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Posted on March 7, 2024 in DUI
During the Major League Baseball (MLB) season, Chase Field in Phoenix is the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. But when annual Spring Training begins, Phoenix becomes the most popular destination in the MLB, with 15 teams—half the entire league—calling the city their temporary home to play in the Cactus League.
Unfortunately, Spring Training is also popular for its drinking-related crimes that happen at and around the ballparks. Attorney Craig Rosenstein, founder and owner of Rosenstein Law Group, explains the crimes most commonly committed during this time in Phoenix.
While Spring Training comes with a lot of excitement, it also results in a slew of arrests, too. With these arrests, there are three primary crimes we see associated with Spring Training.
One of the biggest things we see during Spring Training is our guests and visitors from out of state not really understanding Arizona DUI law. In Arizona, when you’re charged with a DUI, you’re charged with a minimum of two separate criminal offenses.
The first is having a BAC above 0.08 while driving a vehicle and the second is driving a vehicle while impaired to the slightest degree, which is Arizona statute 28-1381 (A)(1). What that statute requires the government to do is prove that somebody was driving or was in actual physical control of an automobile, had consumed alcohol, and that their BAC impaired them to the slightest degree.
Unfortunately, that term isn’t actually defined anywhere in the statute.
Now, we are given some presumption—if someone has a BAC below 0.05 they’re presumed to be not impaired by alcohol. However, if they have a BAC between 0.05 and 0.08, there are no presumptions at all, but with a BAC above 0.08, they’re presumed to be impaired by alcohol.
Any amount of alcohol at all can trigger both the charging of a DUI and its conviction if someone can convince a jury that you were impaired even to the slightest degree.
So, always prepare ahead and make sure that you have a (sober) driver on call or you’re prepared to take an Uber.
Obviously, we don’t want anyone charged with a DUI. That being said, different cities, different jurisdictions, and different justice courts, all treat these charges differently.
The best thing you can do is have a DUI specialist represent you in court to try to get you out of the criminal justice system as quickly as possible.
So the other charges that we often see associated with Spring Training are disorderly conduct and urinating in public charges.
In Arizona, it’s against the constitution to have a drunken public charge. As a result, we instead have a very broad disorderly conduct charge.
Arizona does not provide nor does it have enough bathrooms available for the public during the Spring Training games. So, if the bars kick someone out before they have the opportunity to use the restroom, we often see them charged not only with disorderly conduct but also with urinating in public.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a local or from out of state, if you were watching Spring Training games and found yourself arrested or cited by law enforcement and need help with the justice system, please give us a call at 480-637-3367.
One of the things that we do best is educate people, particularly those from other states, on what the local and state processes are. One of the advantages of hiring us is we can keep you from having to come back repeatedly to go to court.
At Rosenstein Law Group, we pride ourselves on educating our clients not only to help you simply get out of the system but as quickly as humanly possible, too—even for our friends coming to see a baseball game from out of state.
While there are crimes to avoid, Spring Training is one of the highlights of the year in Phoenix.
The Arizona Cactus League Association controls the Cactus League. Since the Cactus League started in 1947, the Association has provided Phoenix-area residents and visitors with more than a way to see Spring Training and practice games for many teams. It has also contributed to the local and Arizona economies, last year adding more than $700 million in estimated economic benefit for the state.
This year, the Cactus League season will include more than 200 games and run from February 22, 2024 to March 26, 2024.
With half of the league participating in the Cactus League, you can probably find your favorite team here. Here are all of the Cactus League teams and their practice field locations. Ticket prices vary by stadium; you can find more ticket information at the link for each stadium.
| Team | Stadium | Stadium Notes |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | Salt River Fields at Talking Stick | The ballpark seats up to 11,000 spectators, with 4,000 lawn seats. |
| Chicago Cubs | Sloan Park | 15,000-seat stadium. |
| Chicago White Sox | Camelback Ranch-Glendale | Seats 13,000, including 3,000 lawn seats, 12 luxury suites and a party deck. |
| Cincinnati Reds | Goodyear Ballpark | Has more than 8,000 stadium seats, 1,500 berm seats, six luxury suites. |
| Cleveland Guardians | Goodyear Ballpark | See notes for Cincinnati Reds. |
| Colorado Rockies | Salt River Fields at Talking Stick | See notes for Arizona Diamondbacks. |
| Kansas City Royals | Surprise Stadium | The stadium seats 10,000 and is located in the city of Surprise, Arizona. |
| Los Angeles Angels | Diablo Stadium | Located in Tempe, Arizona. |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Camelback Ranch-Glendale | See notes for Chicago White Sox. |
| Milwaukee Brewers | American Family Fields of Phoenix | The facility can hold up to 10,000 people. |
| Oakland Athletics | Hohokam Stadium | Located in Mesa. |
| San Diego Padres | Peoria Sports Complex | Seats 12,000 spectators. |
| San Francisco Giants | Scottsdale Stadium | Seats 12,000 spectators. |
| Seattle Mariners | Peoria Sports Complex | See Notes for San Diego Padres. |
| Texas Rangers | Surprise Stadium | See notes for Kansas City Royals. |
Spring training is a major event in the Phoenix area, so many resources are available to help you plan which teams to see, which games to watch, what to do, and where to go in the local area when you are not soaking in the MLB preseason atmosphere.
Here are some resources to help you get started with your own Cactus League spectator experience.
The Cactus League maintains an annual official publication, Play Ball, that provides information about all the teams and includes a wealth of information about other places in Arizona to visit when not taking in a practice session or a game.
The majority of people who attend Cactus League games are not from Phoenix, or even Arizona. Six out of every 10 fans come from other states, and many of them come back regularly.
Experienced visitors to Cactus League games have offered the following advice for first-time fans to have the best experience:
With a little bit of planning in advance, a trip to the Phoenix metropolitan area to catch the Cactus League can be a spectacular preseason baseball viewing experience and an Arizona vacation at the same time. We hope that the resources we have linked to here will be helpful to you in getting started.