By normal Baseball Road Trip standards, today was a pretty sedate day. I guess this has been deserved considering the wild last few days I've gone through. It was nice to be able to sleep, chill for a while by the pool, hit up lunch with an old friend and then hitting up a new ballpark in the evening.
Sleeping in until almost ten, I decided to spend the first part of my day by the hotel pool here in Santa Ana. The weather has been warm, and just being able to leisurely swim in a clean and cool pool was refreshing. Considering how my shoulders are still sore from the paddle yesterday, low-key physical activity was very desirable.
At around noon, I met a friend from college who lives down here. She and I had lunch at the mall that is right next to our hotel, and we chatted for over an hour. It was so nice to catch up with her and find out what she was doing. Interestingly enough, the last time I saw her was the first Baseball Road Trip I went on down here in Southern California three years ago.
When I returned from lunch, I jumped in the car with my parents for the hour ride out to Lake Elsinore. They were going to drop me off and go see some relatives while I went to the game. As we moved inland, the temperature climbed to a balmy 104 degrees. My parents dropped me off at an In-N-Out Burger about a half mile from the Lake Elsinore Diamond. I bought myself a milkshake and began the walk to the ballpark.
The Lake Elsinore Diamond is located on the shores of its namesake lake about 90 miles from Los Angeles. I had heard a number of different stories about this park and the organization, some of them paint everything in a negative light. I did my best to keep an open mind while I walked in the heat. To be honest, though, I was pleasantly surprised.
The ballpark has one of the best natural views I have seen in all my travels. It is orientated in such a fashion the the outfield backdrop is the Brown and barren hills surrounding the community. While I wouldn't put it on par with Pittsburgh or San Francisco, it was up in the top echelon of Minor League parks.
As I was settling in, the mascots appeared. All four of them, to be exact. In my mind, I thought "here we go..." and that the atmosphere would become more akin to Disneyland than a baseball game. But, like I said earlier, I was very surprised at how the organization kept these gimmicks low-key and not forced. All four mascots only appeared together once, and for the rest of the game, only one was around. I can deal with that, especially considering how considerate the organization is of forcing promotions.
The Lake Elsinore Storm is, arguably, one of the more popular teams in Minor League Baseball. As I was walking up, I kept asking myself why this was. Lake Elsinore is a city of only about 55,000 and there are plenty of professional baseball opportunities around the area. Considering this, why has this organization been so successful? I really think the reason is because the community, however small it may be, embraces this team like no other. Every person in the stadium, besides myself, had Storm regalia on. I don't think I have ever been to a Minor League park that had such a dedicated fan base decked in their team's colors.
It's been a while since I've seen a good ol' fashioned slug fest. While I'm always a fan of the pitching duel, there's just something about the ball flying around the park. Lake Elsinore scored 7 in the second and 5 in the fourth, and withstood a gallant comeback by the San Jose Giants to win 14-9.
After the game, I walked back to In-N-Out, got a double-double, and waited for my parents to pick me up.
I'll probably wait to sum this aspect of Lake Elsinore up in my Final Thoughts section, but there are a bunch of sociological aspects that are gnawing at me regarding the experience. I need a few days to process them before writing down.
Now, on to tomorrow. We'll wake up semi-early and grab some breakfast before hitting Carmeggedon head-on. We'll travel north to visit Mission San Fernando before continuing into the San Joaquin Valley and Fresno. I'm done seeing baseball games on this trip, so it's now more just spending time with some family and driving back to Oregon. I might do another top-ten list in the coming days, so keep an eye out.
Always take on a 3-0 pitch ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment