It’s official: the Rockies and Diamondbacks are leaving Tucson and moving to a spring training facility on an Indian reservation.

The new complex, which will feature an 11,000-seat ballpark and 12 practice fields, will be designed by HKS Architects and located in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. HKS also built Camelback Ranch, the new spring training home of the Dodgers and White Sox. And I’ll admit, begrudgingly, Camelback is a beautiful park.

If you live in Tucson, like I do, this is a total bummer. It’s an even bigger bummer for this guy.

The Pima County Sports and Tourism Authority is still trying to bring the Baltimore Orioles and Japanese teams to Tucson. But I’m not holding my breath.

The Diamondbacks’ lease at Tucson Electric Park contains at out-clause: The Dbacks can leave if there are ever fewer than three teams playing in Tucson. This winter, the White Sox bolted to Glendale, where they’ll share a facility with the Dodgers. That leaves two teams in Tucson — the Dbacks and the Rockies.

Now the Dbacks acknowledge they have talked with Casa Grande about moving spring training sites and would prefer having three other teams in Tucson for better competition.

D’backs president and CEO Derrick Hall spoke this morning near Tucson Electric Park as the team had its first full-squad workout.

“If you had your preference you’d either have four teams here in Tucson, where you can draw from the fan base here, or have a one- or two-team complex up in the Valley where you can draw from your fan base there,” Hall said.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Hall’s tactic, it’s a variation on the “Boras.” Super-agent Scott Boras likes to make exhorbitant contract demands, then when a team signs one of his players that team can say, “At least we got him for a fraction of what Boras was originally asking.”

Hall says he wants four teams in Tucson, but really he wants to move the Dbacks to a fancy new facility in the Phoenix burbs where he can sell tickets for twice as much money. He’s greasing the wheels for a Tucson departure. The reality is Tucson needs three teams, but now the goal is four. Hall just raised the bar. Nicely played, Derrick.

When I’m not writing for this website, I’m writing about nightlife for the Arizona Daily Star. This week, the Star bosses gave me the chance to write a story about baseball. Kinda, sorta.

As previously reported, the triple-A Tucson Sidewinders will leave for Reno after this season. The team’s last game in Tucson is Monday against the Salt Lake Bees.

The Sidewinders were formerly known as the Tucson Toros, who played at Hi Corbett Field from 1969 to 1997 and won two Pacific Coast League Championships (Hi Corbett Field is where they filmed the spring training portion of the movie “Major League”).

In honor of the Tucson baseball’s end days, I talked to a bunch of guys who were there for every game – the mascots. And let me tell you, Tucson mascots have stories to tell. One of these guys got in a fight with a fan at home plate and later became Orbit, the Houston Astros’ mascot. Another went on to become Slyly, the wannabe-Phanatic mascot of the Hiroshima Carp.

You can read the story here.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention this one interesting aside that didn’t make it into my article. Hal Katzman, who was the first Tuffy the Toro, says his story is the basis for the classic Simpsons episode, “Dancin’ Homer.” Here’s how Simpsons Wiki describes that episode:

One night at Moe’s Tavern, Homer tells the story of how he got (and then lost) his big break…it is Nuclear Plant Employee, Spouses and No More than Three Children Night at the Springfield Isotopes baseball game at Springfield Stadium. At the game, Mr. Burns sits with Homer, taunting the Isotopes, which are expected to lose their 27th consecutive game, reportedly the longest losing streak in professional baseball. But when Homer fires up the crowd to the tune of “Baby Elephant Walk“, the Isotopes win a game.

Because of this, Homer is made the Springfield Isotopes mascot, “Dancin’ Homer”. Thanks to his spirit, the Isotopes win more games until Homer is promoted by Antoine “Tex” O’Hara to the team in Capital City.

The Simpsons pack up their things, say goodbye to their friends and move to the big city. Homer is nervous about performing for a larger crowd and sharing the stage with the legendary Capital City Goofball. His first performance is a disaster. He is booed off the stage and promptly fired. Homer sadly finishes his story, only to find that the barflies are still pretty impressed.

Katzman went on to become the mascot for the Houston Astros, and Capital City’s owner is nicknamed Tex. Moreover, Simpsons creator Matt Groening is from Houston. So it’s not crazy to think that Katzman really was the basis for this episode.

I don’t know about you, but if there’s anything cooler than being the basis of a Simpsons episode, especially an episode that aired during the first 10 seasons, before the show jumped the shark, then I don’t know what it is.

• The city of Goodyear, Ariz., has until Thursday to publicly identify where it’s gonna get the $32 million it will cost to bring the Reds to the Cactus League.
• If the Reds don’t go to Goodyear, they could replace the White Sox in Tucson (I’d like to link to this story, but the Arizona Daily star makes you pay for any story that’s more than a week old).
• One season soon, the Cubs could play some home games at U.S. Cellular Field while Wrigley gets a face lift.
• The former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles thinks the Marlins new stadium should be privately financed.

Yesterday afternoon my girlfriend Suz and I went to watch the Mexican National Team play the Colorado Rockies at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson.

Mexico won 2-1. It was the second time in three days that the Rockies squared off against Mexico. Two days earlier the Rockies won 15-2. Fortunately for Mexico, today’s game was a split squad game for Colorado, so the Rox were without loyal Umpbump reader Troy Tulowitzki and a few other key regulars.

Rockies players who did play today included Matt Holliday, Willy Taveras, Brad Hawpe and Todd Helton. Jeff Francis started the game for the Rox. I didn’t recognize any of the Mexican players.

We sat right in the middle of the Mexican fans, behind Mexico’s dugout. I don’t speak Spanish so I missed the meaning behind a ton of heckling. The guys sitting right behind us were drinking Coors Lights and having a blast. Every minute or so a guy in sunglasses and a camouflage hat would shout something and the fans on our side of the stadium would snicker.

At one point, Suz turned to me and said:

“I think I’m losing the hearing in my right ear.”

“What?” I asked.”

“I think I’m losing the hearing in my right ear,” she repeated.

“I can’t hear you,” I said. “The fans behind you are too loud. What did you say?”

“I said I think I’m losing the hearing in my right ear,” she said.

“Oh,” I said. “Yeah.”

As I was leaving the game, the guy in the camouflage hat excitedly high-fived me. I asked him what he had been shouting and he explained to me that he was taunting Mexico’s third base coach, who stands about ten feet to the right of the batters circle, rather than stand in the coach’s box.

“We don’t like him,” he said. “He never stands where he’s supposed to stand. And he blocks our view.”

Other highlights from the game:

• In the fourth inning, the game stopped for a few minutes when strong winds blew dirt from the field into the stands. After the wind died down, everybody in the first ten rows behind home plate stood up and dusted themselves off. Then the game resumed.
• Former Rockies 3B and former Mexican National Team manager Vinny Castilla came out to coach third in the bottom of the ninth inning and got a big standing ovation. I’m pretty sure Vinny could get elected president in Mexico if he were to run.
• A ball hit by one of the Mexico players appeared to clear the left field fence, but was later ruled a ground rule double, much to the dismay of the fans (Note: when Mexico fans disagree with an ump’s call, they whistle. I’d like to see Philly fans give that a try.)
• Throughout the game, kids and adults tossed hats, shirts and balls over the fence to the players in the Mexico dugout. Without fail, the Mexican players signed the items and tossed them back. Very cool.

All in all, it was a great afternoon. And the lesson, as always, is that Mexican fans are the best. Well, except for maybe Japanese fans.

Oh, one last thing…

This season, MLB has decided that first and third base coaches need to wear helmets (much to Larry Bowa’s dismay). But during spring training games, coaches continue to sit in folding chairs set up adjacent to the dugout, with nothing in between them and the hitters. Is it me, or is that a little inconsistent?

UPDATE: For a slideshow of images of one of the Mexico pitchers warming up in the bullpen, click here. For more pics from yesterday’s game, click here.

I live in Tucson. I just moved here about three months ago. Recently, I told you that the local minor league team was leaving town.

Now it looks like spring training might be leaving for the sucktastic shores of the Phoenix metro area. The White Sox, the Diamondbacks and the Rockies all play their March games in Tucson.

Here’s why they might leave:

• Goodyear, a Phoenix suburb, is building a stadium for the Cleveland Indians for 2009 and is in talks with the Rockies about the team moving its spring training home there.
• The White Sox have already announced plans to move to Glendale for the 2009 season. BUT, they are contractually obligated to find a replacement team in order to break their lease at Tucson Electric Park, which runs through 2012.
• If the White Sox move to Glendale and spring training in Tucson is reduced to two teams, the Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks can also break their leases.

So you can see how Tucson’s days of spring training baseball may be numbered.

Why does this matter? Because Tucson is a real place with real people and real buildings. This town has culture. I tell people lots of towns have lots of kitschy bars. But Tucson’s bars are kitschy by virtue of the fact that they just haven’t changed anything in the last 50 years. And I think that’s awesome.

The Phoenix suburbs are a monument to all that is soulless in America. They are shoddy modern construction. They are chain restaurants. They are sprawl.

Don’t let Tucson baseball die. If you’re a Tucson resident, write your local elected official. If you’re a Rockies, White Sox or Diamondbacks fan, call or email the team and tell them that Phoenix sucks and you don’t ever want to go there to watch a baseball game.

And if you’re smart, you’ll buy a plane ticket to Tucson right now and come watch baseball in Tucson this spring, while you still can.

I’ve been to Nashville. Nice town. I hope the GMs currently meeting there** are enjoying the various honky tonks and watering holes. But in between all the fun live music and delightfully fried foods, I hope they are talking serious, blockbuster trades. I am so over the A-Rod thing. The free agent crop this year is just not where the action is. Plus, there are a couple of other interesting tidbits floating around the GM Meetings:

1. This year, the 30 general managers decided to try something so obvious they couldn’t believe they didn’t think of it sooner. At the behest of Red Sox GM Theo Epstein and Marlins President Larry Beinfest, all 30 GMs got together for an informal meeting at which each GM explained, in two minutes or less, what his acquisition goals were and what kind of deals he was willing to entertain. Under the old system, scouts and other emissaries would be dispatched by one club to sound out the other 29 clubs in turn, like royal pages in some 17th century court. And like some 17th century royal court, rumors and gossip abounded while real information was scarce.

2. In another great leap forward, GMs have voted 25-5 for umpires to use instant replay to determine debatable fair-or-foul judgments and home run calls. As has been widely reported, it would work more like the NHL’s system, where a neutral third party reviews the play in a booth upstairs, than the NFL’s system of formal challenges that then get reviewed by the referees themselves. In the past, Commissioner Bud Selig has said he doesn’t like using instant replay in part “because of all the delays.” He’s even talked about speeding up the games by limiting the number of times the batter can step out of the batters’ box and cutting down on catcher’s trips to the mound. That is bad news for fans, who might have been hoping Quixotically for shorter commercial breaks instead.

3 . Here’s some fun trade speculation—the Rangers are looking for a centerfielder (again) to fill in for the two-to-three years it will take their best outfield prospects to mature. One option they’ve discussed is Coco Crisp. The Boston Globe reports that the Red Sox expressed interest in one of the Rangers’ catchers, either Gerald Laird or (ha ha) Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Laird-for-Coco wouldn’t be a good move for Boston. Laird hit in the low .200s with 9 homers in 120 games last season. It should be noted, however, that Laird led the league in throwing out would-be base-stealers; if he can catch a knuckler, the Sox might be interested in him to catch Tim Wakefield (though they tried this experiment before, and ended up paying an extremely high price to bring back Doug Mirabelli when it faltered). I think Salty-for-Coco is just wishful thinking on the part of the Globe, unless the Red Sox were willing to throw some cash or some prospects (or both) at Texas. After all, he’s a burly, young, switch-hitting catcher (not unlike Jason Varitek 12 years ago) and those don’t come cheap (unless the other GM is an idiot and you’re offering the great Heathcliff Slocumb). What would the Red Sox do with Salty? He’s not known for his defensive prowess behind the plate, which is an issue because the back-up catcher in Beantown pretty much has to catch Wake’s flutterball. It’s possible that the Red Sox are looking ahead to the days when Varitek becomes their bench coach (oh please, let it come to pass!) but right now, Saltalamacchia doesn’t fit any needs the Red Sox have….OR DOES HE? One of the rumors going around is that if the Red Sox can’t re-sign Mike Lowell, they’ll move Gold Glove-winning first baseman Kevin Youkilis to third (his former position) and get themselves a new first baseman. And Saltalamacchia has some experience at first. And before you go jumping on me that Coco is too old or too expensive to be the centerpiece of such a deal, I remind you that he’s only 28 and he only makes $4 million. Plus, he’s got great speed. The only downside here is that he’s coming off of a couple poor offensive years with the Red Sox (which, in turn, could actually make him cheaper to sign for the Rangers, if they’re willing to take a chance on him returning to his respectable career average of .280).

4. The Yankees are talking trades as well, and also looking to move one of their outfielders. They’ve talked about shopping Johnny Damon, though that is looking unlikely at this moment, and there have been murmurs about moving Hideki Matsui, though he has a no-trade clause and could be hard to unload. And, as far as I can tell, no possible takers for either of those has been mentioned. One problem for the Yanks seems to be that they’ve got too many DH-types—including a ravaged-by-years-of-steroid-use Jason Giambi, whose “skills” at first base we last saw harming his team in the playoffs.

5. At the new “straight from the horse’s mouth” GM roundtable discussed above, Indians GM Mark Shapiro said he wasn’t shopping anyone, but no one was off-limits if the right offer came along. He’s said to be preparing a contract extension for C.C. Sabathia. But given what C.C. is likely to cost, he might be tempted to move the Cy Young favorite now and just rake in his winnings. Who would possible takers be? Why, pretty much every team out there with something—-anything—to offer. I can’t think of a GM who wouldn’t empty his cupboard and open his wallet at the chance to get Sabathia.

**I am an ass. The GM meetings are being held in Orlando, where I have also been and where, unless you are seven years old and meeting Mickey Mouse in his dressing room, it sort of sucks. The Winter Meetings (held in December) are in Nashville. Thanks to reader Melissa for pointing this out.