Nightengale: A baseball scout and his hotel room: Gordon Lakey’s spring haunt
From Bob Nightengale at USA Today on March 19, 2018:
This eclectic 194-room hotel in Old Town has purple carpet, pink doors, and yellow and orange walls.
It has changed names nine times.
It has even changed addresses without moving.
Yet, one man has managed to find his way back to this same joint every spring for the past 38 years.
The Saguaro Scottsdale Hotel: the spring-training home for 73-year-old Philadelphia Phillies scout Gordon Lakey.
The esteemed scout not only has stayed at this same hotel since stumbling upon it parking his car one morning in the spring of 1980, but if you can believe it, has stayed in the same exact room every single year.
“I remember a couple of years ago the mayor of Scottsdale sees me, runs after me in the lobby,’’ Lakey says, “and tells me, ‘I just want to meet somebody who stayed at this hotel longer than I’ve lived.’’
Did you tell him you stayed in the same room, too?
“No,’’ Lakey says, “I didn’t want him to think I’m nuts.’’
Read the full article here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2018/03/19/gordon-lakey-phillies-scout-saguaro-scottsdale-hotel/437845002/
Originally published: March 20, 2018. Last Updated: March 20, 2018.