Baseball in December

The USSSA baseball situation isn't ideal, but it's OK.

The main problems seem to be travel to far flung places to play three tournament games against teams that might be way too strong -- or way to weak -- for your team to get any good from the trip.

Tournaments are money-makers for the organizers, so they ram as many games as they can into a weekend. So, it's common for kids to start at 8 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. If there's a 30- or 40-minute drive involved, kids do what mine had to do a number of times and get up for a 5:30 a.m. drive to play baseball before most of the world's fully awake.

The smaller problems, like inconsistent umpiring, are part of every youth sports program.

One guy from the Tracy area who coaches a top-flight team for players 13-and-under contacted other guys who coach serious, organized teams. He pitched the idea of a league for kids 13-under.

Then, six or eight interested teams sent representatives to a meeting...they talked through a schedule, pitching rules, etc. And, the result ... there'll be a six-team league that allows each team to play 40 games from the spring to the end of July. Teams will play four-game series -- in a home-and-home set up. Games will start in the early afternoon. The bulk of the problems tournament play presents kids will disappear.

It took those guys a month, maximum, to start a league that merges the best of Little League (rivalries, balanced competition, etc.) and the best of USSSA travel baseball.

Why can't anybody start even a single team in Humboldt County without fearing reprisal or running into all sorts of hurdles?

I suspect that the biggest problem would be finding a place to practice. The folks who run the various fields like the way things have been for years. Little League's best, they figure, so they make it impossible for a USSSA team to get on their fields for practice. Forget that Little League's dying in most towns...the guys who run the fields like it because it fits in with how Humboldt County baseball works...er, doesn't work...it's hard to find anybody who thinks it serves the kids at any age group.

If some parent wanted to start a 13-under or 14-under team, they should do it now and secure the Eureka High baseball and softball fields. Then, they could make connections with the guys who run the league I mention and schedule just a few weekends of games...nothing that disrupts whatever's going on up there...just something that gets folks thinking that it's time to listen to what parents and players want -- even if it's not what the people who've been controlling thing for years prefer.

I'm aware that the attempt to get a travel team going late last summer hit a wall in Eureka because the folks starting it were told that USSSA killed Little League and, well, no USSSA team could use the nearest practice facilities.

And, after they screwed over the kids who were going to play and the people who'd done the work to make the team happen, they spent a good long time convincing themselves that they do it all...for the kids.

Yeah, right. If you run teams and maintain fields "for the kids," you do what's best for all the kids and all the parents...not for the few who've gotten on the inside and stayed there for so long.

Humboldt County Weather

It's wet and cold outside. You know that constant drizzle that doesn't seem so bad until you walk from your car to the grocery store entrance and realize that you're soaking wet?

It's so dark outside that I got mad at my son for talking too loudly on the phone this morning. I rolled over, grunted and figured that -- given how dark it was in my room -- it must've been 8 a.m. It was 11:20 a.m. and I'd gotten 8 hours sleep after banging around the house wide awake until after 3 a.m.

I hate this weather. So, how did I survive and look past it for most of my adult life living in Humboldt County?

The weather I'm suffering today is, actually, not a great deal different than any day in the spring in Humboldt County. I had to go to Target a few minutes ago and realized I was silently bitching about a drizzle that probably wouldn't have gotten a baseball game postponed in Eureka.

It's unlikely that I'll ever adjust to real, summer heat. When the temperature in Solano County and surrounding environs gets up past the mid-80s...I'll be way too hot to do anybody much good. I have, however, adjusted to the fact that I no longer live in an area that will be fogged in day after day after day -- in the summer. I can accept that I'll almost always enjoy baseball games outdoors in actual baseball weather. The sun won't stay hidden behind rain clouds for days and days on end. Well, at least, not very often.

I used to think the weather in Humboldt County accounted for what has been my depressed nature. Now, I'm sure the fog and cold wind ... the lack of any true seasonal changes in weather ... accounts for my extreme moodiness. I've learned in the last eight years that you can wake up in a bad mood, then have that mood altered some by the weather outside. Sunshine is a good thing, especially if you don't have to drive to Willow Creek or Benbow to enjoy it.

I don't walk around whistling, "Walkin' On Sunshine," or anything, but I appreciate the knowledge that it's not going to be damp, cold and rainy all winter ... and then damp, cold and foggy all summer. If the season changes, then anything can change. I wonder if I didn't learn to expect the worst and focus on the negative because ... the weather in Humboldt County does sort of reward the pessimist in all of us. Folks expect the worst and almost always get it.

The upside of being accustomed to Humboldt County weather is my ability to keep the thermostat around 65 degrees all winter. It's nearly impossible for me to be too cold indoors. Sadly, I can't sleep in the summer unless it's 68 degrees (or, ideally, cooler) in the house. So, whatever money I save on the PG&E in the winter winds up being paid back, with interest, because ... I have this machine called an air conditioner that pumps really cold air into the house when it's really hot outside...

Humboldt County weather ... at Christmastime ... I'm not sure there's a bigger test for my psyche.