Outside my window, across the street is the campus of a community college. Beyond that, probably about a mile away, is the airport with a plane taking off every minute or two. The airport building from here looks like Noah’s ark just landed on Mt. Ararat. I notice the birds are flying around chasing each other in pairs. It’s that time of year. Beyond the airport are the low-lying mountains of Phoenix, Arizona. You guessed it. It’s warmed up to spring training time and I’m here to watch three games by my Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

It’s nice to see that there still are Angels fans in our city. With the World Champion Dodgers and Shohei Ohtani across town, looking every bit like they are creating a dynasty again, and the smoke from the January fires still on everyone’s minds, the lowly Angels of Anaheim have been pretty much forgotten. With the exception of Mike Trout, the Angels have little to offer but a roster of no names, and it’s been 6 years since his last MVP season. But from the crowd of die hard fans at Tempe Diablo Stadium, you’d never guess that. Yes fans, it’s another year with everyone starting out in first place. Hope still springs eternal.

There are 15 teams as part of the Cactus League, a spring training league spread across 10 stadiums in the greater Phoenix area, and they all play each other with “home” and “away” games you can drive to. Saturday I arrived in town in time to see most of a home game against the Oakland Athletics (except now they are actually the “Sacramento Athletics” while a new stadium and a new home is being built for them in Las Vegas). It was not much of a game (they are not much of a team — their pitchers walked so many batters I lost count).  Yesterday it was an away game, a much better game against the San Francisco Giants in Scottsdale. But before the game, the highlight was another reason why I love coming to these games every year.

I am an unabashed supporter of the First Watch breakfast. There are at least 9 of these morning restaurants in Phoenix so you are never more than 10 minutes away from one. They are all very popular with usually a waiting list, but there’s always a long community table that almost always has room to walk up, and good conversation if you want it. It always makes you feel important to walk past the crowded line to the community table and immediately take a seat.

This place has thought of everything, at least everything that is important to me. I get my own thermal pot of coffee so I can pour a little bit out at a time and keep my coffee hot. I have my own syrup bottle — warm, of course — and would you believe, under the lip of the table, literally in my lap (see picture), is a live AC plug for my computer. Did I mention they thought of everything?

And I haven’t even mentioned the food yet, which is unparalleled as far as breakfasts go. The huge blueberry pancake is the best pancake in the world, the chicken sausage is just the right tasty, even the eggs are better than usual, and usually eggs are just eggs. And even though the menu is extensive with many creative healthy brunch items, the eggs, pancake and sausage are all I ever have because that’s all I ever want. However today I did branch out and order a Blue Booster juice with blueberry, Fuji apple, lemonade, basil with a booster wellness shot of antioxidant-rich vitamins. And, of course, a marine biodegradable straw. My server yesterday was an African-American woman named Shenequa, and she was as beautiful as her name.

Yesterday’s game was a real treat. We lived for a number of years in the San Francisco Bay Area so I felt right a home with the Giants fans around me. The couple on my right was from Walnut Creek, and on my left was a couple from the Chicago area — Cubs fans, who were taking in our game just for fun. Having gone to college outside Chicago, I had lots to share with them too, including the fact that I taught guitar lessons two towns over in a music store he used to frequent. And then I forgot to mention Verenice. She was the golf cart driver that gave me a ride to the stadium from where I parked my car. She saw me struggling with my cane and offered me a  ride. I obliged. But when I got in the cart I saw signs for prices, $20 for this, $30 for that, $50 for the other … I began to wonder if I would pay more for a ride from my car than my ticket to the game. When we got to the stadium she told me not to worry, just pay whatever I wanted. So I gave her ten bucks and she gave me a card with her phone number and told me to call when I was ready to go back. I did and she came and took me back to my car. This time I paid her $20 because I felt bad for the money she lost by not filling up her cart with more people. She was so happy to serve me that she acted like I was doing her a favor.

But by far, my most memorable moment of this trip was the playing of Tony Bennett’s famous “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” as people were filing out of the stands after the game. I’m not sure I know why, but I cried when I heard it. The beautiful melancholy of that grand melody seemed to cover everything like a warm blanket. Suddenly we all got lost in our own memories of the city by the bay.

I’ve finally concluded that at spring training, we are all part of one big family. It matters not whether you voted red or blue, it only matters that you love the game of baseball and you enjoy being in a stadium full of other people who do. While our allegiance is to a certain team (we have their logo splashed on our hats and clothing), win or lose, we are all cheering something bigger — we are cheering  the game of baseball and the joy it has brought us over the years.

There’s no room for judgment here; we are all more similar than different. And as believers, there is no need to spiritualize any of this. It all belongs to God anyway. It’s not our job to be Jesus, but to hear Him and enjoy Him in all we do as we jump into the mix of people all around us. The Spirit of God lives within us; we give off the fragrance of Christ wherever we go. No need to spiritualize what’s already spiritual.

For more insights into these things, click here for a recording of Sunday’s God and Baseball talk at Church at the Catch.