It’s no Iowa cornfield, but I-5 makes a good substitute for baseball paradise this weekend.
On Field of Dreams Way in Keizer, Volcanoes Stadium will be teeming with prep baseball players searching for state championship glory. The 1A-6A title games will be played there today and Saturday.
Moving south, the big boys will take the diamond in Corvallis and Eugene for the first round of the 2013 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship.
If you like baseball played by players who aren’t paid, it doesn’t get any better than this.
Despite not having any Major League counterpart, Oregon stands alone in the college baseball landscape.
When the NCAA announced the regional fields for the College World Series, 25 percent of the national seeds were planted in the fertile soil of the Willamette Valley.
Oregon State and its 45-10 record earned the No. 3 national seed; the Ducks took the eighth and final seed with their 45-14 seed.
None of the other 49 states has two universities seeded in the top eight.
A handful of OSU and UO players once chased after the big blue trophies that will be handed out in Keizer this weekend. Nearly a third of the Beavers’ roster played their prep ball in Oregon. There’s not as much local talent – only six players – suiting up for Oregon, but the in-state flavor will still step up to the plate.
That’s not supposed to happen here. We’re a damp, dreary state tucked into the Northwest nether regions of the country. We’re a place that doesn’t pay anyone to play baseball past Single A.
Sure, there was a Triple A team here just a few years ago, but to the chagrin of baseball purists, the Portland Beavers were chased out of town by the Portland Timbers. In a state where the biggest city prefers the world’s most popular sport to our own national pastime, being the nation’s hotbed for college baseball may seem like a shock.
In a way, it is. It’s more difficult to get outside in the spring. Cold weather until June can hinder throwing arms. The closest MLB team has just three seasons above .500 in the last decade.
But looking at the bigger picture, the landscape changed with the Beavers’ back-to-back titles in the mid-2000s. Those championships spawned the rebirth of Oregon’s program. Two Beaver champions who played for Oregon high schools – Jacoby Ellsbury and Darwin Barney – have won Gold Gloves the last two seasons.
Somewhere this weekend – whether it is in Keizer, Corvallis or Eugene – the next local baseball hero will take the diamond. It may be sad to think that particular player will spend very little – if any – time playing professionally in Oregon. But that makes the allure of getting out to the ballpark this weekend that much more appealing.
For fans of amateur baseball, there is no better place to be this weekend than Oregon.
Unless, of course, it rains.
Kyle Boggs is on Twitter. Follow him at @KyleKBoggs
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