Saturday at Joe Etzel Field

Saturday was a beautiful day for baseball.  My wife and I took in the 1:00 WCL-Portland game between the Stars and the Dukes at the University of Portland.  Here she is kicking back and waiting for the game to start.

The umpires were just coming out onto the field.  As you can see, not many fans in stands.  A typical weekend day game draws about 20-50 people, most of them parents or relatives of the players.  But don't let the fact that few people attend keep you from coming.  The whole herd mentality thing really bothers me.  If nobody else goes, maybe I shouldn't either.  Maybe there's something wrong with me if I go and no one else does.  Baloney!  It was a beautiful day and a nice game.  Empty seats mean more choices and more room to spread out.  I'll bloviate more about the herd mentality in a later post.

On a sunny day, the best seats are way over on first base side, under a shade tree.  We were the only ones over there for a while.  But by the fourth inning or so, other people decided they were too hot and joined us, and we had our own little cheering section.

I asked one of the Dads how kids get picked for these teams.  He told me their college coaches recommend them, and they get thrown into a pool and drafted by the coaches of the summer teams.  They try to make sure that at least three or four guys from the same college team are on a single summer team, so they've got a few people around that they know.    The regular WCL consists of mostly Division 1 players, but some of the guys in the WCL-Portland can get called up to one of those teams.  When they do, they have to sign a contract and everything.  No pay is involved, but it is a promise, both by team and player, of how long the player will be on the team.

Who won the game?  Does it matter?  Would you care if I told you?  The thing about summer league ball here in PDX, and about minor league professional ball too, is that players and managers care about winning and losing.  We the fans don't have to.  Suffice to say there were sparkling double plays, good pitching for five or six innings, and a few dumb errors and running mistakes.  Not bad for three bucks.  I'll opine more about why  fans of minor league baseball shouldn't care about wins and losses in a later post.  For now, here's some more action, one of the Dukes at bat.