California Baseball: Day 13
Lancaster JetHawks
In November 2019, Major League Baseball announced a plan to reduce its Minor League affiliations from 160 teams to 120 teams, adding two independent clubs but removing 42 current Minor League teams from its system. The goal, according to the league, is to develop players more efficiently, but also to improve their working conditions: better facilities and accommodations, less travel, more days off.
For many of these teams, the loss of affiliation with a Major League club will mean the end of operations. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic and the financially devastating cancellation of the entire Minor League Baseball season, small clubs in remote locations without the support and marketing power of MLB affiliation would struggle to survive in any form.
The 42 teams on the MLB’s chopping block represented 11 leagues across the country, from five different levels of Minor League Baseball. The entire eight-team Pioneer League, in towns throughout the Rocky Mountains, was on the list. Nine of the 10 teams in the Appalachian League were, too – the Pulaski (VA) Yankees being the only exception.
But there was just one California team on the list: the Lancaster JetHawks, affiliated since 2017 with the Colorado Rockies.
In June 2019, I had no idea any of this would happen. I was just happy to be heading to Lancaster to see another High-A California League game. Unfortunately, I would be doing it on my own; Danny had a summer semester approaching fast, and I had dropped him off at the Hollywood Burbank Airport (aka Bob Hope Airport) on my way from Los Angeles out to the high desert.
I drove my rental north around the San Gabriel Mountains, then up through increasingly dry and vacant scrubland into Antelope Valley — named for the tens of thousands of pronghorns that once roamed the area. Lancaster is the biggest city in the valley, with a population around 160,000. It lies just 20 miles southwest across the desert from Edwards Air Force Base, home of history-making scenes such as Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier and the first landings of the Space Shuttle. The base’s presence is part of the culture and identity of Lancaster.
With a little time to kill before my afternoon ballgame, I stopped at nearby Bravery Brewing for a taster tray of their various sudsy offerings. True to Lancaster form, the interior of the warehouse-style tasting room (labeled “The Shelter”) was sharply decorated in air-combat motifs.
In 1996, the Riverside Pilots — a California League team that began as the Reno Silver Sox nearly 50 years earlier — moved to Lancaster and became the JetHawks. The promising new chapter in the franchise’s history also came with a brand new, 6,860-seat ballpark, dubbed The Hanger, complete with an iconic NASA F/A-18 Hornet mounted dramatically at the front entrance.
Since moving to The Hanger, the JetHawks have been affiliated with the Mariners, Diamondbacks, Red Sox, Astros, and, for now, the Colorado Rockies. They won their two league titles while in the Astros system, and many of the JetHawks’ most famous alumni — José Altuve, Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, Dallas Keuchel — went on to win World Series championships for Houston. Despite being on the Minor League chopping block, this little field by Highway 14 — known as the Aerospace Highway — draws about 2,500 fans per game and consistency places in the middle of the pack in league attendance.
The ballpark was surprisingly crowded well before the game. I soon realized that there was a jobs fair underway. Booths for job-seekers had been set up along the stadium walkways and in the enormous Pilots Pavilion, a 3,000-square-foot tent for private groups that is supported by 6,000 lbs. of steel and covered in 1,500 lbs. of canvas.
Others had arrived for the second promotion for the game: Military Sunday, in which military families receive 2-for-1 tickets, and one service member is honored during the game.
I stepped away from the hubbub and ducked inside the team store to check out the alternate jerseys worn by the JetHawks. The creative collection included a Star Wars-themed uniform sporting a TIE Interceptor, another nod to the fighter pilots at Edwards; and El Viento (“Wind”) de Lancaster, the team’s entry in Minor League Baseball’s Copa de la Diversión program for Hispanic and Latino communities. Because it was a Military Sunday, we’d be seeing the JetHawks’ olive-colored camouflage jerseys.
As the teams began their warmups, I settled down to lunch: a beer brat with mustard, plus an Elysian Space Dust IPA. It was already a good day at the ballpark.
Soon to be covered in relish and onions.
Our upcoming game on this sunny Sunday afternoon was between the JetHawks and the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, a Dodgers affiliate and the strongest team in the Southern Division of the California League. The Quakes had earned a playoff spot by finishing first at the All-Star break. Now, with the slate wiped clean for the second half of the season, the JetHawks had a new chance at their own playoff run.
Ryan Rolison
The JetHawks starter would be Ryan Rolison, a first-round pick in 2018 by the Rockies out of the University of Mississippi. The lefty had earned a promotion to Lancaster from Class-A Asheville after having a strong start to his season.
Following a strange, out-of-tune, falsetto performance of the National Anthem, we were underway.
Ryan Rolison early in the game
The Quakes would counter with right-hander Andre Jackson, a 12th round selection out of the University of Utah. He too had been promoted earlier in the year after pitching well for the Class-A Great Lakes Loons.
Andre Jackson pitches for the Quakes
Rolison appeared to be sailing along with two outs in the third inning — even striking out the side in the second — when he gave up back-to-back home runs to DH Devin Mann and third baseman Marcus Chiu of the Quakes. It would be the first of two home runs on the day for Mann, who would finish his season in Rancho Cucamonga hitting .278 with 19 HRs and 63 RBI. Chiu would hit 14 homers on the year, but managed just a .215 average in a full season with the Quakes.
Rolison recovered, and would leave the game after six innings having given up just those two earned runs.
Devin Mann
Marcus Chiu
I walked down the right-field line and found KaBoom, the JetHawks mascot, keeping to the shadows of the dugout on this hot June afternoon. Despite his heavy costume, he seemed to be faring better than the JetHawks relievers baking in the sun of their exposed bullpen.
Next I headed down the left-field line to the Quakes bullpen, which at least had a sliver of shade. Between innings, the base umpire walked over and chatted with the players about places to eat in Lancaster. They traded a few laughs. They are all in this baseball world together, young guys traveling to these small ballparks, not making much money, all looking to put themselves in the right position at the right time to make the plays or calls that will make an impression and keep this baseball life going.
Andre Jackson posted three scoreless innings for the Quakes, and then the wheels came off completely. After a leadoff walk, third baseman and cleanup hitter Sean Bouchard stroked a home run over the left-field fence to tie the game. Bouchard would go 3-for-5 on the day, and would finish his 2019 season in Lancaster hitting .292 with 13 HRs and 68 RBI.
Jackson got an out but hit the next batter. First baseman Todd Czinege then smacked one out over the center field fence to make it 4-2. Drafted all the way down in the 29th round out of Villanova, Czinege added a hit later in the game and would knock 14 home runs on the year, but a whopping 128 strikeouts contributed mightily to a meager .225 average.
Sean Bouchard
Todd Czinege
Jackson got another out and promptly hit another batter. He then allowed that batter to steal second and gave up a single, scoring the hit batsman and ending his day.
Rolison was relieved in the seventh inning by JetHawks right-hander Nate Harris, who had his own struggles. After loading the bases on a single, a walk, and a throwing error, he gave up a grand slam to catcher Connor Wong, who would hit 15 homers for the Quakes in 2019, plus nine more for the AA Tulsa Drillers. Rancho Cucamonga took the lead, 6-5.
The hits kept coming in the bottom half of the frame. Lancaster put together three more runs and recovered the lead, 8-6.
Connor Wong
Mann added his second home run in the top of the eighth, a two-run shot to center that tied the score. The high winds — “El Viento de Lancaster” — blowing out toward the highway throughout the game had helped account for six home runs and a lot of crooked numbers on the scoreboard.
It ended not with a bang but a single. After a leadoff double in the bottom of the eighth, JetHawks second baseman Matt McLaughlin, who patiently collected 48 walks along with his 111 hits on the year — slapped a line drive to center to bring in the go-ahead run. Lancaster reliever Tommy Doyle coasted through a 1-2-3 inning in the ninth to close out the win for the home team, 9-8.
Matt McLaughlin
It’s impossible to know for sure if 2019 was the last season for the Lancaster JetHawks. It appears it will be. If so, it will be the third California League team lost in the region over the past four years: both the High Desert Mavericks (located in the little town of Adelanto, near Victorville) and the Bakersfield Blaze ceased operations after the 2016 season. It would be a tremendous loss to the area. Now more than ever, we should know how much we need to be outdoors, how much we need to interact with our families and neighbors in a fun, affordable, entertaining space, rooting for the home team. There aren’t many places in the world more suited to relaxing in the sunshine for a few hours than a Minor League ballpark.
Where once there were three…
A little later, out for some Mexican food in Lancaster, I came across a striking mural in the center of town, a warning against wiring our brains to technology. Its electrified face was tired, disfigured, atrophied, unhappy, its hands gnarled and broken — all in service of processing information. And at times, after a day with my screens at work and my screens at home, my AirPods frequently humming, social-media madness swirling — a constant flow of input saturating my senses — well, yeah, I get it. It’s changing us.
When we are finally able to safely return, let’s get out to the ballpark.
