The University of Arizona’s baseball program has gotten some sizable investment recently.

Cleveland Indians manager and UA alum Terry Francona recently announced a $1 million donation to the team, and they received another anonymous $1 million donation as well.

The team has said they’re putting that money to good use: building a Terry Francona hitting facility and investing in improvements to Hi Corbett Field, the historic stadium the team moved to play in several years ago after it was vacated by spring training teams that left.

And, according to Erika Barnes, interim athletics director at UA, all of that combined adds up to a good shot at the championship for the team.

Barnes mentioned that Tucson is a great baseball town, and, I know that Tucson used to be a great baseball town — but is that still the case?

That’s what UA baseball is hoping to turn it back into. Tucson has a long baseball history, and talking to Barnes made me want to find out more about it.

So, I sat down with Charlie Vascellaro. He’s a longtime sports journalist who writes about the Cactus League, and I asked him to tell me why Tucson is such an important baseball town.