Ranking the Best Cactus League Spring Training Stadiums, Ballpark Food in Arizona

After visiting eight of ten Cactus League ballparks, Jack Vita describes his favorite parks and ballpark foods that he has tried over the past month at spring training in Arizona. How will Sloan Park, Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, Tempe Diablo Stadium, Camelback Ranch, Hohokam Stadium, Goodyear Ballpark, Peoria Sports Complex and Scottsdale stadium stack up in his personal rankings?

Over the past four weeks, I've had the great privilege of visiting eight different spring training ballparks, and a number of Major League teams' spring training camps, all in Arizona.

Arizona's Cactus League provides a great fan experience. The Grapefruit League has teams far more spread out, throughout the state of Florida. Arizona, however? The furthest teams travel from their complex to another team's park is about an hour, making any team's home and road games accessible to fans that travel to Arizona for spring training.

As I've bounced around from camp to camp, I've been observing teams' spring training complexes and trying ballpark food at almost each location.

While I didn't make it to all ten Cactus League ballparks, I got a good taste of eight of them. I was unfortunately unable to visit Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Arizona and American Family Fields of Phoenix, but hope to give each park a try next year, if I able to.

Below, I have provided my rankings of my favorite spring training ballparks. I should also add that there wasn't a single ballpark that I didn't enjoy. There were, however, parks that I enjoyed more than others. Please note that my rankings are just my own personal preferences. Feel free to disagree.

Unranked: Surprise Stadium; Surprise, Arizona (Kansas City Royals, Texas Rangers)

Unranked: American Family Fields of Phoenix; Phoenix Arizona (Milwaukee Brewers)

8) Scottsdale Stadium; Scottsdale, Arizona (San Francisco Giants) — Scottsdale Stadium provides a fun fan experience that is largely popular among locals, but it falls at the bottom of my list, based on personal preference. If you like ballparks that are smackdab in the middle of the city, you'll love Scottsdale Stadium. I, however, prefer a slower pace. I'd rather watch baseball in a cornfield. Scottsdale Stadium is also an older park, but has a nice charm to it. For some, this is at the top of their lists. It's all a matter of personal preference. The food I consumed was a delicious chicken teriyaki noodles cup, available at a reasonable price that filled me up.

7) Tempe Diablo Stadium; Tempe, Arizona (Los Angeles Angels) — Tempe Diablo, similar to Scottsdale Stadium, is an older park. Its facilities are certainly not at the top of the Cactus League. Of all eight parks on the list, this was the one that I did not try any food at, as the media was fed well by the Angels organization at all three games I attended from the press box. At one of them, us writers even received Chick-Fil-A catering! Chick-Fil-A has a stand within the park, so the food is certifiably good. In terms of a backdrop for the park? Right field displays a free way, however, left field has a gigantic hill, which adds to the Arizonan feel of the park, something I appreciate. 

6) Camelback Ranch; Glendale, Arizona (Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers) — Camelback Ranch is a good spot. The food that I had was hit-or-miss. I tried a chicken and noodles cup and it was average at best. One stand featured a mac and cheese, barbecue helmet, featuring a mix of macaroni and pulled pork. The dish was quite tasty, although a bit light on the meat.

5) Peoria Sports Complex; Peoria, Arizona (San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners) — Peoria's complex is beautiful, but the stadium had the worst food options of all the parks I attended. I tried a pair of hot dogs  — a Sonoran dog, and another dog that was topped with mac and cheese. The dogs were cold and the ingredients weren't great either. I also tried a chicken teriyaki rice bowl and it was delicious, but undersized in regards to portions. I spent somewhere between $12.50 to $15.50 on a tasty bowl that was about half the size of what I believe it should have been. It didn't fill me up. The park is beautiful, however.

4) Hohokam Stadium; Meza, Arizona (Oakland Athletics) — Hohokam has a fun feel to it. It's not the biggest park, but like Oakland A's fans, it has a lot of heart. The 'Bash Brothers Nachos' containing barbecue pulled pork were phenomenal. It was also the best name of a food item I tried in the Cactus League. The A's trailed 11-5 entering the bottom the ninth inning, and came back to win on a walk-off grand slam from Kevin Smith, and most fans stuck around for the whole game to see it, while leading a 'Let's go Oakland!' chant. Great experience.

3) Goodyear Ballpark; Goodyear, Arizona (Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians) — Goodyear Ballpark was the final park I visited, and I was thoroughly impressed. The facilities were exceptional. As I mentioned before, I like parks that have a humble, middle-of-nowhere feel to them, as this one does. Out in the middle of fields, Goodyear Ballpark has a bit of a 'Field of Dreams' type of feel. It also had the best ballpark food I tried all month. There's a street taco stand that is great and reasonably priced. If you're an adventurous ballpark foodie, try the 'Taquito Dog'. It's two large hot dogs wrapped in a pigs-in-a-blanket type coating, with melty cheese inside and sour cream, guacamole and pico de gallo to dip in, all for the affordable price of $11.00! I was full after eating one of the two dogs, and it was delicious. 10/10. My favorite ballpark food item I tried all month.

2) Sloan Park; Mesa, Arizona (Chicago Cubs) — Sloan is a beautiful park with delicious food. The hot dogs taste the way they do back home in Chicago. The golden tater tots are also delicious. The park usually fills up, as the Cubs are among the teams that bring the most fans out to the Cactus League, making for a fun experience complete with a live rendition of 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame', making it feel like Wrigley Field.

1) Salt River Fields at Talking Stick; Scottsdale, Arizona (Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies) — For me, Goodyear, Sloan and Salt River Fields are a clear top-three in the Cactus League with the greatest fan experiences. All three parks are beautiful aesthetically and have the best stadium food. You couldn't go wrong picking any of the three of them. What makes Salt River my favorite is its location, with beautiful mountains to be seen in the outfield. The signature food item is a footlong hot dog topped with pulled pork and barbecue sauce. It was great.

I can't recommend enough that all baseball fans schedule a trip to the Cactus League, as I am certain it is something that each fan will thoroughly enjoy.

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