California Baseball: Day 16
Inland Empire 66ers
The first time I traveled to San Bernardino was in 1977, when my Dad and I went to support my Little League’s All-Star Team – El Cajon Western, in east San Diego County -- appearing in the Southern California Divisional Tournament. I was two years younger than most of the kids on the team, but I played with and against all of them -- including 12-year-old man-child John Osborne, whose blistering fastball buckled my knees.
El Cajon Western won that tournament in San Bernardino, taking the championship game 3-2, a night I remember being filled with lights and tension and cheer. The team then went on to win the Western Regional Tournament – beating squads from Arizona, Montana, Hawaii, and Oregon – to advance to the Little League World Series. It was incredible. My Saturday afternoon teammates and foes, managed by my own regular-season manager, Scotty Embleton, were all headed to Williamsport!
In the first round, El Cajon Western beat Hub City Little League from Hattiesburg, Mississippi (which featured future 14-year Major leaguer Charlie Hayes), then bested U.S. favorites Rotterdam, New York, to win the U.S. Championship. They had gone 16-0 and had earned the right to face Little League giants Taiwan for the World Series title, aired live on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. My 10-year-old mind was absolutely blown.
In 1975, after Taiwan had taken home four consecutive World Series trophies, winning 31 consecutive games at Williamsport, Little League Baseball banned foreign clubs from the tournament. Allegations claimed that Taiwan was drawing players from outside its district. But two years later, Taiwan was back in the finals, and back on a roll, outscoring their World Series opponents 28-2.
In the championship game, El Cajon’s Western’s ever-dominant Osborne melted in the ultimate spotlight, giving up four walks in the first inning. The rest of the team did not fare much better, allowing four errors, four wild pitches, and four passed balls on the way to a 7-2 loss. It was disappointing from the start, but still amazing to see my friends playing baseball in a storied Pennsylvania ballpark, live on national television, against a team from half a world away.
I had returned to San Bernardino for another ballgame, this time a High-A California League matchup between the Lancaster JetHawks and the Inland Empire 66ers, the 13th game of our 15-game California baseball road trip. The 66ers play just 45 minutes northeast of their Major League club, the Los Angeles Angels, whom I had seen the night before.
Minor League Baseball teams change cities, names, and affiliations like children playing a frantic game of hot potato, and the story in San Bernardino is no different. Professional baseball came to the city in 1987, when the Ventura County Gulls moved to town to become the San Bernardino Spirit. The club moved to nearby Rancho Cucamonga in 1992 to become the Quakes, but that same year, the Salinas Spurs (who had played 45 seasons in Fresno as the Suns, Giants, Sun Sox and Cardinals) moved to San Bernardino and re-adopted the Spirit name. That name became the San Bernardino Stampede in 1996, and the Inland Empire 66ers in 2003. In this 33-year history, the team has been affiliated with, in order, the Mariners, Dodgers, Mariners, Dodgers, and now the Angels.
And yes, this will all be on the midterm.
As far as deciphering the current name: “Inland Empire” refers to Riverside and San Bernardino counties, stretching north and east from Temecula to the Nevada and Arizona borders. The area around San Bernardino in particular was once known as the Orange Empire, due to the numerous orange groves that once filled its valleys. Today, the Empire is ruled not by a citrus king but by arid deserts and sprawling concrete.
The franchise took the name “66ers” to honor Route 66, the iconic highway that stretches from Santa Monica to Chicago and passes through the center of San Bernardino, turning north along Interstates 215 and 15 through Victorville, Barstow, and beyond. Less than a mile away from Route 66 is 8,000-seat San Manuel Stadium, designed by ballpark mega-architect Populous and opened in 1996. It is a near-replica of The Hanger in Lancaster, also designed by Populous and built earlier that same year.
The franchise has enjoyed some success in San Bernardino, winning six California League championships in the last 25 years. Famous alumni include Omar Vizquel, Orel Hershiser, Paul Konerko, Devon White, Tim Wallach, Adrián Beltré, and Rafael Furcal. Hall-of-Famer Ken Griffey, Jr., played in San Bernardino in 1988, but for the original Spirit team that later moved to Rancho Cucamonga.
I stepped inside the team store, cleverly called Body Shop, to check out the merchandise, starting with all of the bright, mechanic-themed gear tied to the main 66ers brand. But it’s hard not to be drawn quickly to the alternate jerseys and logos in Minor League shops. Several times a year, the 66ers appear as “Los Cucuys De San Bernardino” (a cucuy is a bogeyman) as part of the league’s Copa de la Diversión program honoring the Lantinx and Hispanic communities. I passed a stylish Cucuys-themed shirt featuring a depiction of a grinning sugar skull — an edible decoration used in Day of the Dead and All Souls’ Day celebrations — with baseballs for eyes, and wearing the team’s Cucuys hat, bearing a logo of ghostly menace.
On a less intimidating note, the 66ers have also appeared as the California Burritos, paying homage to what the team called “a staple around Inland Empire and Southern California Mexican restaurants.” Now, here I must take issue with this particular copywriter, because what is called the “California Burrito” takes a perfectly good, proper, Alberto’s-style, San Diego-style, famously Californian carne asada burrito — meat, salsa, guacamole, cheese, onions, no rice, no beans — and stuffs it needlessly with french fries, ruining the burrito completely with the insertion of this gummy potato paste.
This mention of food reminded be that I had one more thing to settle before the game started. This time, I hit the jackpot: a Jalapeño Bacon Cheeseburger with a fried egg. It was exactly the kind of thing I wanted to find at a Minor League ballpark: a little ostentatious, more than a little dangerous, and entirely delicious. It was the best thing I ate at any Minor League park on the tour.
As I sat in the slanted shadows of the setting sun, lost in my protein reverie, 66ers mascot Bernie began to work the crowd. Bernie is a quality mascot, with a lot of life and personality, plus a strong sense of rhythm as he plays his frying pan like a cowbell. He is at least different. Too many mascots these days are generic and stiff, like plush toys, and half of them seem to be bears. Not Bernie. Bernie has his rag, some strong dance moves, and a highly refined understanding of how to employ the pelvic thrust, an essential mascot skill.
Bernie kept things fun throughout the night, overseeing a foot race of kids in the outfield, interfering in a tire slalom through pylons, racing one kid around the bases, and leading the frankly sparse and laconic crowd (attendance 1,108) through a round of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” The one between-inning festivity that did not include Bernie was a man tossing hot dogs into the crowd, dressed, for some reason, as a slice of bacon.
The 66ers were having a rough year, sitting in last place in the California League South with a 28-47 overall record. The Lancaster JetHawks — a Colorado Rockies affiliate — had started the second half strong, and still had hopes of making the playoffs.
Inland Empire sent Denny Brady to the mound to start the game. The 22-year-old right-hander, a 7th round pick out of Mercer County Community College in New Jersey, had put up fair seasons in Rookie League and A-ball, but had upped his game at the High-A level, achieving up a career-best 3.71 ERA.
The JetHawks countered with Will Gaddis, who in his three-year Minor League career had yet to achieve anything like the success he had seen at Furman University, where he had a 1.89 ERA in 17 games. Gaddis would finish his 2019 season in Lancaster with a 5.86 ERA in 27 starts. This game did not help those numbers.
Denny Brady
Will Gaddis
Gaddis’ troubles began when he gave up a two-run homer to 66ers center fielder Gareth Morgan. A former second-round pick who had spent five seasons between Rookie ball and High-A in the Mariners system, Morgan had been recently traded to the Angels and would hit .290 with Inland Empire before receiving his first callup to Double-A ball with the Mobile BayBears later in 2019.
The JetHawks starter gave up another two-run shot in the second inning, this time to leadoff hitter Orlando Martinez. The 21-year-old left fielder from Cuba had blazed through Rookie and A-ball competition in 2018, hitting .305. He would go 3-for-4 on the night, finishing with a .263 average in his first full year with the High-A 66ers.
Gareth Morgan
Orlando Martinez
I took a walk down the right field line, admiring the cozy patio deck above the visitors’ dugout that offers prime views of the action.
Gaddis gave up runs in the third and fourth, and left the game with an ugly line: 3 1/3 innings pitched, 6 earned runs. Brady also lasted 3 1/3 innings, giving up single runs in the second, third, and fourth. Going into the fifth inning, the score was 6-3 Inland Empire.
The 66ers tacked on another run in the sixth, but Lancaster answered with three runs in the top of the seventh, fueled by an RBI single from left fielder Sean Bouchard and a two-run double from designated hitter Casey Golden. The hot-hitting Bouchard (who went 3-for-5 in my visit to Lancaster) went 2-for-4 in the game. Golden, however, would be the one to have the last word on the night.
In the top of the ninth inning, up 7-6, 66ers reliever Connor Higgins got two outs from the first two batters he faced. The next hitter, third baseman Ryan Vilade, grounded a ball through the left side for his third hit of the night. Vilade finished 2019 with a .303 average, his third strong season in the Minor Leagues.
That put the game in the hands of Casey Golden, a free swinger who recorded 34 home runs and 180 strikeouts in 2018 with the A-ball Asheville Tourists. Golden nailed a line drive over the center field wall to give the JetHawks their first lead of the game, 8-7.
Ryan Vilade
Casey Golden
Tommy Doyle
The 66ers put two runners on base with one out in the bottom of the ninth against Lancaster closer Tommy Doyle, who would finish the year with a 3.25 ERA and would appear in three games with the Rockies in 2020 — bypassing Double-A and Triple-A completely in the oddball season brought by Covid-19. But Doyle induced a strikeout and a groundout to end the game and notch his 12th save. Despite the shaky start from Gaddis, the JetHawks bullpen had literally saved the day, giving up just one run in 5 2/3 innings.
It was another frustrating night in a season of frustration in the Inland Empire. The JetHawks, however, had built real momentum for a playoff drive. They would be tested the following night against the first-half champs in the California League’s Southern Division, the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes — the final Minor League game of our road trip.