Hey fans, this is Drew Sutton.  I play with the Scottsdale Scorpions and am in the Houston Astros organization.  Having been in the Minors for a few years now and having traveled what seems like all over the country, you get in a habit of trying to find some great local spots once you get to town.  Whether they be good live music venues, attractions that really personalize a town or local restaurants.  That’s what I really enjoy about traveling so much to so many different cities, finding the Mom and Pop places that really define a city and give it a special nuance all its own.  In Springfield, Missouri there’s the house turned restaurant, Gaileys, that serves amazing breakfast.  In Nashville, there’s ‘The Blue Bird Cafe’, one of my favorite places, where four local songwriters will come in at a time with just themselves and a guitar and sing some songs they have just written and some that have already been recorded by artists like George Strait or Kenny Chesney.  And in Corpus Christi, there’s Mulligans, where we were constantly running the juke box with sing-a-longs from Bob Marley, Tom Petty, Oasis, Black Crowes and pretty much anything else you can think of.  That’s the great thing about being here in Scottsdale for the first time, the search for the local spots that make Scottsdale unique as a town.  I really like that the weather is always nice enough to sit outside at all of the restaurants that line Scottsdale Road.  The two places I really try hard to find are a breakfast spot which I think I’ve found in  ‘The Breakfast Club’ and a good live music place which I’m still working on.  I have heard that there is good live music at Camelback Inn through the week.  These are the kinds of things that make it a little bit easier to be away from home since February and it helps to keep you a little sane during a 142-game season.  Well, with only 2 weeks left we’re running out of games before it’s time to hibernate for the winter and then before you know it Spring Training will be here.  Then it all starts over again with new towns and the search for the local dives.  Have a great winter, fans, and we’ll see you in the spring.

Drew