initial research developed into a comprehensive history of the San Francisco Giants and the team’s relationship with the City and the greater Bay Area community.
Bobby Freeman
View biography
Bobby Freeman had the honor of being named the official organist for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 1998. He has provided the music for the World Baseball Classic in 2006, numerous Division Championship games, and the 2011 MLB All-Star Game. Along with supporting the Diamondbacks during their home games, Bobby teams up with team mascot D. Baxter, appearing throughout Arizona at school and library assemblies and goodwill promotions. Bobby’s musical talents are truly enhanced by his engaging personality and ability to thoroughly entertain his audience.
Suggested Reading List
(10 books)
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
San Francisco Giants: Arizona Spring Training Baseball
Program Number: 7197
SATCHEL: The Life and Times of an American Legend by Larry Tye
He is that rare American icon who has never been captured in a biography worthy of him. Now, at last, here is the superbly researched, spellbindingly told story of athlete, showman, philosopher, and boundary breaker Leroy “Satchel” Paige. Tye shows Paige barnstorming across America and growing into the superstar hurler of the Negro Leagues, a marvel who set records so eye-popping they seemed like misprints, and spent as much money as he made. In unprecedented detail, Tye reveals how Paige, hurt and angry when Jackie Robinson beat him to the Majors, emerged at the age of forty-two to help propel the Cleveland Indians to the World Series. He threw his last pitch from a big-league mound at an improbable fifty-nine. (“Age is a case of mind over matter,” he said. “If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.”)
Game Time: A Baseball Companion by Roger Angell,
In Game Time, Roger Angell’s essays illuminate baseball’s heart and history in careful prose that New Yorker readers have grown to anticipate each spring. The collection spans the forty-plus years of Angell’s baseball writing career and includes many of his favorite pieces as well as never-before-published material.
Moneyball
Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s general manager, is leading a revolution. Reinventing his team on a budget, he needs to outsmart the richer teams. He signs undervalued players whom the scouts consider flawed but who have a knack for getting on base, scoring runs, and winning games. Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball and a tale of the search for new baseball knowledge—insights that will give the little guy who is willing to discard old wisdom the edge over big money.
Scandal on the South Side: The 1919 Chicago White Sox
The Black Sox Scandal is a cold case, not a closed case. When Eliot Asinof wrote his classic history about the fixing of the 1919 World Series, Eight Men Out, he told a dramatic story of undereducated and underpaid Chicago White Sox ballplayers, disgruntled by their low pay and poor treatment by team management, who fell prey to the wiles of double-crossing big-city gamblers offering them bribes to lose the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. Shoeless Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver, Eddie Cicotte, and the other Black Sox players were all banned from organized baseball for life. But the real story is a lot more complex. We now have access to crucial information that changes what we thought we knew about “baseball’s darkest hour” — including rare film footage from that fateful fall classic, legal documents from the criminal and civil court proceedings, and accurate salary information for major-league players and teams. All of these new pieces to the Black Sox puzzle provide definitive answers to some old mysteries and raise other questions in their place.
Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend
This is the definitive Mays biography. Mays was a transcendent figure who received standing ovations in enemy stadiums and who, during the turbulent civil rights era, urged understanding and reconciliation. More than his records, his legacy is defined by the pure joy that he brought to fans and the loving memories that have been passed to future generations so they might know the magic and beauty of the game. With meticulous research and drawing on interviews with Mays himself as well as with close friends, family, and teammates, Hirsch presents a brilliant portrait of one of America’s most significant cultural icons.
Wait Till Next Year - A Memoir
When historian Goodwin was six years old, her father taught her how to keep score for "their" team, the Brooklyn Dodgers. While this activity forged a lifelong bond between father and daughter, her mother formed an equally strong relationship with her through the shared love of reading. Goodwin recounts some wonderful stories in this coming-of-age tale about both her family and an era when baseball truly was the national pastime that brought whole communities together.
Ball Four
When first published in 1970, Ball Four stunned the sports world. The commissioner, executives, and players were shocked. Sportswriters called author Jim Bouton a traitor and "social leper." Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force him to declare the book untrue. Fans, however, loved the book. And serious critics called it an important social document. Today, Jim Bouton is still not invited to Oldtimer's Days at Yankee Stadium. But his landmark book is still considered a classic baseball related read.
The Boys of Summer
"At a point in life when one is through with boyhood, but has not yet discovered how to be a man, it was my fortune to travel with the most marvelously appealing of teams." Sentimental because it holds such promise, and bittersweet because that promise is past, the first sentence of this masterpiece of sporting literature, first published in the early '70s, sets its tone. What follows only gets better, deeper, more sentimental, and more bittersweet. The team, of course, is the mid-20th-century Brooklyn Dodgers, the team of Robinson and Snyder and Hodges and Reese, a team of great triumph and historical import composed of men whose fragile lives were filled with dignity and pathos.
The Brothers K
While this is not a pure "baseball book", baseball provides the central metaphor for this huge hypnotic novel. It is a stunning work: a complex tapestry of family tensions, baseball, politics and religion, by turns hilariously funny and agonizingly sad. The novel is narrated by Kincaid Chance, the youngest son in a family of six, the children of Hugh Chance, a discouraged minor-league ballplayer whose once-promising career was curtained by an industrial accident, and his wife Laura, an increasingly fanatical Seventh-Day Adventist. The plot traces the working-out of the family's fate from the beginning of the Eisenhower years through the traumas of Vietnam.
The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It
The voices of the game's distant past continue to reverberate with a distinct freshness in Lawrence S. Ritter's The Glory of Their Times. An oral history of the game in the first two decades of the century, Glory sends out its impressive roster of players to tell their own stories, and what stories they tell. A delight from cover to cover, Glory is the next best thing to having been there in the days when the ball may have been dead, but the personalities were anything but.
While we make every effort to ensure the accuracy of our published materials, programs are typically advertised more than a year prior to their start date. As a result, some program activities, schedules, accommodations, personnel, and other logistics occasionally change due to local conditions or circumstances. Should a major change occur, we will make every effort to alert you. For less significant changes, we will update you during orientation. Thank you for your understanding.
Duration
6 days
5 nights
What's Included
10 meals (
5B, 5D
)
5 expert-led lectures
6 expert-led field trips
1 performance
An experienced Group Leader
5 nights of accommodations
Taxes and customary gratuity
Road Scholar Assurance Plan
Day
1
Check-in, Program Registration, Orientation, Welcome Dinner
Location:
Scottsdale Old Town
Meals:
D
Stay:
Hilton Garden Inn Scottsdale Old Town
Activity Note
Hotel check-in from 3:00 p.m.
Afternoon:
Program Registration: 4:30-5:15 p.m. After you check in and have your room assignment, join us at the Road Scholar table adjacent to the lobby to register with the program staff, get any updated information, and confirm the time and location of the Orientation session. If you arrive late, please locate your Group Leader and let them know you have arrived. Orientation: 5:30 p.m. The Group Leader will greet everyone and lead introductions as we gather in our private meeting room. We will review the up-to-date program schedule and any changes, discuss roles and responsibilities, logistics, safety guidelines, emergency procedures, and answer questions. In the unlikely event that a game is rained out, an alternative activity will be provided (no refunds). Free time is limited and unscheduled at this time. Periods in the daily schedule designated as “Free time” and “At leisure” offer opportunities to do what you like and make your experience even more meaningful and memorable according to your personal preferences. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions. Program activities, schedules, personnel, and indicated distances or times may change due to local circumstances/conditions. In the event of changes, we will alert you as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding. NOTE: The following schedule is from last years program and is thus just a representation of what our 2025 schedule will look like. As the MLB spring training schedule does not come out until late summer, and tickets do no go on sale often until late fall, our actual schedule of games and speakers will be finalized by the end of December.
Dinner:
In the hotel restaurant, the dinner buffet includes savory dishes and entrées that vary nightly, plus coffee, tea, water; other beverages available for purchase.
Evening:
At leisure. Continue getting to know your follow participants, settle in, and get a good night’s rest for the day ahead.
Day
2
Sportswriter, Spring Fever, Game 1, Baseball Historian
Location:
Scottsdale Old Town
Meals:
B,D
Stay:
Hilton Garden Inn Scottsdale Old Town
Activity Note
Driving approximately 40 miles one way to stadium; about 1 hour. Walking up to 1 mile throughout the day; distances less than 1/2 mile at a time; paved, flat surfaces; some stairs at the stadium.
Breakfast:
In the hotel dining room, the breakfast buffet offers choices such as eggs and omelets cooked to order, breakfast meats, oatmeal, fruit, and toast, plus juice, coffee, tea, water.
Morning:
Throughout the program, we’ll meet wonderful baseball personalities who have intimate and often long histories with the game. Sports writer Charlie Vascellaro will join us and provide unique perspectives on baseball history and personalities. In addition to his lifelong love of baseball, Charlie is a bibliophile, historian, raconteur, traveler, and author of a biography on Hank Aaron. Charlie took part in his first Road Scholar program in 2004 and has been a regular guest ever since, delighting our folks with Spring Training chronicles. We’ll take a short break before gathering to head over to our first baseball game.
Lunch:
This meal has been excluded from the program cost and is on your own to enjoy what you like at the ballpark. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions.
Afternoon:
Game 1! Today the Giants take on the KC Royals of the American League at Surprise Stadium. Formally voted in a USA Today pole by fans as Arizona's best stadium to watch a Spring Training game, Surprise Stadium is intimate and has ample shade seats to guarantee a great afternoon of baseball. We’ll return to the hotel after the game.
Dinner:
Hotel buffet.
Evening:
Settle into the hotel conference room to enjoy a presentation from Bill Staples. Bill is a baseball historian and author and a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) with a passion for researching and telling the untold stories of the “international pastime.” His areas of expertise include Japanese American and Negro Leagues baseball history as a context for exploring the themes of civil rights, cross-cultural relations and globalization.
Day
3
Humm Baby Giants, Game 2
Location:
Scottsdale Old Town
Meals:
B,D
Stay:
Hilton Garden Inn Scottsdale Old Town
Activity Note
Driving approximately 30 miles one way to stadium; about 45 minutes. Walking approx. 1/2 mile at stadium; some stairs.
Breakfast:
Hotel buffet.
Morning:
This morning we will hear a special presentation from Robert Garratt, author of numerous articles and a difinitive book on the history of the SF Giants. Todays talk will focus on Roger Craig and the era of the Humm Baby Giants. Following our presentation, we’ll transfer to the stadium for our second game.
Lunch:
On your own to enjoy what you like at the ballpark.
Afternoon:
Game 2! Today the Giants take on their long time rival - the LA Dodgers. Boo Dem Bums! We will travel to Camelback Stadium for this game and enjoy the ample shade seats and pleasant atmosphere of the Stadium.
Dinner:
Dinner at a restaurant proximate to the hotel
Evening:
Leisure time following dinner out.
Day
4
Baseball Legacy Exhibit, Game 3, AZ D'Backs Organist.
Location:
Scottsdale Old Town
Meals:
B,D
Stay:
Hilton Garden Inn Scottsdale Old Town
Activity Note
Walking up to 1 mile throughout the day. Walking approx. 1/2 mile to Scottsdale Stadium; some stairs. Free Old Town Trolley available for transfer from hotel to stadium.
Breakfast:
Hotel buffet.
Morning:
At the hotel, will have a short baseball themed presentation prior to heading over to the Arizona Baseball Legacy Exhibit at the Scottsdale Historic Society. The museum is on the way to Scottsdale Stadium so after our time at the exhibit we will continue on to the game.
Lunch:
On your own to enjoy what you like at the ballpark.
Afternoon:
Game 3! Today the Giants have a home game against the Cincinnati Reds at Scottsdale Stadium. A short walk from the hotel, Scottsdale comes alive when the Giants are at home.
Dinner:
Dinner at a restaurant proximate to the hotel .
Evening:
Meet Bobby Freeman, longtime organist for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Enjoy a performance and sing-a-long of some ballpark classics and laugh as Bobby shares his personal story and favorite moments.
Day
5
Broadcaster, Game 4
Location:
Scottsdale Old Town
Meals:
B,D
Stay:
Hilton Garden Inn Scottsdale Old Town
Activity Note
Driving to Sloan Park 8 miles one way, approximately 20 minutes. Walking up to 1 mile throughout the day; distances less than 1/2 mile at a time; paved, flat surfaces; some stairs at the stadium.
Breakfast:
Hotel buffet.
Morning:
At the hotel, we’ll be joined by Marty Lurie who has been a long time voice of the Giants on KNBR radio. Marty will share stories of the many Giant greats he has interviewed over the years and speak of the behind the scenes challenges of broadcasting. Following our initial presentation from Marty at the hotel, we will walk over to nearby Scottsdale Stadium where Marty will give us a behind-the-scenes look at the press box and finish up his presentation there. We’ll take a short break before departing to our baseball game.
Lunch:
On your own to enjoy while at the ballpark.
Afternoon:
Game 4! Today the Giants take on the Arizona Diamondbacks at Salt River Fields. The Diamondbacks are coming off an impressive 2023 season and this game is sure to generate a lot of local buzz with the hometown team. We’ll return to the hotel after the game.
Dinner:
At a local restaurant, we’ll have a delightful farewell dinner with a plated and served meal to celebrate our program. Coffee, tea, water included; other beverages available for purchase. Share some of your favorite experiences from the program with new Road Scholar friends.
Evening:
We will then return to the hotel for a short program wrap-up to reflect upon our week. The remainder of the evening will be at leisure. Be sure to prepare for check-out and departures in the morning.
Day
6
Program Concludes, Independent Departures
Location:
Scottsdale Old Town
Meals:
B
Activity Note
Hotel check-out by 12:00 Noon.
Breakfast:
Hotel buffet. This concludes our program.
Morning:
If you are returning home, safe travels. If you are staying on independently, have a wonderful time. If you are transferring to another Road Scholar program, detailed instructions are included in your Information Packet for that program. We hope you enjoy Road Scholar learning adventures and look forward to having you on rewarding programs in the future. Don’t forget to join our Facebook page and follow us on Instagram. Best wishes for all your journeys!
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MEALS
10 Meals
5 Breakfasts
0 Lunches
5 Dinners
LODGING
Lodgings may differ by date. Select a date to see the lodgings specific to that date.
Showing Lodging For:
- Mar 09, 2025 - Mar 14, 2025
- Mar 02, 2025 - Mar 07, 2025
- Mar 09, 2025 - Mar 14, 2025
- Mar 01, 2026 - Mar 06, 2026
- Mar 08, 2026 - Mar 13, 2026
Participant Reviews
Based on 14 Reviews
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The emphasis for this program was on the San Francisco Giants. Of course we attended their games. But I believe anyone who loves baseball would appreciate this program and the variety of speakers and topics covered as they are relevant to baseball in general. If you love the sport, you will love this program.
— Review left March 15, 2024
This is a super way to have a Baseball Spring Training experience without the need to buy tickets or arrange transportation. The added benefit of presentations of related baseball stories and meeting other baseball fans make for a great avenue to open the season.
— Review left March 9, 2024
Lifelong dream to attend spring training! 3 Stadiums 4 games, 7 teams. Insider lectures so interesting and fun! Giants fan or not you will LOVE it. Register now! So fun!
— Review left March 8, 2024
Without a doubt: The trip of a bucket list lifetime! I (heart) baseball and Road Scholar!
— Review left March 21, 2023
This was a terrific program. I would not have enjoyed Spring Training nearly as much if we went on our own. Great speakers. Well-orlganized. Everything flowed! I am coming back.
— Review left March 11, 2023
I have attended Spring Training in Arizona many times. I love going with Road Scholar because I learn a lot about baseball history as well as about my team, the San Francisco Giants. The program has baseball historians, authors and experts in various fields as well as attendance at the games and introduction to candidates for the team. The hotel allows walking access to the Scottsdale stadium and Old Scottsdale. The transportation to distant ballparks is smooth, comfortable and efficient.
— Review left March 23, 2020
Our two previous Road Scholar trips were poor experiences (a bad group leader and a trip cancelation). We were ready to write off this travel company, but decided to give them one more try. We are glad we did. This was everything you could ask for -- wonderful accommodations at a perfect location, an outstanding group leader, good speakers, friendly and interesting participants. Now we are going to have to go on another Road Scholar trip to convince ourselves that this wasn't a fluke.
— Review left March 16, 2020
Sharing Giants Spring Training with participants who shared a love for the team and baseball was awesome! Road Scholar speakers added to the experience and our seats were amazing! A week to relive again and again!
— Review left March 16, 2020
Another fun baseball experience.
— Review left March 13, 2020
If you want to travel with a group, this is an excellent experience. There were 23 individuals in my group; I would not have liked a larger group. The speakers were excellent. The hotel is great and conveniently located.
— Review left March 6, 2020
It's all about baseball and if that's your goal, it's the program for you!
— Review left March 24, 2019
If you love baseball, you'll love this Road Scholar program
— Review left March 12, 2019
If you enjoy baseball, you will love this trip. What a wonderful week with amazing speakers, great seats for games, and a group of fellow baseball enthusiasts. This trip totally exceeded my expectations.
— Review left March 10, 2019
Very good!
— Review left March 9, 2019
