July 9- Bakersfield Blaze

A full year has come and gone since I last set foot inside of Sam Lynn Ballpark in Bakersfield, California, where I attended my first Bakersfield Blaze game as a spectator since 2008 along with my friend, and fellow Oakland Athletics fan Toni Taylor (@Condorsfan06). Prior to the Blaze’s final game of the series against the Lake Elsinore Storm it dawned on me that it was slowly approaching 12 years since I had left my post as bat boy some time near the end of July in 2000. 12 years. Wow! Where does the time go? I know I’ve gone on about my bat boy days in a few posts all ready, but I don’t plan on doing much of that with this post. My fourth, and final Blaze post I have set for August will fill in a lot of the gaps I’ve left, as well as rekindle a few of the connections I had with players who have since faded into the record books and moved on to bigger and sometimes better things. But for this post, it’s all about the game which took place on July 9, 2012.

Toni and I had been talking since my campaign for the MLB Fan Cave kicked off in February of 2012. What started it was when the Bakersfield newspaper, The Bakersfield Californian, ran a reworded story about me and my time in Bakersfield based around the reel I had down for KEZI in Eugene, Oregon. Since the two of us were both A’s fans it became sort of a natural grown for conversation through Twitter and Facebook. When I made it to New York City Toni hooked me up with a Rollie Fingers bobblehead which she had gotten from her trip to the Coliseum early into the 2012 campaign. 

What’s funny about this is that until I received that Rollie bobblehead I never owned, nor had any desire to own a bobblehead. To me they always seemed like a very fragile space waster, but I have since changed my tune about that after other A’s loyalists joined in on the fun and hooked me up with their spare bobbleheads as well. I just can’t complain against that. Toni and I had chatted about catching a Blaze or an A’s game some times during the 2013 season as neither of us expected that I would ever be sent home from the Fan Cave to be able to make either teams’ games during the 2012 season. Well, as lady luck would have it, I was suddenly given a plethora of time around Memorial Day and I made sure to stick to my word once I figured out when I would be headed down to Southern California.

Toward the end of June I had started my Major League Baseball road trip, but also made to sure to include as many minor league games as I possibly could, which, at the time, meant a lot of Eugene Emeralds games. My original ballpark tour plans were only supposed to be relegated to the West Coast. It wasn’t until partway into July that I decided to expanded into Canada and the East Coast. Nevertheless, all of the stops on my West Coast tour were plotted out perfectly. After I made my run in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Anaheim and then San Diego I would have a week off in Bakersfield to relax before I made my way back to Oregon through a couple day stop in San Francisco and Oakland.

Originally I was supposed to make it from San Diego to Bakersfield on Sunday, July 8^th in time for the Blaze game that evening; however, I ended up going back to Anaheim for the final game of the Los Angeles Angels/Baltimore Orioles series with my friend Matthew James (@MattyJay27) which I’ll go into more detail in a not-too-distant post. But alas, I finally made it back home to Buck Owens country and made it to the game with Toni.

Now, I had at least two opportunities to catch the Blaze at home had I left Eugene like two or three days in advance. One of the biggest draws for me to get back to Bakersfield in good time was to be able to see their star player Billy Hamilton tear up the base paths as he was well on his way for setting the Minor League single-season stolen base record held by New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals great Vince Coleman. Before I had left Oregon Hamilton was still on the brink of triple digits and the Major League All-Star break was rapidly approaching. But since the MLB All-Star break didn’t affect the MiLB schedule I figured I was in the clear. Nope! What I forgot to take into consideration was that Hamilton might get called up for the MLB Futures Game, which takes place the day before the All-Star game and right before the Home Run Derby. Guess where Hamilton was when I pulled my car into the parking lot of Sam Lynn. Yah, Kansas City. Needless to say, I was in a pretty sour mood with myself once I became privy to that information. I mean, it was all ready bad enough that I wasn’t at the All-Star Game with the Fan Cave, a decision I’m still beyond confused about.

When I met up with Toni I did my best to keep all of my frustration from the day’s events inside; however, I was still pretty heated about being kicked out of the Fan Cave in the first place so I was a bit crabby for bits and pieces of the game. Some of it was brought up in casual conversation about my experience in New York; other bits came as a result of seeing fellow Cave Dweller Ricardo Marquez’s face on the top of the home run slide during Angels’ 3B/OF Mark Trumbo’s turn at the plate for the Home Run Derby.

The Blaze had gotten off to a hot start by building a 3-1 lead over the Storm which started with a RBI-double from current Cincinnati Red Donald Lutz who I wrote about back on May 6^th. But alas, the Blaze squandered the lead in the fourth, but got it right back in the fifth. It was around this time that Toni and I made our way to the team store to pick up some caps. I only had two of their caps at the time, one from my bat boy days and the other that I wrote about on January 16^th. Most New Era Caps start at about $34.99 no matter if they’re MLB or MiLB; however, in some rare cases quite a few MiLB teams will sell their caps for less than that. In the case of the Blaze caps they had their 2011-present home and 2011-present alternate cap (this one) for $25 each. Sold!!! They also had their Stars & Stripes cap available for the same price, but I said no to that one for some dumb reason. AAAAARRRR!!! 

After snapping a quick shark photo we watched the rest of the game from the comforts of right behind home plate. I’ve always been more of a right field bleacher kind of guy in Oakland, but at other parks I’ve always fancied sitting on either sides of the dugouts; rarely do I ever sit behind home plate. The Storm tied the game up in the top of the sixth inning, but the Blaze countered again by notching one of their own off of a Theo Bowe single. From the seventh inning on the game turned into a pitchers duel as the Blaze were able to maintain their 6-5 lead until the Storm succumbed to their final out.

After the game Toni and I shot the breeze for a bit while I walked over to the clubhouse entrance to snap a photo of Blaze manager Ken Griffey signing autographs for kids. Yes, that Ken Griffey.  

 What I wouldn’t find out until the middle of November of 2012 is that the red-headed kid on the left is the nephew of a regular customer of mine from when I worked at Just Sports (@JustSportsPDX) over the holidays. It was one of those “small world” moments for sure. Toni and I made our way back to my car where I had quite a few A’s hats for her to choose from as payback for the Rollie bobblehead she had hooked me up with. I definitely felt like the right thing to since she had been so generous to me.  And especially for spending time with me as I made the trip back to one of my favorite and most cherished places in the entire world, Sam Lynn Ballpark. 

#12/4-104: Back on March 24^th I wrote the what is technically part two of this story, but every now-and-then I like to get all Quentin Tarantino on y’all and write my stories out of sequence. Some of you might cite the film “Memento” as well, but this isn’t exactly backwards storytelling as it is foreshadowing. You know what, I’ve gotten way too technical with this, so let me steer this back on course…

Hamilton was drafted by the Reds in the second round of the 2009 amateur Baseball Draft out of Taylorsville High School in Taylorsville, Mississippi. With such a high draft position under his belt he went straight to the Rookie Leagues for two seasons: 2009 with the Gulf Coast League Reds and then in 2010 with the Billings Mustangs of the Pioneer League in Montana. In 2011 Hamilton found himself with the Class-A Dayton Dragons betting leadoff to the tune of a .278 average and .340 on-base percentage. Oh, and 103 stolen bases to boot while only getting caught 20 times. Hamilton also managed to muscle three home runs over the wall and leg out 18 doubles and nine triples that season. With such impressive numbers he was a guaranteed promotion to advanced-A Bakersfield in 2012.

Hamilton started out the year wearing #12, but switched it to #4 throughout the season, hence the 12/4. The Reds wanted Hamilton to lower his strikeout numbers from 133 the previous year with the Dragons, as well as raise his batting average a bit. Hamilton did both with ease. In 82 games with the Blaze Hamilton hit .323 and raised his on-base percentage to .413. Hamilton also managed to match his total number of doubles and triples as he did in 2011, but the one thing to look at is the fact that Hamilton played in 135 games (53 less) than what he was at in Bakersfield. Oh, and just because he could, Hamilton swiped 104 bags, one more than he did in Dayton. You want to talk about the next great base stealer? Talk about the next great leadoff man. And to reiterate what I had said earlier, I missed seeing this kid play live by about two days. If this post has a lesson to be taught, it’s definitely that you should support your local Minor League Baseball team. You never know when you might be able to say, “Wow! I remember when I saw him before the Majors.”

The rest of Hamilton’s 2012 season is featured in the Pensacola Blue Wahoos post linked here or above.

May 6- Bakersfield Blaze

It should be noted that this is one of the four hats I had my mother mail to me in Florida. The craziness of the timing of this cap and post comes together at the end. It still blows my mind.

The Minor Leagues are kind of a sad place. I should know. I was a bat boy for two amazing seasons with the Bakersfield Blaze in 1999 and 2000 and I saw my fair share of joy and disappointment. The main reason I say it’s a sad place is because it’s hard to build connections with guys, because unlike the Majors, the talent doesn’t stay in one place for too long.

Believe it or not I used to be an incredibly punctual person. This blog is a prime example of how time has sort of gotten away with me over the years; however, when I was still in high school I had to take the Golden Empire Transit (GET) bus to Sam Lynn Ball Park right after school in order to get ready for batting practice and warm-ups anytime there was a home game. Because the buses I needed to catch worked on weird intervals I always figured it was best to be 45 minutes early rather than five minutes late. Besides, it gave me more time to get a jump on my home work and take the field to play catch with a few of the players before practice really kicked into gear. Unfortunately, with punctuality occasionally came the few random times that I would walk into the clubhouse just as a player who was called into an early meeting with the skipper was rolling in as well. I think during my time I was present for six players who either got demoted from advanced-A (which is what the Blaze are) down to the intermediate-A Salem-Keiser Volcanoes or given their outright release. What’s become interesting over the years is that the Volcanoes are still an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants and are roughly 45 minutes away from where I live now. But even at that, no player wants to get sent down, and no player especially wants to get cut. Getting close to a few of these guys only to see them leave the stadium in tears is still one of the most gut-wrenching moments of my life.  

But as hard as it is to see someone leave for the worst reasons, it can be an even more confusing feeling when they get promoted. A few guys I knew from those times were the happiest people in the world when they got the call to go to Shreveport, Fresno and even to The Show. The one player’s reaction who I’ll never forget is former 2002 Giants World Series stud Chad Zerbe. Dude pal sobbed like a baby and even gave me a hug goodbye. He was a really sweet dude, and it was great to see that he got his promotion. Even cooler was when he hooked me up with tickets to Pac Bell Park for his home debut game, but that story might have to wait for another time. While I realize that I’m merely reflecting on my own personal dealings with these guys, it’s the loyal fans who truly feel it even harder in some cases. These are the folk who always make the new kids feel right at home. They cook them meals, they collect money for them in the home run buckets when they go yard and even in some cases they give them a place to stay as a family sponsor. The inner-workings of the fan/player relationship at the Minor League level is actually quite fascinating, but with each close of the season there is no assurance that any of the players will be back for another season. Every beginning of the season is an uncovered mystery, and with that emotional ties are tugged upon in the never ending cycle that is the farm system.

This last July was the first time I had been back to Bakersfield for a game since 2008 when they were an affiliate of the Texas Rangers. It’s kind of wild to look back on then and realize that Elvis Andrus and Chris Davis were both playing that day. Hell, Davis crushed one of his 24 bombs of the year that day. That was six years ago, and look at both of them now. I do my best to keep up-to-date with the team as much as possible. Even though I have several teams closer where I’ve lived over the past decade, I still have a connection to the Blaze that will never cease to be.

When I stopped in for the first of three games I watched this last season I made sure to pick up as many of the Blaze caps as I could, pretty much needing all of them. I picked up two that night; this one and another which I’ll write about it July. This cap has served as the team’s home hat since the 2012 season. I’ve never been a huge fan of orange, but for some reason this one works. I think the two white front panels take away most of the orange focus and point directly into the “B,” thus making it much more comfortable on the eyes. If you didn’t know it, orange, safety orange to be exact, is actually the most noticeable color for our eyes. So to be able to use it and not make it too distracting is actually quite an impressive design. Once again, if you haven’t noticed from earlier posts, I know way too much about random stuff. Anyway, my timing on finally getting out to a game was beyond poorly timed as most players of note on the season had been promoted merely 24 hours before I set foot inside the stadium. It was quite funny actually, but there wasn’t much I could do about it besides enjoy my time with the team that was playing in front of me. Luckily for my sake though, one guy I wanted to see was still in town.

One guy in particular I marked on this hat played in a few more games before getting called up and the other guy had been called up after a few starts in June. Even more astounding is that both of the guys I marked this cap with are playing in the Majors with the Cincinnati Reds right now, which is an incredibly crazy transition to go from A ball to the Majors in such a quick time frame. Oh, and the last bit… none of them are named Billy Hamilton.

#13- Tony Cingrani was a third round pick for the Reds in the 2011 amateur draft out of Rice University. He played 13 games with the Billings Mustangs that season before making the jump to advanced-A ball in Bakersfield in 2012. Like I said, he didn’t last long with the Blaze. He started in 10 games and went 5-1 with 71 strikeouts and a 1.11 ERA in that time frame. When he made the move to Pensacola to play with the Blue Wahoos he was just as deadly, going 5-3 with a 2.12 ERA and an additional 101 strikeouts. This season he only lasted three starts with the Louisville Bats before getting called up to the Majors on April 18 to make a start against the Miami Marlins.

Cigrani saw a little bit of time in the Show in 2012, but only a few appearances out of the bullpen. This season has been the real deal. In just four starts thus far he has pitched at least six innings per contest and amassed a 2-0 record with a 2.63 ERA, 33 strikeouts and a 0.833 WHIP. At the rate he’s currently going don’t be too shocked if you see him take home the Rookie of the Year award.

#39- Donald Lutz has been with the Reds organization ever since he signed as a free agent in 2007 out of Watertown, New York, but lived in Germany for most of his life. From 2008-2011 he bummed around the Rookie and low-A ranks until finally getting a shot with the Blaze in 2012. He lasted 63 games, including all three I was able to attend. During his time he hit .265 with 17 home runs and 51 RBI. Unfortunately I can’t track down a boxscore anywhere; otherwise I’d tell you how he did. As sharp as my memory is, I forget a few things from time-to-time. He finished out the season in Pensacola and played in 21 games there again at the start of this season.

Now, what’s really weird about Lutz is that he was batting .211, but he had two triples, five home runs and 14 RBI under his belt in that time. Apparently that was more than enough for the Reds to give him the nod as he made his Major League debut on April 29^th in St. Louis against the Cardinals. He pinch hit for Mat Latos and popped out. Lutz would play in two more games until getting his first hit on May 5^th, a single off of Shawn Camp in the seventh inning. Lutz would end up stealing second and scoring his first run of his career, which ended up being the run to give the Reds the lead over the Chicago Cubs for the 7-4 win. Lutz’s final at-bat ended up going down as a RBI sacrifice groundout, but his day was quite historic as he became the first German-developed player in Major League Baseball history. So all-in-all he had a pretty solid little Cinco de Mayo. And by that I mean he had a terrific day at the plate yesterday. Wow! I really could not have time this post any better.

February 18- Washington Senators

Like a lot of kids I grew up with, we all had dreams of breaking out in Major League Baseball. I recall as a youth always going to Pin Oak Park or Leo B. Hart Elementary School in Bakersfield, California to play ball with my friends almost every day after school. We all had our favorite players that we tried to mimic; mine of course was Mark McGwire. I always made sure to keep my knees bent, and do the slow wag of the bat while taking wide, open-mouthed chomps of my Big League Chew every time I was at the plate. While I didn’t have McGwire’s ropey forearms, I could still muscle a few over the chain-link fence that stood, what seemed like a mile away, 200 feet away from home plate. On the inverse of that, anytime any of my friends teed off on me and gave the Kirk Gibson fist pump while rounding the bases, I made sure to plunk them the next time they were at bat. We fought, we cussed, we spit, we got down and dirty, but most of all, we played until we couldn’t see the ball anymore. Every walk home from the ball field was taken right out of the movie “The Sandlot;” discussions of how to hit the opposite direction and knowing the proper way to play the angles off the wall if we were stuck in the outfield. We were all modern day Sparky Andersons, Tony Larussas and Earl Weavers on and off the field. Baseball was our life.

I bring up this bit of my past because it’s not all the different from any kid growing up in any city, small town or country in which baseball is a national sport. Some of us make it to the Show, while the rest of us move on with our lives; but we still make sure to visit the local stadium for a brief reminder of how precious, endearing and simple life once was when we were young.

One player in baseball history knew this all too well, but very few, and I mean very few, even have the slightest clue who he is. I’ll start with the hat though. From 1952-1960 the Washington Senators donned the navy blue and red in what would be the final nine years of the original incarnation’s existence. At the end of the 1960 season the Senators packed up and moved to greener pastures in Minnesota; a tale I wrote on February 15. Poor attendance and poor showings in the standings year-after-year, not to mention western geographical expansion (Manifest Destiny), helped aid the team in their departure. Not a lot of well-known players came from this era with the exception of Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew and Whitey Herzog (went in as a manager). But… as I mentioned above, one player in particular popped out and I had to pay tribute to him.

.293/0/2- Pompeyo Antonio "Yo-Yo" Davalillo Romero was born in Cabimas, Venezuela in 1931 and made his Major League debit for the Senators on August 1, 1953. Yo-Yo was the fourth Venezuelan born player to make it to the big leagues at the time, but like the others (Alex Carrasquel, Chucho Ramos and Chico Carrasquel); they only went down in the history books as a name. At 5’3’’ and 140 pounds, Yo-Yo wasn’t expected to do much other than take up space at shortstop; however, he was remarked by some to being a pretty decent defensive player despite six career errors… in only 19 career games. Yo-Yo’s career came to a close on August 23, 1953, and yes, before the season even ended. He had an average on .293, no home runs and two RBI for his career. He is one of the very rare cases of a player leaving the game under their own volition while in the prime of their career. I realize the term prime is a bit arbitrary in this case as his career never really went up or down, but for someone who was still physically able to play, it’s a pretty big deal. Yo-Yo had played Minor League ball for 11 seasons, nine of which came in AAA; however, the one thing that most guys back in those days (as well as today) will tell you is that all travel to games came via the team bus. As it turned out, Yo-Yo was deathly afraid of traveling by airplane. Therefore, he walked away from his shot on the top. Yo-Yo continued to play ball in Mexico from 1962-64, as well as back in Venezuela from 1965-66. He was inducted into the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006 and even managed in the Venezuelan League for several years after his playing career ended.

Going back to my introduction, the case of Yo-Yo Davalillo is a reminder to all of us that we’re all destined for something great, but we don’t necessarily understand what that is until we come face-to-face with our dream once it’s attained. In my case, a series of injuries kept me from playing ball, but it didn’t keep me away from the game. I merely adapted and continued to love the game as I saw fit.

February 5- Milwaukee Brewers

Today just seemed like the perfect day to roll out in this Milwaukee Brewers hat. After all, today is the day I went back to bartending. Coincidence!?!? Actually, not really. I had been saving this hat for today since I started this blog. It was only a matter of time before I went back to schlepping beers at Max’s Tavern, so I kept this one to the side. What is incredibly surprising about wearing this hat today is the breaking news about Ryan Braun being named on the latest list of Biogenesis “clients.” Someone pointed this out on my Instagram account earlier, thinking I had put the hat on after the news broke. I can assure that this is not the case. I actually don’t have internet at my house, and since my first class is at 9 AM PST I always pull out the hat I’m going to wear around 7:30 AM PST before I jump in the shower. Even based on East Coast time, most peoples’ days are just getting started. So think what you will, I was just as surprised as anyone else when all of these factors joined forces like news-clustered form of Voltron. (By the way, Pidge Green Boy was always my favorite.)

As far as currently used On Field caps are concerned, this hat has been in my top 10 since it was first introduced back in 2000. I’ve always been a huge fan of navy blue, so there’s a point right there. The gold trim the Brewers had incorporated back in 1994 gave them another point. But the real selling points are the styling of the “M” logo, and most important, the stalk of wheat being used as an underlining border. So money! Going back to the color; since I was a youngling I have always incorporated navy blue into the vast majority of my wardrobe selections. I kid you not; my middle school assistant principal thought I was a member of the Crips. This point is made to be even more hilarious considering that I was living in Bakersfield, California; a city notorious for its lack of racial diversity. Nonetheless, when I got older and this hat became available, I jumped at it. I had lost my original one a number of years ago, but picked this one up in October of 2011. October of 2011 was an equal interesting time in my life as I had marked this hat up about a week before Ryan Braun won the National League MVP award. Since then, things have just gotten weird.

#8- This choice, at the time at least, was a no brainer. Braun had easily won the Rookie of the Year award back in 2007 with absolutely ridiculous numbers: .324/34/97. People talk about how much of an impact Mike Trout had this last season with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, hell, I remember when analysts were saying the exact same thing about Braun; however, he only finished at 24 on the MVP voting list. That one has always left a weird taste in my mouth. Between 2008 and 2011 Braun only hit below .300 once, and that was in his second year when he hit .285; which doesn’t exactly qualify for a sophomore slump. Every year Braun dominated Major League pitching. For as young as he is, and as quickly he’s been operating, Braun was certainly carving out a Hall of Fame career. When he won the MVP in 2011 it came as a small surprise to me, but only for the sake the Prince Fielder had an equally amazing season. And usually when two guys on the same team are just as dominant as the other, someone on another team usually takes home the gold; obviously not in this case as Fielder finished third. All was fine and dandy in the sports world, until the news broke.

I was in Portland visiting my family when the story came out about Braun failing his drug test. At first I laughed, as he was one of the few players that I would have never suspected of taking Pads. Even commissioner Bud Selig was taken aback, as a few months prior he had mentioned Braun’s name as one of the few “good guys” to be playing the game today. Having never met Braun I couldn’t exactly dispute the “good guy” moniker Selig gave him, but from everything I had seen on the field, he seemed pretty legit. It would be a few months before the Braun story got resolved, in his favor. Like a lot of people, I thought the resolution of the investigation of the transportation of Braun’s piss seemed a bit hokey; however, after talking to my girlfriend Angie Kinderman (she’s going to PA school), apparently it is incredibly easy to screw things up (This bit of the information I became privy to tonight). So, Braun was cleared, and Selig had his white knight back in the ring.

When I got selected as a MLB Fan Cave finalist one of the issues we were not allowed to talk about publicly was Braun and his PED allegation. Even now, I still found that to be incredibly stupid, especially considering the fact that he was acquitted. Nonetheless, I kept my mouth shut... for a bit at least. My biggest concern for 2012 was how Braun was going to deal with the increased amount of pressure because of his offseason. Much to everyone’s chagrin, he lit things up. In Braun’s MVP year he went .332/33/111 and the Brewers made the playoffs behind him AND Fielder. In 2012, Braun silenced the critics with a blistering .319, a League leading 41 home runs and 112 RBI. He finished second in the MVP voting behind Buster Posey. Had the Brewers made the playoffs, we might have had the 13^th back-to-back MVP. BUT… as we found out today, that would have made for a truly awkward back-to-back offseason.

I doubt this will be the only time we hear of this nonsense this season too. I think with the wave of suspicion that has floated over Braun's head this situation will be his undoing. I'm really not sure when during the season action will be taken, maybe June or July, but it unfortunately will. Such a shame too. He's one hell of an athlete.

#11- My first three year of high school were spent at Centennial High School in Bakersfield; however, my senior year took place at Columbia River High School in Vancouver, Washington. At some other point down the road I’ll give you the skinny on why that was, but not tonight. One of the rival high schools for Columbia River sat on the outskirts of town in a farming community called Brush Prairie where Prairie View High School sat. In 1993, well before I moved there, a 6’6’’ first baseman/left fielder got drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 24^th round. He had a decent run with the Indians, but really made his mark with the Brewers from 2000-2003. Richie Sexson made his only two All-Star appearances in 2002and 2003 with the Brewers as he went .276/133/398 in the four seasons he played in Milwaukee. In two of those seasons he hit 45 home runs, and for a time, he was the only offensive threat the Brewers had. After he left the Brewers his career waned, except for one solid year in Seattle (2005). I’ve always been a big supporter of his, and all the times I met and hung out with him in Portland he seemed like a really cool dude. While most in Seattle will criticize his existence, I keep my praise high for him.

January 16- Bakersfield Blaze

When I woke up this morning I blindly shuffled through the large sack of hats I had laying at the foot of my bed, half expecting to pull a team’s hat that I’ve already written about. Needless to say, I was a bit surprised to grab a hold of this Bakersfield Blaze hat. For starters, I had never worn this hat. All of the stickers were still stuck to the bill. Nothing personal, I just have a lot of hats that I roll through more often than my Minor League caps. It’s also a very fitting at to choose considering that the Blaze had switched to this logo after the 2000 season; the last year I was bat boy for the team. In fact, the Blaze had used this hat and color scheme from 2001-2011, and had housed three different franchises during that stretch: the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Texas Rangers and the Cincinnati Reds, whom still serves as their affiliate. When doing research for this decade, I came across a bevy of names and numbers that I could have used.

Josh Hamilton was the first. He played in Bakersfield during the 2002 season while they were still linked to the Rays. What’s most interesting about Hamilton and the Blaze is that at he had played for all three franchises at the Major League level. But, I’m not the biggest Hamilton supporter so I nixed that idea. Rocco Baldelli was a possibility, as were CJ Wilson and Edinson Volquez. None of them really made my fancy either. Actually, the one player I really wanted to add was Jonny Gomes, who had played with Hamilton on the 2002 squad. That year he went .278/30/124; amazing stats for high-A ball. However, during my research I couldn’t find his jersey number anywhere. Even on old Blaze baseball cards I happened across didn’t show his number. So, I had to scratch him. Fortunately for me, his older brother Joey played on the team at the same time.

#21- Joey Gomes played for the Blaze from 2002-04 until he was called up to AA Montgomery to play for the Biscuits. Joey never moved higher than AA. Joey’s best year for the Blaze came in the 72 games he played where he went .300/7/45. It really wasn’t much of a surprise when he got called up after finding his swing. Now, not being able to find Jonny’s number isn’t the only reason why I rolled the dice with Joey. Back in 2001 Jonny was drafted by the Rays in the 18^th round of the amateur draft; his brother Joey on the other hand was taken in the 8^th round of the 2002 draft. What I don’t know is how much of an impact Jonny had on Joey getting drafted so much higher the following year. Or perhaps it was because the scouts felt Joey had more potential than Jonny. Either way, I’d love to find out.

#33 is another former Rays star. And by former, I mean as of a little over a month ago. James Shields had one of the longest tenures with the Blaze of any of the players currently playing in the Majors. From 2003-04 Shields served as the ace for then managers Oscar Munoz (2003) and Mako Oliveras (2004). Shields had a decent first year going 10-10 and posting a 4.45 ERA and a team-leading 119 strikeouts. The following year he went 8-5 with a 4.23 ERA and 92 strikeouts in 20 starts. And thank God for me, he’s always kept the same jersey number… so it was a pretty easy find.

It’s kind of a bummer that I left after the 2000 season to move to Vancouver, Washington. It would have been great to see these up-and-comers, but it made our meetings in 2012 all that more interesting. Shields I met on May 8^th in the MLB Fan Cave and the only bit of conversation we had was how we both hated the sun shield in centerfield. Actually, Jonny and I touched on that a bit too, but we went more in depth on a few stories about the history and culture of Bakersfield. For a guy who was only there a year, he really took the time to get to know the town and its inhabitants. Jonny cared, and for that I look forward to seeing him succeed in Boston.