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 Winter Baseball in CaliforniaMonday, February 16, 2009
With only a handful of games played in California, few in the state realize that winter league games can be seen, and some within easy driving distance of Los Angeles. The Arizona Winter League, which plays the bulk of its games in Yuma and San Luis, Arizona, features two teams that play weekend “home” games in the state. The Palm Springs Chill play four sets of games at Palm Springs Stadium, while the Blythe Heat play weekends at Alexander Field in Blythe. A developmental league, the AWL is not exactly professional baseball. Players are not being paid to be on the field. In fact, they are paying their own way in the hopes of catching in some extra practice and possibly a shot at signing a professional contract. Many of the players have professional experience, and some are already signed with an independent league and possibly hoping to catch the attention of a big league organization. I went to games in both cities on February 14, a Valentine’s Day gift to my second passions…baseball and geography. Yes, family comes first, but they’ve gotten used to my mistresses. Palm Springs I was a bit surprised at how well followed the Palm Springs Chill are. They play only seven games at home, but the local newspaper followed their progress even in Yuma. With the exception of the Chill and the Heat, the names of the AWL teams are a bit arbitrary. With teams like the San Diego Surf Dawgs and Western Canada Miners (players not actually from Western Canada), the names seem more a way to promote the sponsoring Golden Baseball League’s international flare and perhaps recycle a few of the past GBL team logos (e.g., Sand Diego’s former team of the same name and the Mesa Miners who played one season in the GBL). So why would the “Palm Springs” team that played most of its games in Arizona warrant local attention? If you get the opportunity to meet Andrew Starke, president and general manager, you quickly learn why. Starke is all about promoting baseball in Palm Springs. He also runs the Palm Spring Power, a team in the Southern California Collegiate Baseball Association, a collegiate wood bat league. Much of his marketing goes into promoting both teams, and he does so with a youthful enthusiasm that must make the Power and the Chill the better known amongst the their respective leagues. For example, opening night in Palm Springs featured a tribute to Gene Autry, with Jackie Autry throwing out the first pitch and past and current members of the Los Angeles Angels in attendance. As can be expected in winter in Palm Springs, the crowd was not a young one. It was, however, a knowledgeable one. Play-by-play analysis seemed to come from everywhere as these fans where baseball fans. Gentlemen sitting behind me, in between sharing war stories on hip replacements, shared stories of games gone by and players seen. They also were quick to share what each player on the field should have done in each situation that resulted in a run scored or didn’t result in a double play. Listening to them, I would have to say they were right most of the time. One thing you notice right away when visiting an AWL game is the number of fans cheering the “away” team. Many of the folks in attendance where there because someone they knew played for one of the teams. This familiarity only added to the knowledge of the crowd. I arrived half expecting a number of impartial fans with nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon, cheering half-heartedly for a “local” team of players nobody knew. I left impressed at how closely the game was followed. Unfortunately, this high scoring affair was taking too long to catch the entire game before I had to leave to make the two hour drive to Blythe to catch the second half of my doubleheader. Blythe Blythe is just about the only thing in the way of a town between the Imperial Valley and Phoenix as you head east on Interstate 10. One of the spots on the California-Arizona border where the desert has come to life thanks to irrigation from the Colorado River, the vast majority of people visiting Blythe are just passing through. With only 21,000 residents, and no other cities in the area, Blythe is significantly smaller than either the Palm Springs area or Yuma. As can be expected, Blythe really doesn’t have anything in the way of a baseball stadium, either. Instead, the eight AWL games played here are at Alexander Field, something more reminiscent of a high school field than a professional baseball stadium. If not for the dimensions (which are not posted on the outfield wall), the place could have been mistaken for one of the little league fields that adorns the fields outfield flanks. A couple sets of bleachers have been placed on either side of a central building that housed the announcer and a two sided concession window. A chain link fence separates fans from players. This Valentine’s game, with its 6:30 PM start on a cool night, was poorly attended by anyone from Blythe. That may have been because it was Valentine’s Day, and couples had other plans. I happened to catch up with one of the GBL umpires before the game (the umpires almost appeared to be greeting people on their way in) and he indicated the games in Blythe are usually better attended. Plenty of fans were there following their friends or family, however, and that gave the evening even more of a high school game feel with half the fans in the bleachers being parents of some of the players. The sparse crowd gave me a great opportunity to talk with some of the team followers. One family from New York talked about how they were in Phoenix visiting friends and they couldn’t give up the opportunity to see their nephew, Robert Maxwell, who was the starting pitcher for the Western Canada Miners. In a league known for runs, a good pitching performance stands out and Maxwell’s eight innings of six hit, two run ball, was doing exactly that. Every inning saw the family calling relatives back in New York to give recaps, which required paying close attention as the scoreboard kept track of the score, the inning, and not much else. Maxwell, a recent college graduate, is on his way to play for Texarkana of the Continental League in the spring. Other fans I happened to talked to came from Connecticut and Oregon, just to watch a game in Blythe. The whole idea offered a good example of how great baseball can be in bringing visitors into town. Not the typical Blythe visitor in search of gas, food, and maybe a place to rest for the night before continuing on their journey, people at the game might actually stay for a day or two, eat at local restaurants, shop at local stores. The team might not pull more than a few dozen visitors each weekend, but these were a few dozen more visitors than would have stayed there otherwise. All that was required was use a city facility. When I think of cities out there that couldn’t care less about their baseball team, I have to wonder how local businesses put up with it. I also got the opportunity converse with one of the players, Yoh Ochiai of Kanagawa, Japan. A former member of the Samurai Bears, the all Japanese team that made up part of the GBL’s first season, Ochiai also played in the Frontier League and the Atlantic League. An injury to his shoulder and anticipated surgery has ended this relief pitcher’s 2009 season, but the 26 year old didn’t seem to be too downbeat. No apparent current aspirations of catching on with a big league organization, Ochiai just enjoyed playing the game in the U.S. Considering the large number of Japanese in the league, my guess is that Ochiai is not alone. Many of these players appear to be here for love of the game and the chance to get instruction from seasoned U.S. coaches. So while the AWL may offer a chance for undrafted college players or former minor league players to catch on with a team, be it independent or a big league organization, all seemed to value the chance to improve their game. In all, perhaps the best part of Blythe was the opportunity to see these players, some professional, some soon to be professional, play in such a setting. For those that like the minor leagues for the opportunity to view a purer, more grass roots level of professional baseball, winter league ball just might be your kind of game.
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