Mesa

Mesa has long been associated with Cactus League baseball as the spring training home of the Chicago Cubs. That link includes the now closed Buckhorn Baths where ballplayers, starting in the 1940s,  soaked away aches and pains. 

Now, a beautiful modern stadium, Sloan Park, that opened in 2014, hosts the Cubs while the Oakland A's play at refurbished Hohokam Park. 

The Buckhorn Baths are at Main Street and Recker Road and east of there is the Vaqueros drive-in, one of many barrel-shaped A&W Root Beer stands across America in the 1950s and 60s.

​Founded: 1878
Elevation: 1,234
​Population: 464,704

Tastes change. Carne asida is in while A&W Root Beer is out.

Buckhorn Baths was a hit with spring training ballplayers, starting in 1946, as a soothing spot to soak their sore muscles.

Sloan Park hosts the Chicago Cubs.

Buckhorn Baths awaits restoration.

A sign painter at work on a mural at Sloan Park in Mesa before a recent spring-training season. Mesa also hosts the Oakland Athletics at Hohokam Park.