Bring on the season
As the boys of summer get going, I have been enjoying some other local activities.
Back in March, fans of the Yankees were rightly concerned about their ace Gerrit Cole’s elbow issue, and for good reason. I attended two of their games last year, and Cole got the win in both. While Cole avoided the worst-case scenario, he is expected to miss at least a month of the regular season. The Padres beat them to the punch by trading for former White Sox starter Dylan Cease, while former Yank Jordan Montgomery signed with Arizona. Blake Snell has jumped to the Giants after posting a 2.25 ERA last season in San Diego and J.D. Martinez decided to meet the Mets. It’s all part of the madness as the season gets underway.
Fortunately, the exploits of Juan Soto helped distract me from Spring Training MRIs for Cole and Aaron Judge. In case you’re keeping score, those were last season’s most valuable Yankees. Fortunately, Judge’s issue wasn’t serious and Soto has enjoyed an excellent start to the season as the Bronx Bombers have begun 10-3. Meanwhile, the Dodgers and Padres opened the regular season by splitting a two-game set in South Korea. I even tuned in as Los Angeles defeated the Kiwoom Heroes KBO franchise during an exhibition in which Freddie Freeman hit a ball to Mars. The world has also been watching the saga of Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter who reportedly lost over $16 million to an illegal sports gambling operation.
Back on March 9, Dorina and I attended the second annual Anaheim Ducks hockey event known as Ducks Migration. Outside Great Park Ice in Irvine, General Manager Pat Verbeek commented on the future of a franchise that has been rebuilding for several years but boasts arguably the best prospect pool in the league. It wasn’t an especially hot day, but without protection from the sun we stood in the shade until several players came out from practice to greet us. One of those was Leo Carlsson, the second pick of the 2023 Draft who was affable enough to pose with me.
Dorina was most excited to meet hard checking defenseman Radko Gudas, who has become a fan favorite during his first season in Orange County.
A group shot with forward Benoit-Olivier Groulx along with defensemen Urho Vaakanainen and Gustav Lindström was the exclamation point to our afternoon.
After all that excitement, we drove to the Hilbert Museum in Orange, which reopened after an three-year expansion project. Because we first met at the original site, it holds special significance for us. The featured exhibit highlighted paintings by Millard Sheets, who also designed the mural that has been installed on the exterior of the museum building.
I also learned about the artist Emigdio Vasquez, who created the oil on canvas work entitled Baseball that appears at the top of this article. Vasquez also drew a baseball themed pencil sketch based on a photo for patron Fred Ortiz known as Big League, Little League. According to Ortiz: “My father Frank played baseball in various Los Angeles based Mexican leagues. Two of the ballclubs were the Reds of Elysian Park and U.S. Spring & Bumper. Local Los Angeles companies often recruited exceptional ballplayers from the barrios with jobs so they could play for the company baseball team and wear company-sponsored uniforms.” The sketch depicts Frank and Fred’s brother Steve, who spent time as a bat boy. They posed for the 1948 photo at Evergreen Park in L.A.
The rest of the museum was filled with treasures like the art of Mary Blair, who became famous for her artistic contributions to It’s A Small World. Navajo ‘eye-dazzler’ blankets, vintage radios, historical postcards, and art by Norman Rockwell rounded out the current exhibitions.
While I wait for the Yankees’ visit to San Diego and Anaheim in late May, I am enjoying the daily rhythms of listening to games on my commute and flipping on MLB TV when I get home. Getting to track my fantasy team, monitor the minor leagues, and look for bobblehead nights is all part of the fun that returns at this time of year.