Weather report from Palm Springs—a balmy 108F! So we are spending the weekend catching a few games. 2021 is settled in after arriving a day late as CIF playoffs winded down. League is exactly as advertised—a pretty diverse mix of talent and lots of stories of how each player arrived at the league—some other summer leagues cancelled, a Canadian who couldn’t return home after college season ended (Covid!), and about half are local area players.
About 40-50% are JC players trying to get on board with a 4 year, the remainder are from every level trying to get a few at bats or IP. Roster size is about 23 without tremendous pitching depth, so games have averaged about 6 innings. 2 days on, 1 off with the occasional practice. All of the coaches are college assistants and 2021 likes his coach a lot. Games are in the morning—latest start is 12:30.
League has a very good web site with player bios and team and individual statistics. About half the games are played at the local stadium and those games are web streamed on youtube and the announcers do a nice job calling the game. Since they are on youtube I’ve been able to watch those games in the evening after work—a lot less stress than rushing home to make a high school game!
Players are housed in the local hotels. 2021 has 3 roommates, 1 is the other catcher from his team who is a year older, from a D1 and a good mentor. Players are responsible for their own meals; suite has a kitchen but not sure how much it is used! Pool, ping pong and access to a local gym take up the free time. A local collegiate team plays (Palm Springs Power) at the stadium so players sometimes go there in the evening to watch games. A couple of former teammates from travel ball live nearby so 2021 has been playing basketball at their high school gym as well.
We think it has been a valuable experience—son is having fun being on his own and we think the first 10 games or so were a good preparation for college by playing with college age players. So there is the full report from Palm Springs—Happy Independence Day everyone and good luck to all those players out there this summer!