Arizona Fall League set to begin 23rd season
Oct 6, 2014, 2:00 PM | Updated: 2:00 pm
The Arizona Diamondbacks season may be over, but valley baseball fans have something to look forward to.
The Arizona Fall League opens its’ 23rd season in the valley on Tuesday.
“We will have two day games that day and one night game at Salt River Fields,” Arizona Fall League Director Steve Cobb said on Saturday during an appearance on 92.3 KTAR’s “Arizona’s Morning News Weekend.”
Games will be played all over the valley. There are teams in Mesa, Glendale, Peoria, Surprise and two in Scottsdale.
Over 2,300 players have made their way through the Arizona Fall League on their way up to the major leagues.
One such player is C.J. Cron. Cron played baseball at Mountain Point High School in Phoenix and participated in the Fall League last year. In fact, he won the AFL batting title with a .413 batting average.
Albert Pujols, Andrew McCutchen, Bryce Harper, Mike Trout and Didi Gregorius are among the current major stars who have played in the Fall League.
The Arizona Fall League is also used as a “testing ground” for baseball. When a possible change is being considered, Major League Baseball tests it there first. The league’s replay-review system was tested in Arizona last year before being integrated into Major League games this year.
MLB will try out new “Pace of Play” rules that are designed to speed up the game during the 2014 Fall League season. Cobb said some of the new rules will include timing between pitches and pitching changes as well as players not being able to leave the batter’s box.
“What all this means is that there be an actual introduction of a clock in baseball,” Cobb said.
Another thing that will be tested is a new rule regarding intentional walks. Teams will be able to intentionally walk a batter by simply telling the umpire they want to do it, without having the pitcher throw four straight balls to put the batter on first.
Ticket prices for fall league games range from $4 per ticket for groups of 20 or more to $8 for a single adult ticket. You can purchase tickets here.
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