The Sunday Special: Peak baseball season
If only April could last all year long
As the final few Division I college baseball teams head into their final regular season series, I’m already feeling a bit nostalgic about the 2023 baseball season.
Yes, I realize that the Major League Baseball World Series isn’t played until October. And I realize that there is probably still a chance for the floundering hometown San Diego Padres to turn their fortunes around before then. Heck, my lifelong affection for the Cincinnati Reds may even yet pay dividends this year.
But this year like no other in 40 years, I threw myself into college baseball. I built and faithfully updated socalbaseball.org, which featured a comprehensive schedule of all college baseball games in San Diego and Orange Counties. And I attended a half-dozen games this year, from NCAA Division I San Diego State and University of San Diego to Division II powerhouse Point Loma Nazarene and upstart Cal State San Marcos, to tiny NAIA schools San Diego Christian and University of St. Katherine.
And I loved every inning of ever game, every bite of every hot dog.
There was a time — again, about 40 years ago — that baseball games were a year-round destination in places like San Diego and Phoenix and Miami. As the Major League season wound down in October, college teams were already busy prepping for the start of their seasons in November.
At some point in the 1980s or ’90s, the snowbelt teams put an end to that, pressured the sanctioning bodies at the NCAA and NAIA to impose new limits on baseball in the sunbelt.
Now, college seasons can’t start until January.
I didn’t catch my first game this year until February, though — the first Saturday in February, to be precise. San Diego Christian of the small-school NAIA hosted St. Katherine at a local high school field. The weather was perfect that day — light, fluffy clouds, temps in the high 70s. It was my first day of needing sunscreen in 2023. While the field itself was impeccably groomed and maintained, the fan experience was limited to a couple portable aluminum bleachers. On the upside, both parking and admission were free, and the burgers — cooked by a couple of players who were temporarily ineligible — were amazing. Oh, USK won, 9-8.
A couple weeks later I swung by the small on-campus field at Cal State San Marcos — which still awaits a generous donor to provide an upgrade and a name.
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