Hale defends Salt River Fields from Tulo criticism

Chip Hale defended Salt River Fields yesterday days after Troy Tulowitzki called the facility “a country club.” (Never though that to be an insult, but anyway:)

“Trust me, I’ve been some places you don’t want to go,” Hale said to the Arizona Republic yesterday. “If he wants to go to old Melbourne, Florida, where I was with the Minnesota Twins, he can have a real baseball environment.”

A.J. Pollock defended the facilities as well in the same article.

“Most guys in our locker room are very humble,” Pollock said. “I’m not saying Tulo isn’t, but there’s probably some emotion. He just got traded from the team he played with his whole career. We love it here. We take full advantage of the great facilities, the stuff in the trainers’ room, the batting cage. We love it. I don’t think we would trade it for anything.”

Troy Tulowitzki  contrasted a rosy picture of Florida Auto Exchange Stadium– the spring home of the Blue Jays– with a jab at Salt River Fields.

“I like this place a lot better than Arizona,” Tulowitzki said to USA Today Sports. “That place was like a country club. Guys got comfortable because it was so nice. This place has a better feel. It reminds you of spring training. The way it’s supposed to be.”

Salt River Fields, built in 2011, seats 11,000 and includes amenities like a kids’ wiffle ball field, nine specialty concession stands, and four. corporate suites. Florida Auto Exchange Stadium, where the Blue Jays play in the spring, was built in 1990, seats about 5,500, has just two suites and cost $2.4 million to build ($4.5 million in 2016 dollars).