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The Phillies and the Yankees have met once before in the 1950 World Series. Smokin’ Joe DiMaggio, Whitey Ford and the Yankees swept Robin Roberts, Ritchie Ashburn and the Phillies, in a tight series. Now the defending World Series Champion Philadelphia Phillies will square off against the...
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Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Pedro Martinez on Saturday was taken back in time to his days in Bakersfield when an unidentified friend from Southern California gave him a memento from his days as a Bakersfield Dodger.
That memento, according to Delaware Online blogger Scott Lauber, was a...
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Torii Hunter’s three-run home run in the fifth broke a scoreless deadlock and propelled the Angels to a 5-0 shut out over the Boston Red Sox in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Thursday night.
Anaheim took the lead in a playoff series with the Red Sox for the first time...
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Extra Innings, an indoor baseball and softball training center, is set to open Aug. 15 at 4820 Rosedale Lane.
The 10,000-square-foot facility is a franchise purchased by Bill and Wanda Wagoner and staffed by them, their two teenage sons and several former professional baseball players.
The...
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Some news out of the ESPY Awards from Hollywood, which air Sunday on ESPN but are being taped this afternoon ... we've caught word that Shafter's Anna Jelmini was not named Gatorade National Girls Athlete of the Year.
Jelmini won the Gatorade National Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year...
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Some really bad news to report today that probably shouldn't come as a shock to anyone but will to a lot of people: Facing a tremendous budget deficit, the Kern High School District today announced its plans to do away with the junior varsity level in the six team sports that still have...
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I'm slow in posting this, so chances are by now that you've heard this news from elsewhere, but four locals were drafted today, the second day of the Major League Baseball draft.
The story stars with Stockdale's K.C. Hobson, the best prep player in the section all year. Hobson slipped past...
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The Major League Baseball first-year player draft begins in about half an hour, and when it does, the Washington Nationals will take San Diego State right-hander Stephen Strasburg with the first pick.
After that, it's anyone's guess. And one of the people with most invested in all that guessing...
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PREFACE: Yes, this is late. I should have posted three days ago, and then probably again since then. Feel free to call me lazy and worthless. Both of those would accurately describe my weekend (and it was wonderful, I might add).
Anyway...
You had to be there, at Stan Bledsoe Field on Clovis...
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Those of you who feel like The Californian ought to cover local high school sports more evenly, regardless of what teams are the best, might want to stop reading at this point.
That's because local high school sports news is just about synonymous with Stockdale sports news today. The Mustangs...
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By Derek Henson / MiLB.com
Bakersfield, Calif. - On May 22, Bakersfield fans may receive a taste of the Major Leagues. Dodgers' star pitcher Hiroki Kuroda is tentatively scheduled to pitch on Friday for the Inland Empire 66ers in a 7:30 contest against the Blaze at...
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For those who have to work tomorrow and Friday, take solace: The Central Section, at least, is starting its Memorial Day weekend a couple of days early.
That's tomorrow and Friday, a couple of days' worth of softball and baseball quarterfinal goodness. Here's a rundown of the local games to...
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I don't think this exactly qualifies as a beacon of the coming high school football season, but the Kern High School District sent me some tentative schedules for fall sports today, and I thought I'd pass along some tidbits from the football portion.
Keep in mind, these could change slightly by...
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It's funny: With high school athletics and demographics the way they are, you can usually tell if a school is going to hit the ground running with its sports teams. Frontier, says anyone you ask, is going to be a powerhouse at some time or another. That's why the Central Section put the...
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Curt Schilling officially announced his retirement last month at the age of 42 by saying, “This party has officially ended. After being blessed to experience 23 years of playing professional baseball in front of the worlds best fans in so many different places, it is with zero regrets that...
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After losing their first three games of the 2009 season, the Bakersfield Blaze are now riding a three game winning streak.
The Blaze record improved their record to .500 as they belted 19 hits in a 10-6 win at San Jose Tuesday night. The Blaze will wrap up their series at San Jose tonight, and...
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The first baseball showdown of the week was today at Centennial, and though I told you to get there early if you wanted a seat and yada, yada, yada, that wasn't the case, because there was a nasty wind blowing and even a little rain falling at the beginning of the game.
At Centennial, it seems...
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High school sports aren't normally the most predictable thing under the sun, but here's something you could have bet the farm on before the season started: Tuesday, April 14, would be a big day in the Kern County high school baseball season.
And you wouldn't have lost your farm, either. Tuesday...
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Spring break brings to mind images of sun, sand, flip-flops, cold drinks (but we keep those margaritas virgin here at the school house), swimming pools, waves, and .... me sitting at my computer with nothing to do.
Not so surprisingly, the company didn't pay for me to accompany Liberty or...
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The Blaze season kicks off against the San Diego Padres affiliate Lake Elsinore Storm with a Thirsty Thursday on April 16 followed by a Magnet Schedule giveaway on April 17 and Blaze Beanie giveaway on April 18. Sunday will be Kids' Day where kids can run the bases after the game....
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For a baseball purist like myself, Opening Day is like Christmas. It's pretty much the greatest event of the year outside of the annual hot-dog eating contest at Coney Island.
Opening Day is a tradition at the beginning of every new Major League Baseball season. Falling somewhere around the...
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I am going to make no attempt to explain away the scarcity of my posts, other than to say this is a slow time of year anyway and I've been hammering out All-Area teams for winter sports (for whatever reason, it seems like they're taking a lot longer this year than last).
OK, so I actually...
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UPDATE, 10:59 a.m. Tuesday: I've just been corrected on this post, so if you saw it last night when it first went up, here's the correction: Bakersfield has been awarded the CIF State Basketball Championships for 2010 only. The finals return to Sacramento in 2011 and then will be...
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Things have been slow at the School House in the past week as we recover from the hectic last few weeks of winter sports season. But spring is in the air, folks, and that means a whole other slew of sports to talk about.
I'm working on winter All-Area teams — they'll be released April 3...
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With only 21 days left until minor league rosters are finalized and the 2009 regular season begins, let’s take a look and see how some top prospects have done since leaving the California League on their way towards the Major Leagues. These are the top hitters of each year from this decade....
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There will be joy in Mudville when mighty Manny advances to the bat. It’s sunny, the band is playing, hearts are light, men are laughing, and children are shouting. “Manny is here”.
Yes, Manny-mania has returned to Chavez Ravine. After an often tense, four-month negotiation...
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This year the Cal League will boast some of the hottest prospects since Josh Hamilton, Jake Peavey and Matt Cain. This years hottest prospect will Bakersfield's Justin Smoak, but there are several more worth watching from around the Cal League as they make their way through...
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The California League was established in 1941 and today is a Class A Advanced baseball league (just under Double-A) it is highest level of competition within that classification, and the fifth step between Rookie ball and the Major Leagues.
The league was started in 1941...
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Only 49 days left until Openinig Day at Sam Lynn Ballpark. The Blaze will battle the Lake Elsinore Storm (San Diego Padres Affiliate) at 7:15 PM.
The Storm finshed second in the Cal South in 2008 with a record of 71-69, losing to the Lancaster Jet Hawks...
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There's probably no denying that Bakersfield is a football town. The high school state wrestling tournament at Rabobank is a sight to behold, the Condors provide enough entertainment to keep the fans coming back, and good luck getting a parking spot when it's AYSO Saturdays, but Friday night...
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The Kern High School District needs to leave sports alone. There will be many angry parents and fans (I'm a Centennial fan myself) if sports are cut thanks to Sacramento's problems. It's time we hold our legislature accountable for this, not the student athletes. Many other...
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We've got an entire gaggle of news items to get through, and then I want to talk big hoops dates the rest of the season.
— First off, the city of Bakersfield is getting proactive about raising its high school sports profile. Bako's Convention and Visitors Bureau has placed a bid with the...
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Teixeira signs with the Yanks, K Rod goes to the Mets, and Manny Ramirez is out of the contention for Anaheim. This years off-season woes begin with last seasons trade of Casey Kotchman for Mark Teixeira, and now the Angles have neither. Instead the Angels are assigning first base...
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Who said Christmas doesn’t come early? It does if you ask New York Yankees fans. It looks like the Yankees are doing a lot more to move out of the past and into future besides just moving into...
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It's shaping up to be quite an end of the month. Four Kern County volleyball teams are in Central Section volleyball championships Thursday, the football playoffs start Friday and the state volleyball and cross country championships will be decided in the coming weeks as well.
Both McFarland and...
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Even though corn doesn't line the outfield at Sam Lynn ballpark, it’s still one of baseballs “Field of Dreams”.
As a follow up to my prior article last month regarding the announcement by the Bakersfield Blaze to depart from the City of...
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So I have a 12-year old son that is in his first year of junior high school. I know you feel sorry for me. But don’t, he really is a good kid for the most. Every evening we gather around the dinner table to partake in a delectable meal that mom...
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Are the Cubs finished in this postseason? You lose two straight at home to open a best-of-5 series and you practically deserve to get ousted.
Four errors, a bases-loaded double by Russell Martin, another home run from Manny Ramirez-his 26th career post-season homer, and seven two-out RBIs in...
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I would have to say that my favorite memory of Yankee Stadium, if not for the many references in the hit television show “Seinfield”, would be Aaron Boones game winning homerun against the Boston Red Sox, or Johnny Damons upper deck homerun as a member of the Red Sox....
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Whether it’s major league sports or your little brothers Pop Warner football league, everyone these days seem to be tough on many of our sports officials. Some that are top paid professionals, and many who do not receive any indulgences for their service, and worse yet a lack of respect...
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At 71-43 the Angles have the best record in baseball, are on pace for the franchise's first 100-win season and lead the AL West by 10.5 games -- an advantage more than twice as big as that of any other first-place team -- and yet everyone associated with the Angels believes they can play even...
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As the close of the 67th California League regular season comes to an end, so does another year closer to the end of a Bakersfield baseball era. A club that has had over 200 former and current major league ball players is on the edge of extinction,...
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By now we have heard all the propaganda by every media outlet pushing the change for instant replay to be implemented in Major league Baseball. However, with every decision there are pros and cons that must come with this decision. Some will argue for the implementation of instant replay saying...
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The state of minor league baseball in Bakersfield is what its always been in the past few years after the departing of the Bakersfield Dodgers. Bleak at best. I really think that Bakersfield as whole won't even notice when and if the Blaze are moved to the Carolina League. Sad? Yes,...
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So the Blaze may high tail it out of Bakersfield. Too blazing hot for them? Nah. But attendance is poor and Sam Lynn Ball Park has seen better days.
Can you blame the team for wanting to move? Maybe for wanting to move to Virginia.
Wouldn't it be great to turn Sam Lynn into something the whole...
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So ... I didn't know I was jinxing the poor saps falling asleep at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game (not to mention newspapers on deadline in the eastern half of the country) by saying it was like a softball game, then talking about 15-inning games in my last post.
They're into the 15th...
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Happy Bastille Day to everyone (French independence day, for the uninformed). Greetings from Las Vegas, perhaps one of the least French places (yeah, yeah, fake Eiffel Tower and all) on Earth but a city that actually has something to do with our baseball year in review segment today. It was...
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As you might expect, and as you might have already noticed, the number of posts at School House Zach is going to lessen a little bit here in the month of June. Not a whole lot of high school sports action going on.
There was an all-city baseball game last Friday night at Gerry Collis Field at...
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Ensley Gammel started celebrating Centennial's Division I Central Section softball championship before her final pitch even reached the plate.
It was a strikeout, resulting in the Golden Hawks' 2-1 victory at Madera on Friday in front of an overflow crowd that mostly consisted of blue-clad...
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Jonah Freedman with Sports Illustrated has written a behind-the-scenes tribute to Mets catcher Mike Piazza, who retired Tuesday. Jonah says he feels, in a way, he discovered Piazza when he and his dad drove up to Bakersfield from Los Angeles in 1991 and watched the young player hit the ball over...
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