"You came here to watch baseball?" asked the man seated next to me on the plane. "Good luck with that," he said with a bit too much sarcasm for me. Our B&B hosts had the same reaction when they asked us the usual, "What brought you to Anchorage?" Alaska's number one industry after oil and natural gas production is tourism. People come to the Last Frontier in droves to see Glaciers, the Northern Lights, sled dogs, and Denali. But baseball? Not many folks come this far north just to watch some college kids play ball. I'm not like many folks.
After finding it far too difficult to procure a rental house on the Cape to catch the Cape Cod League, I found that the Alaska Baseball League had a history in need of learning and a story in need of experiencing. Mark McGuire played up here. So did Dave Winfield, Barry Bonds, and Jason Giambi. Satchel Paige and other Negro Leaguers played up here when no other American summer league in the country would take them. They all braved the long trip, the sometimes overly rainy summer, and joined this wood bat league to not only extend their college season but also increase their chances of being picked up by an MLB team. The league operates largely on fundraising efforts from the local communities, a $250 player fee, and the hospitality of local families to house and feed the players. The players and coaches maintain the field, take on all of the usual clubhouse manager roles (think laundry and cleaning) and otherwise give their lives over to the game, to the team for two summer months. This is baseball as it once was long ago in the barnstorming days. And it's awesome.
With roughly 80 people at our first game, we felt like we were living that moment from A League of Their Own when no one, and I mean no one, was at the game. The grandstand was empty. The bleachers were empty. And the beer garden had more little kids than eligible drinkers. But that didn't stop the family and friends of Lefty Van Brunt (former pitching coach of the Glacier Pilots) from celebrating his birthday in style. See, Lefty committed 28 years of his life to the Glacier Pilots and died only two weeks before the start of this season. Besides coaching the players and dolling out advice to youngsters in the stands, Lefty's big contribution to the game was Tootsie Pops. And lots of them. He would throw out hundreds of pieces of candy to the adoring fans, so in honor of his birthday, his family and friends continued on with the tradition and the biggest, most awesome Tootsie Pop cake I've ever seen (see below). It was a great welcome to the Alaska League.
Today was the official start of the Scout Showcase weekend. That is part of the reason I picked this weekend to be here because all of the teams are playing in Anchorage and all of the pro scouts are in town to watch the players. Come Sunday we'll get to experience the first ever ABL All-Star Game and Homerun Derby. It promises to be awesome, and Californian and Bay Area resident Mike Miller is slated to put on a great show. His parents and girlfriend are in town for the weekend to watch him play. Mike plays short stop, and during the year he's at Cal Poly SLO. He played up here last summer after getting picked up from a California league the previous year. While it extends his college season some two months, it's the closest he gets to being a professional ball player. That is, unless he gets drafted. Mike is leading the league in batting, hits, and runs. His mom misses him and hates him being so far away (his girlfriend echoed that sentiment). But they both said Mike's love for baseball was so strong he was willing to do just about anything to play.
We've got two more games tomorrow and the All-star game on Sunday. Pretty pumped for the latter as 1. the tickets look super cool and 2. it's an All-star game. What's not to love. Reports to come ...
Highest attendance thus far: 350+
Best half inning entertainment: brother and sister running the bases (sis won!)
Second best half inning entertainment: adults in costume playing dizzy bat
New best friend: Noah, a scout for the Padres. He lives in Mill Valley, went to MC and said he'd talk to my class next spring!
Cheated death: Once, but thanks to the cat-like reflexes of a player, the line drive headed straight for us was diverted.
Ticket price: $5, but if you don't leave in-between games you don't have to pay again.
Stadium Signature dish: Reindeer sausage. It's good!
Time sun completely dips below the horizon: 11:45pm
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