Cal baseball is always a fun time out. I've been going to Cal baseball games for over ten years and really seen a distinct difference in the scene there. Up until a few years ago, you had a very small crowd show up and there were minimal amenities. It was a very insular community and the field was somewhat delightfully antiquated. No lights. No video screen.
And that's partially why Cal almost cut the entire team. They were leaving money on the table for an expensive to offer sport. Well, now that has changed a lot. You have a much larger group of fans at the games. You have a new giant modern video screen. You have vendors hawking food and merchandise stands. It's definitely a more modern environment and hopefully one that promises a more financially stable future for Cal baseball.
Cal started off the season with a 4 game series against Texas. Texas came in ranked in the Top 25, so it was a good test for Cal. Cal won Friday night and then they split the double header, ensuring, at the very least, a split with Texas. Of course, I am a greedy, greedy, greedy man and I didn't just want a split. Taking 3 out of 4 would have been a supertastic way to start off the season. Could it happen???
No. An emphatic no. Texas ended up winning 5-0 in a fairly uneventful game. It was mostly a pitcher's duel, save for a few innings where Texas put up some crooked numbers. Cal never got a run, although we did load the bases in one inning.
One cool aspect was that Rogers Clemens was there. His son played 1B for Texas and he was in Berkeley all weekend long watching the games. I had heard reports from friends who had gone to prior games that he was there to watch his son, so I sought him out at the game. There are some shots of him in there. We all took a big photo with him after the game, too. He couldn't have been nicer.
When his son first came up to bat, fiatlux started heckling him yelling "YOUR DAD COULD NEVER BEAT DAVE STEWART" and things of those ilk. As an A's fan, I thought it was hilarious, but other Cal fans were shushing fiatlux. Shushing?!?! At a baseball game?!?! It wasn't like fiat lux was heckling Clemens' son directly. He was really heckling Clemens himself.
After Cal loaded the bases and failed to score, Clemens' son turned to us and gave us a very deliberate finger to the mouth "Be Quiet" gesture. Getting hot and heated out there!
Even though Cal didn't really put up much of a fight against the Longhorns, it is still always a fun time out. I wish that there was more offense from Cal, so that the fans could have gotten into it. Shoulda gona to Friday night's game, I guess. There is still an entire season's worth of games upcoming, including games against San Francisco and UCLA on the horizon. So, get out there and enjoy a game or two. GO BEARS!