in love with the diamond

I think I’m in love. Every year it happens the same way. April arrives and I turn into a child. I feel young. I experience a strange urge to skip through meadows, fields of barley or even parking garages. But here it is, only the second week of February, and already I find myself humming in the morning. At work I volunteer to replace the water cooler’s empty bottle and (what has the world come to?) share a joke with my supervisor.

My heart has been set aflutter by my recent discovery of college baseball. In past years, I suffered under the delusion that the major league was the only game in town. I even managed to thumb my nose at all four seasons of college baseball while in school. Instead, I preferred tapping my feet and drumming my fingers on tabletops in anticipation of Opening Day. At dorm meetings I pushed for dorm-sponsored trips to spring training in Arizona rather than the usual Tahoe ski-trips. While these brilliant insights never met with the standing ovations I only thought reasonable, suggestions were plentiful that I kindly "walk my ass half a mile across campus and watch Stanford’s own team play." Until this year, their suggestions have fallen on deaf ears.

Waiting out the length of time between Superbowl and Opening Day just proved too monstrous a task this year, and so January 29th found me sneaking off to Stanford’s Sunken Diamond, praying that none of my old dormmates would witness my surrender. Once there, I was a little miffed to find that I actually had to wait in line and pay even as a student. Yet despite the prices ($6 for visitors, $2 for students), a large number of fans crowded the bleachers and grassy embankments. These embankments extend past first and third base along the foul lines, giving Sunken Diamond its name and also downplaying the less attractive look of the standard aluminum bleachers. In addition, they slope just enough to allow one to stretch out in full abandonment while still providing a full view of the field.

With the first pitch of the night, I knew I was head-over-heels again. Football has been doing a more than adequate job keeping me functional and sane during baseball’s off-season, but coming to Sunken Diamond just brings home the fact that baseball is simply in a league of its own. There is nothing like watching the perfect symmetry of infield practice, or the snap with which a ball is thrown around the horn after a strikeout. Those who whine that nothing happens in the rather boring game of baseball have managed to completely miss its essence. Much of baseball’s action is in fact played out in the tense duel of pitcher facing batter and in the harmony of fielders working to turn a double-play.

Certainly college baseball does not quite approach the level of the majors, but it does offer the chance to follow a team more intimately. The Stanford Cardinals have proven to be a team worth following with a record of 32 winning seasons in 33 years, as well as one of the greatest baseball diamonds around. Stanford happens to be one of the few college facilities that allows its fans to keep foul balls hit into the stands, and there is nothing like seeing the little kids swarming up the grassy embankment by third base and piling on top of each other, all trying to get a hold of the ball. So if you get a chance, spend a day out at Sunken Diamond. What better way to kick off the new baseball season and soak in a few warm rays with other baseball-lovers?

For more information on the Stanford Cardinals and Sunken Diamond, call 1-800-BEAT-CAL or visit http://www.fansonly.com/schools/stan

Or check out other schools in the Bay Area by visiting http://www.fansonly.com/channels/site/default.html

Janet Sun

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