Wow, you brought back a thread from 5 years ago ! That's probably the last time anyone posted baseball photos though

I saw a Saint Mary's game this year against UOP. Sat behind home plate two rows up, well 3 if you count the spread-out accessible seats. They have all sorts of signs telling people to stay away from the accessible seats, but they never do. The box seats are great.

Is your daughter an SMC student/looking at colleges? If either of you go to a game there eat somewhere else, seriously. They have some trouble keeping hot food hot it would seem.

I liked it better at the old cruddy version of the stadium when they didn't charge admission and you could bring in your own food. There is a good burrito place next to the Safeway.

Also there is a weirdo superfan (at least I hope he's a superfan and not just a weirdo) who roams around with a camera and shouts incoherently. Added entertainment but some people find it annoying.

I have been a couple of other times. One time (it was against USF) I was sitting right behind one of the former USF coaches who was fired + banned from their campus. He was showing this much younger woman who didn't seem to be his daughter how to use a radar gun. They each left separately. When they came back a couple innings later they each had messy hair. Hmmm...wonder what they did ? They couldn't ban him from being around the team on the road it would appear.

Well yes, some of what they said was garbage too.

I don't like hiking either. Too many insects and things on which to trip. So we at least have some common ground there.

Also well put. I think it's a useful thing to once in awhile take in a game at an opponent school (Aggies visiting or no) for fun when possible. It kind of humanizes "the enemy". You see how their fans positively support and value them in their own environment instead. They're not just invaders who must be destroyed. Puts it all into perspective.

In my experience opponents' fans are much more tolerable at home than when they come to Davis. I could say that of their players too-much more jackassery when in Davis. Maybe you don't notice it as much in football because so much is happening at once, but in baseball I promise you that you would hear them yell stupid, obnoxious crap all game long. Doesn't matter that their parents are often in the stands. The road must bring it out in them. I try to stay away from the gatekeeper mentality of "How dare they act this way in my house ?" as a reason to dislike the team and fans, something I surely would've done as a student. It's just not worth getting worked up about. Just a game.

Interesting. I hadn't considered the timing of his resignation.

I'm going to play hornet's advocate here and say there is a kernel of truth to what SSUCDalum said. It is kind of weird to follow your rival to the point where you're listing and discussing their recruits.

It's even kind of weird to do that with UCD recruits, but I let that go in the name of school pride.. They're just names, people. The names are all but meaningless to outsiders anyhow. It's up to the recruits and coaches to make them mean something. Everybody looks good in their highlight videos. That is why they are called highlight videos. Wake me up when one of them does something truly unusual, like throw a 200 yd pass that winds up in a parking lot. If I go to a game I root for whoever shows up. Not my job to be any more invested than that.

I guess I just don't care that much about it, but the Causeway rivalry seems kind of stupid. Anyone with a brain knows both schools play an important role in supplying the country with essential workers and useless bureaucrats alike. It's just an excuse to be hateful for some.

I thought Katz retired due to health concerns ?

I just noticed a couple of former Aggies signed contracts with Pioneer League teams: P Brett Erwin with the Ogden Raptors and C Michael Campagna with the Yuba-Sutter High Wheelers . According to the league transaction page.

Yuba-Sutter High Wheelers-how stupid ! They're just too lazy and cheap to come up with a new team name. What a joke of an organization.

Both of them finished their college careers elsewher. Erwin played for Maine (as a grad student only I believe.) Campagna left for San Francisco. He left a team with hazing issues to one where the initial set of coaches collectively provided verbal abuse +some sexual harrassment for the team. Way to pick college baseball programs Mike !

Andrew LaCour also re-signed with the High Wheelers.

Well to be fair there were too many levels of the minor leagues and teams, so some reallignment was neede.. If you had a hs player who wasn't a first-rounder he would probably be 23-24 at the youngest by the time he got to the majors, and that's assuming he didn't repeat any levels (Rookie/Complex League, Short-A, Low-A, High-A, Double-A, Triple-A.. Lots of time to get hurt and lose their potential. Short-A, in which some of the current Pioneer League teams were classified when they were affiliated (Others at the Rookie but not Complex. It's level) seemed like an unnecessary step to me. It was primarily intended to get college players into games their draft year, but now that they are just being sent to the complex leagues to get minimal reps that classification is obsolete.

MLB wanted to make sure teams could choose affiliates offering the best facilities for their players so they established the new standards. Of the Pioneer League teams I know Glacier (which never had an affiliation) has a top-notch stadium. So do the Ogden Raptors (formerly a Dodgers affiliate).

Updated Schedule to include the Hawaii, Cal State Bakersfield, Cal Poly schedules.

My QB guess is Xzavior Guess. Best name. I think Harper would be a poor choice. No way he's as good as Hastings, and if he were he would have played more. Lower ceiling. If there's to be a re-build you want continuity, and a new group of star players won't get that with a new starting QB in a lame duck season.

I presume the dog/assistant coach is leaving too. How dare they ?!

Dodgers won the WS. Padres + Angels are irrelevant lol.

To be honest I didn't really think much of the Pioneer League in its current form as an independent league.

These are not players competing for a major league job; they're competing for a job on a real minor league team (a waiting list to be on the waiting list to be on several more waiting lists), so that diminishes some of the excitement right there.

If it were purely a second-chance league for released pro players or undrafted college stars only instead of just a mix of whatever that would have been of more interest. However, to my knowledge the High Wheelers only had one player who ever played in the affiliated minor leagues. A lot of the college players either weren't that great in college or they were great but toiled in anonymity for small programs. Not a lot of name recognition. I recognized only 3 of the High Wheelers players. Two of them pitched against the Aggies in Davis, and the 3rd was an Aggie. Andrew LaCour did a great job for the High Wheelers, but he didn't pitch so well for UCD. I thought he showed promise as a freshman, but Matt Vaughn's tendency to yank relief pitchers as soon as they walked somebody really hurt his development.

I also think the games would have been more enjoyable if there had been better pitching and defense. They were way out of control. Dozens of cheap homers is not a good look for Dobbins.

Oops ! Turns out UTEP doesn't have baseball. Make that 5 cities

The Mountain West seems like a good conference for baseball fans. In addition to college teams five members are in cities that have pro teams as well. A baseball fanatic can potentially see both college + pro ball on the same trip.

Contrast that with the Big West, whose members can at best claim proximity to the Dodgers, but nothing in their cities.

I've been to Reno. Football stadium just looked a lot bigger, not especially impressive. Saw some of their players wandering around outside. The baseball stadium basically looks like an older and less-maintained version of Dobbins if it had lights + more trees.

One thing I took away was that although you can fairly easily walk to UNR from the Row (the row of hotels that includes Circus Circus), it is still quite a hike to get to the student store to pick up a souvenir.

San Jose State is a typical CSU commuter-type campus. Not much to see there or in the surrounding neighborhood. The football stadium is off-campus, old and pretty plain-looking. It's down E.Alma Ave, which is a crappy place to be walking any time of the day. Seriously just don't walk there-that street is even missing some sidewalks.

Baseball plays at San Jose Municipal Stadium, which is a few additional blocks down E. Alma. It's been around since the 1940's + is alright for Single-A baseball, but if you're not an SF Giants fan and are just there to see college baseball it can be kind of a lame experience. As far as I know they do not have the unique promotions like the "beer batter" at Spartans games. They're just basically there.

I can imagine ! Did you wind up hosting a player ?

It's fine if the MW
baseball competition isn't as strong. No more Cal State Nowhere or UC Armpit.

UCD has been in over its head in Big West baseball, to the point that I lose a good deal of interest once the conference season starts. Wyoming does not sponsor baseball so there's an odd # of teams. Perhaps that will provide a weekend every year to play a real series against Sac State, no more of these crappy Tuesday bullpen games. Their best vs. UCD's.

Oh well, if they had to do something to get the tickets there's a potential problem I don't think if I had to do more than just show up, pay a nominal fee ($1 I think it was), show my reg card that I would've attended any of the football + basketball playoff games as a student.

In any case it wasn't Plough's place to call out people for not attending. Encourage more people to show up: don't criticize them.