So took the family on vacation this year out west. The boys loved it and wondered what the quality of baseball is (HS and summer ball) and what is it like from salt lake city up to Yellowstone areas. (I'd love to move there!) And when we went through Wyoming from Yellowstone to SLC, it looking like a pronghorn hunter's dream!
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Not sure the quality of baseball there but I have driven it several times. The first was a drive from Denver to Oakland to fly overseas with the ARMY. Left Denver just fine and drove North to catch I80 in Wyoming. it was the first time I had ever known the interstate to actually close.
Yes they have a gate. It was snowing so hard the trooper would not let me go, but after showing orders they had me follow a snowplow. You could only see his lights and the ditches were full of cars and trucks for 100's of miles.
Drove out of it and found that there was no speed limit it was so desolate .
Beautiful country in the Summer( both weeks of it).
We did a mission trip in Montana doing a baseball/softball camp. I think it is the same in Wyoming. They do not have HS baseball/softball. They do American Legion which really only plays about 4 weeks so 8 games. The level of baseball is very bad in Montana. I'm guessing very few of the guys we watched which were some of the best in a large area would not have made our jv team. The problem is they do not have the facilities or time to play. We were there the week before Omaha and they had snow 2 weeks before. It was beautiful but the baseball facilities and play was bad. They do have men's leagues but it seemed 1/3 of the players were also females. Was equivalent to a slowpitch softball league here.
I’ve driven from SLC to Jackson Hole many times before we moved away from Southern California in the 90’s when my kids were little. It’s beautiful country. I once thought of moving to Jackson Hole and becoming a ski instructor and a raft guide. Then I found sanity. There was a LA Times article saying over 80% of Southern Californians who move to Wyoming and Montana return within two years.
I wouldn’t want to be playing baseball north of the SLC area before May. The SLC Valley isn’t that bad in winter and therefore early spring. In Utah and even some Idaho towns you have to consider the Mormon influence on lifestyle. There’s nothing wrong with Mormons. But even Mormon friends admit Utah can be very clannish. SLC less so, but still so.
I have spent the last two summers there on vacation and have the following observations:
My son had a player from Montana on his D3 team and I don't think he ever made it on the field FWIW. (but he had an amazing roll cast)
I'm in.
PS: Go back in January and let us know how much you love it.
I can think of half a dozen NorCal families who have moved to Montana in the past few years. Usually it's a question of cashing in their real estate equity as they retired. The one baseball player I know who went to play at M State came back after one semester. One female soccer player we know did well and graduated.
Western travel is getting more difficult. I intended to drive through Colorado last week but the 70 was closed all week due to flooding and mudslides from a recently burned area. I hoped to see lots of stars at night in Wyoming instead but the air was horrible from the CA and OR fires.
Here's a photo I took from the 80 a couple hours west of Laramie. This was ten minutes before the main zombie herd attacked our caravan.
....actually it was an overturned double tractor trailer. 2 hours delay. And only one of two overturned big rigs we saw on that stretch of road.
Edit -- almost forgot. One of my son's teammates plays for Lewis-Clark State, a NAIA school in Idaho - kinda the same as Montana, right? They must play pretty good ball there because they made the NAIA World Series this year and they've sent a several players to the pros.
I know a little bit about Wyoming. There's a little bit of youth and HS baseball in Casper and Cheyenne. Summer ball is just a legion. Any serious player makes a lot of road trips to Colorado to play.
I've had that I80 gate close on me before. The snow storms through there are for real. Blowing sideways at 80mph.
Wow! Thanks for the input. Wife and I have been to Montana and Wyoming numerous times. This year was the first time in probably 10+ years! I miss it already. Makes sense what everyone is saying. Outdoor activities are what they do, no necessarily sports. My buddy just moved to utah and his son is joint the my bike team, not the baseball team!
We actually stayed in island park Idaho, so yeah Idaho is the same as mt…
@BOF posted:I have spent the last two summers there on vacation and have the following observations:
- Baseball is bad, only Legion in summer.
- Fly fishing is amazing.
- I love love love Montanans. Straight shooters, no BS. ( @RJM its no wonder 80% of Californians move back)
My son had a player from Montana on his D3 team and I don't think he ever made it on the field FWIW. (but he had an amazing roll cast)
I'm in.
PS: Go back in January and let us know how much you love it.
It’s because rural seems peaceful and relaxing until it becomes a lifestyle. There were times I felt living in Mayberry would be a peaceful life. After a while peaceful is just boring if you’re accustomed to major cities.
@JCG posted:Edit -- almost forgot. One of my son's teammates plays for Lewis-Clark State, a NAIA school in Idaho - kinda the same as Montana, right? They must play pretty good ball there because they made the NAIA World Series this year and they've sent a several players to the pros.
IIRC, Lewis-Clark State receives a spot every year because they host the NAIA World Series. At least that's a story I have been told. (That's not to say that Lewis-Clark State isn't a good program)
I live in Wisconsin but grew up in Wyoming and still go back there 2X a year. My son and I practice and throw at the Jackson Hole high school field while we are there. Centerfield is ~270’ and at that elevation must be homer city. Baseball is extremely limited due to weather, lack of players, etc. with most kids playing Legion ball or travelling to Colorado.
True story: before I became a surfer dude, I was a cowboy. I learned much in my years as a ranch hand outside Shell, Wyoming, in the shadows of the Bighorn Mountains. We'd run cattle the HRM (Holistic Resource Management) way. Corral them with electric fence, let 'em graze an area until dust hung in the air like fog, then move the fence let the cattle do it all over again on a new patch of land. Learned how to brand and castrate cows and set up an electric fence without shocking myself. Learned how to back up a cattle trailer and calm a horse spooked by a rattler.
Astride Tanqueray, my gray, I'd whistle Frenchie and Hoghead, my blue heelers, this way and that, and the dogs would move the cows so quickly I'd have to laugh.
There's a state-wide adult hockey league that guys will drive for hours to play in. Year round. I didn't learn anything about baseball there. Didn't touch a ball for two years. Nobody knew anything.
Stupid things I did there: Broke a hay truck trying to settle the load. Drove a tractor into an irrigation ditch. Got caught in a lightning storm miles from the nearest cover.
Also, L-C State has been a pretty good NAIA team since the 70s.
I have to say this has been a very reflective evening.
Yeah, Lewis Clark is good ball and yes they are in the NAIA World Series every year because they host it. Is kind of goofy but I guess it's in part because with them in it the series is guaranteed at least a couple games with over 5,000 fans in attendance. It may be hard to find another place that would happen. I played against them twice in the series and those two years they had 15 guys drafted. Definitely had guys that could have played in most any conference in USA
That must have been a blast, playing in front of that many people, in a tournament like that. I was psyched when just my roommate would come to my games.
Is a neat setting
when we played them, in their heyday in the late 80's, they were a legit d1 team. their roster was loaded with prop 48 rejects who didn't want to go juco.
I don't know the quality of the baseball, but our team's freshman All American is from Salt Lake. He was also Big 12 Freshman of the year...he seemed to develop fine there
The humidity here in pa has been awful this week. Send me back!
Samuel Langhorne Clemens spent the second coldest winter of his life one summer in Meeteetse, Wyoming.
@mattys posted:when we played them, in their heyday in the late 80's, they were a legit d1 team. their roster was loaded with prop 48 rejects who didn't want to go juco.
I agree. I played them in 1984 and 1985. We also played every D1 in Georgia and the talent was definitely not very different
We did that 3 day snowmobile trip. It was one of our top 2 vacations ever.
I’ve never been to Yellowstone in the winter. Our winter trips (at least two per year) were to the SLC area for skiing. My cousin went to UUtah Med School and stayed to do research. I have skied Jackson Hole.
We did a late spring trip for canoeing and rafting The Snake and hiking at Yellowstone until we had kids. Late spring is when The Snake is the best with heavy runoff from the mountains. It’s fast. You have to know what you’re doing. Or go on a guided raft trip. I’ve done both.
We rafted the snake, kids had fun. It was a great trip. Johnny sacks cabin was pretty cool!
@smokeminside posted:Samuel Langhorne Clemens spent the second coldest winter of his life one summer in Meeteetse, Wyoming.
The coldest winter was a summer in San Francisco, right?
