• Goags20172
    162
    Could you folks please do me a favor ?

    If I ever start posting about UCD baseball again could you remind me I asked you to tell me not to do that ? That would be greatly appreciated.

    It's taken me too many years to admit that as the program continues at the D-I level the games are little more than exhibitions for parents to cheer for their children's accomplishments (and spend the rest of the time socializing) and baseball used-to-be's (or maybe never were's) to drop names. Also for silly co-eds to get tanned and talk to each other about how great they are.

    The players, coaches, and the few actual fans (and I mean very few) are the only ones who actually care about the game results and are doing all they can. Having school pride means you show up to see your team beat the snot out of the other school; it's not a hippie love-fest..take that crap to San Francisco. If they lose you have the right to be mad (within reason) and let the officials how poorly they are doing. Why should the officials be beyond criticism ? Any other job if you do poorly you hear about it.

    However, the one entity that's absolutely supposed to care about the team-the university- couldn't care less. They don't promote it and they don't give it the financial support it needs. There wouldn't even be a Dobbins Stsdium if the players, coaches, snd community hadn't stepped up in a huge way and did the work themselves. The university, if left to it's own devices, would probably have been content to let them play at a field with a dirty old backstop and some cruddy old bleachers, like a certain Causeway rival did prior to 2003 It seems UCD is just biding its time, waiting for financial commitments to expire and the team is so bad they can cut the program with minimal objections.
    Say what you want about Vaughn's coaching but he may have been set up to fail, and that's mighty tough to overcome.

    So I have to wonder-if the university doesn't support the team, is there any merit in me continuing to come to games and devoting energy to follow the season ? After about 25 years of going to games (several of which were during the successful D-II years) is the message I've been missing that this is not a place for real fans, just a private club for "rental fans" to watch their kids play ? During the D-II years I'd say no but now... I think it is, just like pretty much any women's sport other than basketball. Seems to me ever since the move to D-I athletics has gotten a giant stick wedged in its crack trying to come off as cool to older members, hence the increased proliferation of polo-shirted employees whose functions are not readily evident. Are you all going to the country club for a round of golf after the game-what is that ?

    Message received. I'll step away. God forbid a person who attends as much as I do would be recognized and made to feel welcome by some other attendees and game staff but all I get are rental fans staring at me like I'm sort of leper and ditzy yappy co-eds who apparently have never heard of respecting the personal space (especially during COVID-19) of strangers. I mean, in these times it makes sense especially for 30 lb blonde women to stay away from strangers.

    And I'm p.o at Sac State for a different reason so next year I'll just be watching college teams I don't care about duke it out.

    And before I leave baseball completely a couple of things:

    I don't think any Cal Poly fans will agree with this but I thought their baseball team exhibited a bit of poor sportsmanship in this series. When they would score a run they wouldn't just cheer-they'd bunch up, bounce around, and shout in unison. That's excessive celebration, and it's disrespectful. This is not that much bettee than that choreographed bowling pin routine Prince Fielder's team used to pull. Celebrating like that for scoring a run against a last-place team is overkill...it's just kicking them when they're down. Save that crap for Hawaii...I'm almost motivated to go to SLO next weekend so I can root for Hawaii to send the Mustangs to the glue factory..and I detest U of H. But that would be wasted time and money to travel out of spite..not like they'd care even. If I were Brett Erwin today I would've "accidentally" plunked the next batter. Cal Poly has a veteran coach...he shouldn't be allowing that crap.

    And on a lighter note, have you noticed that every baseball team has a few players who go from being baby-faced and clean-shaven as freshman to more closely resembling homeless drifters by the time they're seniors, but then they clean up for Senior Day ? It's like they aged 20 years in 4. You don't see this in basketball so much. Maybe Coach Les doesn't allow unruly appearances ?

    They had the usual ceremonies where the families and friends of the players were mentioned. Two of the players had girlfriends with the same name. Glad to see they were two different women. Imagine what a scene it would be if 1 woman had been dating both guys in secret.

    They also recognized players they couldn't recognize the prior season who were no longer on the team. Conspicuously not mentioned were Logan Denholm and Alejandro Lara. I don't know what Lara is up to. Know he had a battle with cancer but had recovered per Davis Enterprise article. Hopefully he's ok. Denholm still has some games to play for Sac State (maybe) in the playoffs, but he still graduated from UCD.
  • eastbayaggie
    95
    I'll remind you to continue.
  • 72Aggie
    300
    "This too shall pass."

    It's the Cubs and "Wait 'til next year." I say that not to your discredit, but to your credit. You love the game, you love the Ags, you wish they loved you back half as much. I enjoy your commentary though much of it is over my head or brushing me back at the plate. Take a breather. Have a cold lemonade under a shade tree just beyond some outfield fence somewhere, and please come back next season with your insight and spirit.

    Go Ags!
  • 69aggie
    370
    A view from afar. I second 72s comments. I am not a big BB fan, D1 or MLB. I did go to some games back in the day when the Aggies had some very good teams i n the D11 era. Then the old players and supporters built the stadium (which is still one of the best in the west, albeit, no lights). Big support from alums for thr Dobbins upgrade. No, I do not see BB being cut. UCD Administration wants to be on top of the BWC and the BSC and cutting athletics is not on it’s agenda. And, Stanfords recent decision to reverse cutting 11 sports will not be lost on Rocko Deluca. So, no BB cuts this year or ever. Better coaching, more money will save the day. Maybe, lights? Hot night in Davis: lets go see the Aggies!! Then the Grad- Oh, sorry misprint there........
  • Goags20172
    162


    Thanks for taking the time to talk me away from the ledge.

    I think you made a very astute observation of what I'm dealing with. If it were just a bad baseball team that would be easier to deal with, but there's also the problem with the other fans (and this is not just UCD games). Their behavior causes some serious anxiety and that's enough to keep me from wanting to go. There's something wrong when I'd rather watch Chico State beat on Fresno Pacific or Cal Poly lose to Hawaii. I talked myself out of the spite trip though even this morning in the SJ train station I was thinking hmm...only 5hr trip from here.

    And to relate this to current events I'm fairly certain I passed the site of the mass railyard shooting the day before it happened. I was staying and watching baseball (San Jose Giants) about 3 miles from the action. Saw a weird-looking column of smoke in the distance that must have been from the wall of police vehicles..

    I will say that visiting an old-timey stadium like Excite Ballpark is good for reviving interest in baseball with all of the nostalgia. There's a picture of George Brett in a San Jose Bees uniform. Apparently San Jose was an affiliate of the KC Royals back in the 70's. There's also a quote from the late Tommy LaSorda saying that if former catcher Mike Sciosia ran in a race against his pregnant wife he'd finish third. There's one from Yogi Berra saying that when he orders a pizza he asks them to cut it into four slices because he can't eat six.

    The Lake Elsinore Storm's shortstop is named Jordy Barley. It would be really funny if he were traded to the Diamondbacks. There would then be a good chance he'd play for their High-A affilate- the HILLSBORO HOPS. Lake Elsinore's catcher is named Alison Quintero. Think his parents wanted a daughter much ? The SJ Giants have a guy named Brett Auerbach. He was at 2B in Game 1, catcher in game 2, and left field in game 3. Apparently he can play at least six positions and hit well too. Didn't get drafted. The Giants signed him for no more than a $20,000.00 bonus. This kind of thing will happen more often now that the draft has been shortened to 20 rounds. What it means is that the Aggies will lose fewer players prematurely because they tend to have players drafted in later rounds. Tanner Murray (4th round pick) was an outlier.

    And then I went to a River Cats game today and that reversed that progress because adult River Cats fans are mostly 30-40 ish idiots who are there to pretend they're longtime Giants fans (but strangely have amnesia about anything that happened before October 2010), drink too much, and get up every 3 minutes for food.

    So we'll have to see how I feel come Feb. Winter boredom springs eternal.
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