- Commissioner’s statement on Ventura, Marte
- Ronnie O’Sullivan: Masters champion ‘felt so vulnerable’ in final
- Arron Fletcher Wins 2017 WSOP International Circuit Marrakech Main Event ($140,224)
- Smith challenges Warner to go big in India
- Moncada No. 1 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Braves land 2 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Kingery makes MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- New Zealand wrap up 2-0 after Bangladesh implosion
- Mathews, Pradeep, Gunathilaka to return to Sri Lanka
- Elliott hopes for rain for Poli
Mofford helped save Cactus League
- Updated: September 16, 2016
PHOENIX — To put it in baseball terms, you can credit former Arizona Gov. Rose Mofford with a save when it came to the Cactus League.
Mofford, who passed away Thursday at the age of 94, was governor in the late 1980s when Florida was making a push to have teams relocate from Arizona, which at that time had just eight teams.
“If something isn’t done, and something isn’t done fast, they’ll be writing the Cactus League’s obituary within a year,” The Arizona Republic quoted then baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti as saying in 1988.
Mofford became Arizona’s first female governor on April 5, 1988 following the impeachment of Evan Mecham and she appointed a commission to study what needed to be done to keep the Cactus League.
Joe Garagiola Jr., who served on the commission and is now a senior vice president with Major League Baseball, remembered how committed Mofford was to the cause.
“Here you had the Governor who immediately and instinctively …
