Baseball in January ? Only D- I sets a 2/14- ish start to the baseball calendar.

I remember from the D- II days Sonoma State would cheat by playing a sizable slate of January games on the islands against Hawaii- Hilo and Hawaii Pacific then steamroll over their less- prepared opponents early February.

And it is definitely not uncommon for JC's to play in January, such as Sacramento City College did tonight, because their regular season ends in April.

Sac City demolished Canada College
(17- 0 with no homeruns hit), kind of the equivalent of Holy Names to UCD Bball. Well, maybe more like Dominican or William Jessup perhaps, because the Colts did win once last year.

It's tough to really gauge how good JC players are as a mere spectator. If they play really well they may just be very good for their level, but they could be too short, too skinny, or not fast enough to play in Division I. Other JC players may struggle mightily but get more notice because of having projectible talents, like a nasty 90's heater they haven't yet commanded. This was kind of the situation with former Merced JC reliever Blake Cederlind. He committed to UCD, but was drafted + signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates instead. His JC career was nothing to write home about.

The starting pitcher (Aaron Rund) was absolutely dealing tonight. He had 9 K's and only 1 hit allowed through 4 innings. I have no idea if his stuff will play in D- I, lacking that trained eye.

Speaking of the Pirates they signed this former Sac City reliever named Nick Mears as an undrafted free agent a couple seasons ago. Now he boasts an upper 90's fastball and made it to Double- A in only about 2+ years after signing.

Interesting how a community college can effectively recruit players from all over. Sac City has two players from Japan and a transfer pitcher from UCLA- Dennis Boatman- who's supposed to be a big deal. Maybe he'll pitch tomorrow. UCD hasn't had an out- of- state recruit in years. Come to think of it I don't believe they've even had a direct transfer from another 4- year college since 2010. That was Sean Watson, a 6'9- 10 pitcher from CAL. Robert Parucha and Alex Trautner were with Hawaii and Creighton respectively, but there were intermediate JC stops in between.

Speaking of Trautner he apparently just didn't make the team last season and instead played for the UCD club baseball team. It appears that some players who miss out on the varsity team do play for the club team, but that club players do not generally get "promoted" to the varsity team via tryout.

Edit: Boatman pitched three scoreless innings with two hits allowed Saturday as Sac City won 12- 0. That's a combined score of 29- 0 for the weekend. No one can accuse coach Derek Sullivan of running up the score, as he made frequent substitutions to give as many players as possible a chance. He used 28 of them in the two games.

That building off in the distance is Hughes Stadium, where the Causeway Classic used to be held when it was UCD's turn to host (before Aggie Stadium was built)

Triple- A baseball was also played at Hughes in the 1960's- Sacramento Solons. That area used to be a baseball hotbed. The Solons' home before that, Edmonds Field, was located where the Target at Broadway and 14th is now. A couple blocks away is a restaurant named after a former Solons player (Joe Marty) who was the original owner. I haven't eaten there since it became an Italian restaurant. Italian food is mostly too rich and heavy for me when I'm planning to do some walking afterwards- pizza (in moderation) is the exception.

City College's park was also home to an independent minor league team called the Sacramento Steelheads for one season (2000) The team was poorly run and wound up moving to a park at the Nut Tree in Vacaville the next year. The Steelheads were supposed to be coached by Pete Rose, but he backed out of it. Attendance lagged, in no small part because they couldn't sell beer at the games + the owner didn't pay his players on time. The Steelheads did play an exhibition game at Community (Not Dobbins yet) Stadium in the pre- season + that was kind of a mess.

The Solano Steelheads eventually became a summer college team, and Phil Swimley even coached them at one point.

Thanks ! These last few years I've had an interest in seeing baseball in new places. I have some major league photos too (Mariners, Padres, Diamondbacks).

It's not going to work with Stanford this year I don't think. St. Mary's didn't work either- schedule conflicts. We'll see. I do have a trip planned to see a game at USF (opponent is not UCD). From what I've read it sounds like Benedetti Diamond is not on campus and is more of a community ballpark. Still, looks like a nice park with the recent renovations. I don't think it has lights yet.

Pacific would be a quick trip to go to a game. Safety's a big concern for me though- Stockton is very well- deserving of its reputation. I'd sooner go to a D- II game in Chico. Chico State arguably had a nicer ballpark than UCD before all of the upgrades to Dobbins Stadium. I'm not cèrtain if that's true now, but Nettleton Stadium has hosted pretty successful minor league and summer wood bat teams in the past.

When I visit San Diego I'll try to get photos of the Torreros' and Aztecs' stadiums. Couldn't find the former last time. SDSU is kind of a strange campus in that if you head in the direction of Tony Gwynn Stadium from the main quad you'd swear you leave the school entirely at one point- several apartment buildings that do not appear to be connected with the school. If you keep going you come upon signs for a sports complex. You think you'll see the baseball field, but the path deadends at the football practice/women's lacrosse field. Had to backtrack + head in a different direction. I walked right into the park + sat in one of the orange box seats to take a couple photos when I went because the groundskeepers left the gates open. Nice park but not very interesting scenery behind the outfield wall. I remember a big mound of dirt + dry grass. Photos didn't come out.

These photos are from Concordia U (Portland) and behind Joe Etzel Field (U. of Portland).




I think I have some photos of both fields. too, but they're on my old phone, which works but doesn't have service.

CU- P is interesting. It's a small college. Doesn't have its own bookstore. So instead of having separate fields for track, soccer, and baseball (no football) the sports just share one big field. As such the baseball field only has an outfield fence during the season. Still looks really nicely done. Baseball has its own entrance + ticket booth + dedicated seats. The capacity is about 900. And guess what- they have lights ! A college of 1,000 students with no bookstore has a lighted baseball field- go figure ! I have some undeveloped film from that trip so maybe I do have photos.

Starting this year I'm mostly focused on just seeing baseball in new places or teams I've never seen, so that means I'll do maybe 1 game at CSUS and 6 at UCD.

Softball really needs lights. They host a couple of tournaments every year, and it's ridiculous that they have to schedule games at 9 or 10 a.m for these. They get some rain + games get cancelled.

Having lights would benefit the baseball student- athletes a lot more than the fans. They could have more flexibility with practice times and miss fewer classes. I've long felt the Aggies aren't getting enough fielding practice with the kinds and frequency of errors they're making. We know that UCD doesn't have the top athletes, but the ones they are recruiting are better (if we listen to what the coach says in press releases) than their predecessors. So why so many errors ? Many of the ones I've seen the infielder looks surprised + rushes past the ball, boots it, or delivers a hurried throw when their partner isn't in position to catch it cleanly. The infielders don't have the kind of synergy recent men's + women's basketball teams have enjoyed where players just know where to be + their teammates just know they'll be there. That speaks to a lack of preparedness, not a lack of talent. And how do you prepare ? Practice and more practice. How does Sac State field so well when they also don't have the top athletes + fastest runners (and I'd argue their hitting seams weaker than UCD's when the 2 teams aren't playing each other). They practice, even at night with Christmas music in the background.

If you see any attendance increase from the lights it will be from players' parents, particularly the visiting ones. Instead of missing the Friday afternoon game when they travel they can catch it. Dobbins Stadium's location on the campus really discourages walk up traffic from townies (same w/Sac State). As to the students night games conflict with their studies + moronic social media activities.

If they do get lights they should only do Friday + mid- week games at night. CAL plays night games on Saturdays, and that's not the best thing for families going to church Sunday mornings.

CAL has a great baseball atmosphere. The fans are really into it. If I had one criticism of a lot of UCD baseball fans in general at the games I've attended it's that they're primarily there to socialize. They pay attention when their kid's up but the rest of the time the visiting fans are louder.
Still better than a community college crowd though. Seems like all 82 people at those have a personal agenda, like they're all amateur scouts + think they know everything. To be fair I'm not that loud at UCD games either, except when I'm cussing at the umpire or heckling the opposing coach. That game 2 years ago against Northridge- they should've thrown me out of there ! I think it's perfectly fair to heckle people who are getting paid to publicly mess up.

Absolutely no reason to buy more than a snack or drink at CAL- ridiculous prices. Berkeley has its own version of the Hotdogger right down the street from the ballpark.

Santa Clara has a cool little park too, courtesy of Steve Schott's checkbook. All good seats, even the bleachers. The thing to watch out for are the very snotty, entitled fans. The closer seats are $10 and they're assigned. Don't tell that to the regulars. They get really pissy if you ask them to get their crap off of the seat you paid for. "Oh we just sit wherever we want..." Also the travelling fans were not so classy when they made their way to Sacramento. Otherwise, it's a pretty nice experience. With the surrounding neighborhood + the SWAG they hand out at the gate you get to feel wealthy for a little bit. I seriously have half a dozen SCU baseball magnets on my refrigerator. You know how many I have from UCD ? One, and it's from the Alumni Association, so that technically isn't SWAG.

I've also seen University of Portland's park- Joe Etzel Field. Very nice- looking but it has a curious feature- a grass berm seating area. Now how often do you suppose that's a viable seating option from Feb- May given what we know about Portland weather ? Maybe 12- 15 games ?

I've seen a game in Arizona State's stadium + I've been to ASU, but I haven't seen an ASU game. This is because I saw a Spring Training game there between the A's and Giants a few years before the Sun Devils took it over. The Giants won. Fittingly it was Barry Zito getting the win. Great scenic location. Apparently Phoenix Muni was kind a dump when the A's were, but ASU put serious money into improving it. Arizona State has a pretty neat campus. Lots of very millennial- appropriate hip shops + food places right at the edge. And people don't often mention the Phoenix area's public transit, but you can take lightrail right there. As soon as you step out you're greeted by cacti and Sun Devil Stadium + the Wells Fargo Arena a few steps away.

This year I think I'll try Stanford and/or USF, and possibly UNC Charlotte. The problem with USF is that I think it's a waste to visit SF without seeing a Giants game, but for the last few years it's also been a waste of a trip to see a Giants game so it's kind of pointless to visit SF altogether :(

I included a picture of University of San Diego's entrance. Steeper than it looks !

Apparently I have these pictures scattered through different files, which is why I couldn't find them. Included a shot of the seats behind home plate and pressbox at Schott Stadium, a distant shot of Peecole Park (Nevada) and one of front of Husky Ballpark.

They wound up completing the game after a 30 min delay. By then I was already in a cab. Some people just found a safe place to stand although it was pouring. A guy from my hotel was a mong them

I've also been to SDSU's ballpark (photo came out lousy- do have campus photos). Also have visited University of San Diego (campus photos but couldn't find the ballpark + was exhausted from walking up the steep hill to campus) and Seattle U (ballpark is 15 miles away in Bellevue).

I tell you what though- I barely saw any overweight students at USD. Walking up and down that hill everyday must be tremendous exercise. There's an even steeper walking path behind the soccer practice field. Kind of appropriate the baketball teams play in a gym named after Jenny Craig.

San Jose State shares Excite Ballpark. The San Jose Giants were playing the Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks).

Cal- notice the uncomfortable seating.In the last picture the on deck batter is current White Sox prospect Andrew Vaughn. They were playing USC

University of Washington. I didn't get inside the park because it was September.

Utah shares this park with the Salt Lake Bees

My seats were excellent. And cheap for the best seats in the house at a pro game ($17). The Boise Hawks (Rockies) were playing the Eugene Emeralds (Cubs)

The level of play in the short- season Northwest League seems to be a little above college. Boise had two infielders who were only 18.

There are three inter- connected metal grandstands, but it became somewhat of a concern when lightning struck nearby. The sky turned purple at one point. Not much in the way of concessions, but at least they're cheap. The park was built next to the county fairgrounds sometime in the 1980's

Memorial Stadium in Garden City, ID. Boise State will play here in 2020.

University of New Mexico used to play here. Now they have their own field across the parking lot

And the obligatory Albertson's Stadium pic.

UCD would likely have swept Northridge when they visited 2 years ago had it not been for a boneheaded call from the umpires. First they botched the 3rd out call, allowing UCD to run off the field. Then they let the Northridge coach change their minds + the Matador baserunner scored all the way from first without a throw because the umpires deceived UCD into thinking the inning was over + not calling time when they were getting everything re- set. What are you going to do ? You get the 3rd out . Do you have to stand around just to make sure + get yelled at by your coach for not hustling. Idiotic call.

Utah is having a poor season, but then again they do play in the PAC- 12. One thing Utah does is drastically inflate their gameday attendance figures. When I went last year there were maybe 250 (more visiting fans). They said officially it was over 2,000. I'm pretty sure they count all their season ticket holders even when they're not there. Season tickets are really cheap, so it's not difficult to see that happening.

Sounds like UCD most years, minus the bad pitching coach. I do think Vaughn is a good pitching coach, but I think he struggles with the effective deployment of the pitchers (more on the managerial side then). This season has had a "flavor of the week" feel to it. This doesn't smack of a well- organized plan. It seems more like American Idol, with people getting voted to the bench every week. I realize they have at least 17 active pitchers to evaluate (+ redshirts), but there has to be a better plan than riding the hot hand.

Oops ! My memory failed me there. Doubting the accuracy of that story I pulled the box score online. While Fitzgerald did get the loss, and those were his runs that game- winning double was surrendered by Nik Aurora.

Sorry, Justin ! I'm getting old.