Live Baseball is Back!

At least in the college ranks, where you can see some outstanding baseball and a lot of weird stuff... I've been to two games already this year. Herein, a brief report.

I took some time off and went to the Big Island of Hawai'i at the end of January. Besides being home to the wettest place on earth, a volcano that spits lava into the sea and people who live on lava flows without water or electricity, the Big Island is also home to perhaps the most forlorn Division I baseball team in the NCAA: the University of Hawai'i-Hilo Vulcans.

Lacking a conference affiliation, or any kind of serious money with which to travel, they have to depend on mainland teams willing to underwrite a Hawai'ian vacation. This year, those teams include the Univ. of San Diego, Kansas, Cal, Nebraska, Wichita St., Florida St. and Sacramento St. (Although, bizarrely, not the only other Division I team in the state, the Univ. of Hawai'i.)

If you're keeping count, their schedule is 33 home games, 7 road games.

The isolation also keeps top prospects from seeking out the school; last year, the Vulcans went 9-43, and so far this year, the team is 0-8, with 21 runs scored and 72 allowed.

They play in Wong Stadium, a smallish park -- holds maybe 2,000? -- but one of those '60s concrete monstrosities. And it leaks. It's also right next to the Hilo airport. When I say "right next to the airport," I mean right next to the airport. Landing planes fly by the outfield below the light standards.

The leaking part is important because Hilo is one of the wettest places on earth; 70 or 80 inches a year there is a "drought." (In fact, they're in the midst of one right now; when I was there, it hasn't rained hard in a month and the field looked like Kansas in August because there's no irrigation system, there hardly ever being the need for one.)

The hapless Vulcans lost to the USD Toros 18-0 in a 7-inning game. (The umpires invoked the 10-run rule. Seriously.)

USD has been nationally ranked in at least one poll this year, and they were clearly at a different level than Hawai'i-Hilo. They've got a sparkplug CF/lead-off hitter, Gavin Ng, who walked once and got hit by a pitch three times in four appearances, a C/DH named Jason Abruzzo who has a nasty bat, and the day I saw them play, a kid from Danville named Josh Butler pitched. Their #3 starter, he was hitting 91 on the gun and had a breaking pitch he could throw for strikes. The team obviously has a pretty deep pitching staff. Oakland's own Steve Singleton is their SS, and he can pick it.

It wasn't much of a game, but there are worse fates than sitting on a warm tropical night and watching baseball in January.

The next weekend, I was in Fullerton to watch something completely different: two of the elite college baseball programs, the defending national champion Cal. St. Fullerton Titans and perennial CWS contenders the Stanford Cardinal.

The Titans have quite a set-up going for them: they play in a park that holds about 4,000 and probably wouldn't embarrass a Double-A team. They've got a substantial season-ticket base -- 2,846 showed up this past Saturday night -- and the entire operation is thoroughly professional. They even sell beer at the concession stands. None of these are even remotely typical of college baseball.

The game was a gem, exactly what you'd expect from a game where you're probably watching as many as 15 future professionals and five future major leaguers.

A kid named Sergio Pedroza homered in the first for the Titans -- a junior, he's going to be a top pick in the June pro draft -- but Stanford answered with two in the top of the second on some nifty baserunning.

(With one out, runners on first and second, a pitch got away from the catcher; both runners sprinted to move up, and when the catcher threw through to 2B, the runner now occupying 3B took off and just beat the throw home with a dazzling head-first slide. Wouldn't have happened in the majors because the runners would have jogged to take their base and the guy on 3B wouldn't have been in position to score.)

Fullerton went ahead on a triple in the bottom of the second, then Stanford's 1B John Mayberry, Jr. -- yup, the son of the Royals great -- hit a truly monster HR to LF, maybe 425 ft., in the fourth to tie the game. He's also a junior and my guess is he'll be a first round pick.

Fullerton ended up winning the game in the seventh when Nolan Gallagher, a freshman Stanford relief pitcher from Red Lodge, Montana making his college debut, freaked out and walked the first two hitters he faced in the seventh and then hit the next guy, who was trying to sacrifice. He got out of the inning allowing only one run, but Fullerton's bullpen -- they have some serious gas out there, which is amazing in college ball -- made it stand up. Final: 4-3, Fullerton.

Fullerton has a 3B named Ronnie Prettyman. Wonder what his life was like in 7th grade.

Stanford has a switch-hitting 2B named Jed Lowrie batting third; he hit .399 last year with 50 walks and 40 Ks in 233 AB. I think it's safe to say he's going to attract a certain amount of attention in the draft. Like Top 5 attention. Didn't get to see much of him in the game I saw, though: he went 0-4, and had only one, easy play in the field. But remember his name.

There's tons of college baseball around the Bay Area if you want to see it, too. St. Mary's, USF, Cal and Stanford (their Sunken Diamond may be the best ballpark in the country, of any kind at any level) all play Div. I ball. Stanford's home this weekend against Kansas while the other three play on the road, but they all have a generous home schedule this month. It's a great way to get your baseball fix.