Spring Training turns the Valley into baseball's home away from home

Why it matters: Hope springs eternal, and Spring Training means big bucks for state and local tourism.

By the numbers: Last season, the Cactus League generated $764 million in economic impact to Arizona, according to a study by Arizona State University.

• The league drew about 1.7 million fans, nearly six in 10 who came from out of state.

Yes, but: Spring Training is about more than the bottom line. It's one of the rare places where fans from near and far end up on the same side — a genuine, if temporary, community formed over nine innings.

What they're saying: "It's like a home away from home. It's not just about escaping the cold weather, it's about community," said Chicagoan and Cubs fan Sandesh Bigli, who's made the trip to the Valley for about seven seasons.

• "Every year we go, we keep meeting more people and it gets bigger and bigger, like a family," he told Axios.

1 celebrity sighting: Axios ran into actors Bob Odenkirk and Chris Witaske at Sloan Park earlier this week.

• Odenkirk told us he used to watch Cubs games at Hohokam Park in Mesa when he was a writer for Saturday Night Live and his brother was attending ASU.
• "It's been a long time since I've been back but I got a little space in my schedule and I'm using it wisely," he said.

The bottom line: "One of the things I love about baseball and Spring Training is it's a slower rhythm that we don't get in the world anywhere else nowadays. We need more of this in our lives, right?" Odenkirk said.