Spring Training – Dugout Tales

Baseball is back for another season in Sacramento!

The River Cats kicked off 2024 with an exhibition game against their parent club, the San Francisco Giants last weekend to wrap up Spring Training before officially staring Opening Day today. The weather has been a little gloomy lately with rain, lightening and thunder pounding the Capital city the night before the exhibition, but it ended up being a beautiful Sunday for baseball.

The San Francisco Giants were in town for the first time since 2018, the scheduled 2020 appearance was cancelled due to Covid. It’s a bit of a weird experience for me to be witnessing this because back in 2018 the Giants roster was filled with names like Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, and Madison Bumgarner; established Major League Baseball players who were the core of the Giants for close to a decade. Today those veterans are all gone, replaced by now veterans Austin Slater, Mike Yastrzemski, and Logan Webb; all of which who spent time as River Cats here in Sacramento but here they are five years later Major League ballplayers themselves. They are not the fresh-faced Minor Leaguers hoping for their shot, no, they’re bona fide stars and the faces of the Giants’ team. It’s weird, not because they are Major Leaguers, but it’s weird because I remember when they weren’t. I’ve watched them all grow in their careers to the players they are today. It’s also weird because it is a sign that I’m getting old and life goes on and so does baseball, ever changing with the seasons giving way to something new yet remaining the same at its core.

This Giants team has also added some key players by way of free agency as they picked up one of the prized international players Jung Hoo Lee out of the KBO, as well as former Oakland Athletics third baseman Matt Chapman and won the long battle for Blake Snell. There was one old friend who returned on a Minor League contract this off season who is the last remnant of the Giants teams that won three World Series Championships in five seasons between 2010-2014, and that would be Pablo Sandoval. The “Panda” stole the show this day as he was given a standing ovation and the biggest cheers of the night when he came into pinch hit and knocking himself a single. The same cheers came up as he walked off the field and waved to the crowd in what would could have been one of his last appearances as a San Francisco Giant. Many have speculated if Sandoval would be retiring any day, and that he only signed with the team because he wanted to retire as a Giant, but Pablo announced that he would accept an assignment to Triple-A just to continue his career. Will Panda be on the River Cats roster on Opening Day? Unfortunately, that answer is no as the Giants released the beloved Panda.

The exhibition game brought all the fans to the yard as the seats were full, kids both young and old with outstretched hands asked for autographs, and a mixed group of players took the field. The Giants brought their starters and a group of subs who we might find in High-A or Double-A ball this year such is Grant McCrary, Carson Ragsdale, Eric Silva; as well as Hunter Bishop and Logan Wyatt who did not make an appearance in the game. The River Cats roster was filled with recognizable names like Casey Schmitt, David Villar, Heliot Ramos, and on the mound was Mason Black. Mason did an amazing job shutting down the Giants starting lineup and I was more than expecting him to be on the Giants’ Opening Day roster with such a great spring he has had, along with the thin pitching staff the Giants are starting the season with, but he was optioned to Sacramento the other day.

The River Cats would beat the Giants by a score of 8-1, and while this game meant nothing, and by the midway point the “Giants” were nothing more than a bunch of lower-level Minor Leaguers the team that Sacramento had on the field is one of the better teams I’ve seen in years.

#ClawsUp

If your mind went anywhere other than pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training then there is still hope if your next thought was realizing it’s baseball season again!

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks because spring games have begun in Arizona and Florida. Prospects are getting their first taste of big league camp, vets holding on for one more year, and everyone else who isn’t named Mike Trout or Garrit Cole trying to remain relevant enough to stay employed somehow, somewhere. Young stars like Washington’s Juan Soto even recognize that this is a new season and world series, heroics aside, he was signed to
be replaced.

Playing professional baseball is hard. The few who have the luxury to do so and succeed are athletically gifted, extremely driven, and focused. Having just the opportunity to play this game for a living is a dream of many, including myself, but it’s far from just fun and games.

I have been fortunate enough to cover the Sacramento River Cats day in and day out the past two seasons, and have gotten to know a handful of players along the way. One of the things I took away from these encounters was how normal many of these players’ lives are during the season. The money at the Triple-A level isn’t horrible, but most of these guys aren’t making the millions or even hundreds of thousands of dollars many assume that they do. Yes there are some “Bonus Babies” out there that allow some to indulge from time to time, but the reality is that most are just young men doing their jobs, enjoying themselves when they can, and then going “home” at the end of the long day like the rest of the world.

Players are pulled in so many directions simply for being a professional athlete, that it’s difficult to open up easily to others and it’s mentally and physically draining just to be in the public eye. How difficult it must be to try and figure out someones intentions and if they just want to use you. I even recognize as a writer and photographer that in some way, I’m using them too. Over time though we each get to see the person behind the mask or the lens, and that’s how the magic happens and the story develops.

The original concept of my book was to write a retrospective of the Sacramento River Cats as their 20th season approached. I had an outline of what I wanted the book to look like. I reached out to past players, including Sacramento’s first superstar Barry Zito, and asked them to share their memories about their time in Sacramento. I knew exactly what my plan was, but even the best laid plans of mice and men…

The 2019 season unfolded exactly like I dreamed but never how I expected. Part way through the season I slammed the brakes to the story I was writing, for the story taking place right before my eyes. 2019 was a magical year so I don’t know how much I planned in 2017/2018 will end up in the final book as real life is filled with uncertainty.

The plan was to release my book in the spring of 2020 to coincide with the new season, but life happens, and I’ve been forced to lay this book down for a few months. What is a personal nightmare may have just become a blessing in disguise for my story. I had been so caught up in editing that I lost track of what I wanted to do, and that was to write a piece that captures the excitement that River Cats baseball has provided for 20 years.

I hope you enjoy this blog as I handle life’s hiccups and finalize “Let’s Get It All.”

Tag: Spring Training

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It’s the Most Exciting Time Of Year.