Mapping the path

California Baseball: Day 7

Fresno Grizzlies

Here is a thing to know about my son, Danny, who agreed to take this epic baseball road trip with me: He’s not really a baseball fan. He’s not even a sports fan. He is a composer, sound designer, and animator, working towards a Bachelor’s degree at Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Danny’s passions do not involve athletic prowess or game-time strategy but musical instruments and multiple monitors.

It’s not that he dislikes or does not understand baseball — he can get really into it when he’s in the ballpark, amongst all the fans and excitement (and video screens). Sports just generally don’t hold his interest for very long.

I recognized that taking a couple of weeks on this trip with me during his brief break before summer classes represented a sacrifice on his part. He did it for me. And so, on a rare free afternoon on our itinerary, after our brisk, 90-minute drive on a straight line from Modesto to Fresno, and after a delicious pastrami sandwich at Sequoia Brewing Company, I took Danny to the movies to see Bumblebee. He’s been a Transformers fan most of his life, and he was particularly fired up to see this new entry in the franchise. This was my sacrifice. And it was pretty tough on me, as I was required to sit in a padded, reclining chair for hours while being served beer and watching what turned out to be a really fun ride.

After the movie, we checked into our hotel, rested up a bit, and headed out to Chukchansi Park, home of the Triple-A Fresno Grizzlies.

Like it’s capital-city rival to the north, Fresno’s baseball stadium was designed by the Populous, the architecture firm behind Oracle Park, Petco Park., Camden Yards, and Comerica Park. Opened in 2002 as Grizzlies Stadium, it was renamed four years later for the Chukchansi, a local Native American tribe that owns the Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino between Fresno and Yosemite National Park. The ballpark seats 10,500, including 600 club seats and 32 luxury seats. While still a minor-league facility, the contrast between Modesto’s ball field and this stadium was stark.

Down the right-field line, we found the kids’ fun zone, with baseball-themed water features to help the little ones cool down and stay busy on a hot summer night. Fresno had reached 100 degrees earlier in the day, and several parents had clearly decided to get their kids here when the gates opened to wet them down.

Next we stopped in the Grizzlies Store to check out the merchandise. The Grizzlies have four basic home-and-away uniforms, including the snazzy red pants and white shirt we would see this night. Like several other Minor League teams, they bring out Star Wars-themed jerseys on special nights — in Fresno’s case, a quasi-Jedi robe pattern draped over the standard colors.

On Tuesday night home games, the Grizzlies take the field as the Fresno Tacos, sporting a logo with a cartoon taco-man wearing a poncho and a cap emblazoned, yes, with a taco. Less than a week after our game, they would take their Tacos brand on the road to El Paso (the Chihuahuas), who would be appearing as the Margaritas as part of Minor League Baseball’s Copa de la Diversión Hispanic and Latino outreach program. That’s right, the Tacos vs. the Margaritas, one game for all the salsa.

And now I must apologize in advance for this very rough segue: Later in the summer, a 41-year-old man named Dana Hutchins was participating in a taco-eating contest during a Grizzlies game when he collapsed and died about seven minutes into the competition, apparently from choking. The incident received national news coverage.

“It was like he’d never eaten before,” a Grizzlies fan who watched the contest told The Fresno Bee said. “He was just shoving the tacos down his mouth without chewing.”

Earlier in the year, on Memorial Day, another story emanating from Chukchansi Park received negative national attention for the Grizzlies. During the break between games of a doubleheader, a video called  “Memorial Day Tribute — We Are Americans” was played for fans, full of patriotic themes and a speech by President Ronald Reagan. At one point in the video, while Reagan says, “As for the enemies of freedom, those who are potential adversaries...” images are shown of an Antifa member, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Fidel Castro, and — wait for it — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Grizzlies president Derek Franks apologized to fans, and said that it was a mistake, that the wrong video had been downloaded and then had not been previewed by front-office personnel. Sun-Maid, the raisin-growing cooperative located just 20 miles south of Fresno, withdrew its corporate sponsorship of the Grizzlies soon after.

As gametime approached, we passed by a vendor of brats and other grilled tubes of meat, and our thoughts turned quickly to food. Ready to settle into a ballpark dinner, I asked a group of workers at one of the main concession stands what I should have, and the consensus was that I should be putting my face into a pile of carne asada nachos. And this I did. Danny had a standard cheeseburger and a fine-looking sundae-in-a-helmet.

The Grizzlies would be taking on the Omaha Storm Chasers (nicknamed “the weirdest team in baseball”), the Triple-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. Fresno and Omaha both sat a few games behind the two teams we had seen two nights before: the Sacramento River Cats and the Iowa Cubs.

The Grizzlies were a new affiliate of the Washington Nationals, after being connected to the San Francisco Giants (1998-2014) and Houston Astros (2015-2018). We had no way of knowing it — and trust me, not a single person in the stadium had any inkling of it — but we would be watching players in Fresno who would be finishing an improbable year as World Series champions. At this stage of the season, the Washington Nationals were scuffling along with a 33-38 record, nine games out of first place in the National League East. They would go 60-31 the rest of the way, capturing a Wild Card spot and beating the mighty Houston Astros to win the World Series.

In fact, tonight’s Grizzlies starting pitcher, Joe Ross, would start Game 5 of the World Series. With the series tied at 2-2, Max Scherzer — a Nationals ace with seven consecutive All-Star seasons, six of them with a sub-3.00 ERA — experienced neck spasms that prevented him from taking the mound. Washington manager Dave Martinez called on Joe Ross, the brother of 10-year major leaguer Tyson Ross of the Detroit Tigers. Joe was a first-round pick of the San Diego Padres in 2011 (Tyson was merely a second-rounder), and had spent the last few years bouncing between the minors and brief stays in Washington. In 2018, recovering from Tommy John surgery, he started with the Gulf Coast League Nationals Rookie League team, then moved on to make spot appearances with the High-A Potomac Nationals, the Double-A Harrisburg Senators, the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs, and finally the Nationals for 16 innings in three games.

In 2019, after just eight games in Fresno, Ross would be called up again, appearing in 27 games for the Nationals while amassing a fairly shaky 5.77 ERA before his World Series start. He had not appeared at all in the first two rounds of the MLB playoffs when he took one of the biggest stages in sports. The 26-year-old Ross pitched five innings in Game 5, giving up a pair of two-run homers, and the Astros went on to win 7-1 to take a 3-2 series lead. It was a decent effort under the circumstances, especially just one year after his surgery and subsequent tour of the Nationals Minor League system.

Ross started well against the Storm Chasers, getting a strikeout and two easy groundouts for a one-two-three first inning.

Right-hander Josh Staumont took the mound for Omaha. He would pitch in 16 games for the Royals later in 2019, his first spell in the majors, and he would put up a very respectable 3.72 ERA doing it. Staumont looked pretty sharp, notching two scoreless innings before being relieved by lefty Jake Kalish, a 32nd round pick in 2015 from George Mason University. Kalish gave up a run in the third but pitched well in the next two innings, and it was 1-0 Grizzlies after five.

Ross sailed through the rest of his night, giving up just two hits and no runs in five innings. He didn’t let a runner past second base. Four days later, he would be recalled to Washington.

On the other side of things, Omaha reliever Jake Kalish was about to have a very bad sixth inning. He began by giving up a home run to Grizzlies shortstop Matt Reynolds, then allowed a walk, a double, a sacrifice fly, and another homer by catcher Raudy Read. Both home runs were rockets over the left-field wall. Kalish managed to get out of the inning but followed it up with a rough start to the seventh and was pulled. By the end of the seventh, Fresno was ahead 8-0.

The Grizzlies bullpen continued the good hometown vibe with a performance that was even more impressive than Ross’ stellar start. Four Fresno relievers faced the Storm Chasers over four innings. Not one of them gave up a hit.

A lot of Grizzlies hitters had good nights, too, and they represented the kinds of ups-and-downs stories that typify the Minor League Baseball experience.

• The Rising Star: First baseman Jose Marmolejos, who went 2-for-3 with a double and 4 RBI. Marmalejos started the season at AA Harrisburg and hit .308. In Fresno, he would hit .315 with 16 home runs and 63 RBI in 101 games.

• Showing Promise: Jake Noll, who went 3-for-4 on the night and was called up to the Nationals for an end-of-season cup of coffee. Also Raudy Read, a young catcher who carried a .275 average with 20 home runs in Fresno, and who also received a late-year call-up.

• Hanging In There: Matt Reynolds, who added a single to his home run and went 2-for-4. A former second-round pick for the New York Mets, Reynolds spent limited time in the majors in 2016-17 with the Mets, and in 2018 with the Nationals. But he would stay in Fresno for the 2019 season, despite improving on his .280 minor-league lifetime average by hitting .295 with an on-base percentage of .401.

• Losing Ground: Center fielder Collin Cowgill went 2-for-3 against Omaha but .228 for the year in Fresno. Affiliated with his ninth Major League team, Cowgill had spent at least some time in the majors each year between 2011 and 2016, but had not reached the big leagues since.

The most interesting character of the bunch by far was 42-year-old closer, Fernando Rodney, recently signed as a free agent by the Nationals after starting the year with a 9.42 ERA in 18 games with the Oakland A’s. Rodney began his professional baseball career in the last century and has played for 10 different MLB teams since reaching the majors in 2002 with the Detroit Tigers. Since then, he has made stops with the Angels, Rays, Mariners, Cubs, Padres, Marlins, Diamondbacks, Twins, A’s, and now the Nationals. He is known for two particular showcases of geometry: the follow-through on his pitching motion that sends his right leg out at a 90-degree angle from his body, and the way his hat typically sits about 35 degrees askew from the front of his face.

Seeing Rodney close the game for Fresno was a treat. He would be back in Washington soon, appearing in 38 games for the Nationals with a 4.05 ERA, and pitching in both the playoffs and World Series. And he pitched a perfect ninth inning on this night to close out the Storm Chasers.

One final note: There was an exuberant birthday party underway all night in the cocktail seating down the left-field line. Early in the game, as the ball was being pitched to a Fresno player, a sharp “wooo!” emanated from that group. On the next pitch, a second person joined in. A half-inning later, someone on the first-base side responded to their calls with a long “wooo!” of their own. Soon, 30-40 people began chiming in. Fueled by hops and barley, a group of dudes near us who liked to hear themselves make noises took it over the top, beyond the land of goofy, communal fun and into a zone of self-indulgent boorishness. And so it went, not just for that half-inning but for most of the rest of the night, people randomly hooting a sound that was a cross between a cowboy celebrating and someone finding a snake in their utensil drawer. The public address system even played a recorded “wooo!” It was clearly a Fresno thing.

Highlight Reel

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