The Reno Silver Sox won the Golden Baseball League championship last week and Les Lancaster was named manager of the Year, but over the course of the season, the league showed why people find it hard to take the GBL seriously.
I understand that independent teams like to use gimmicks, and that's fine to a certain degree. The draw still has to be the game, and at times the GBL forgot that.
It started with the all-star game when Jose Canseco was signed after the season started and then allowed to participate in both the game and the Home Run Derby. What a joke. I don't know what Canseco's final numbers were and I don't care. The guy never should have been signed. He was a guy who could hit for power and even run a bit early in his career. He's well past his prime and needs to slink off into the sunset - quickly.
The second was the league's cheapskate attitude when it came to umpires this season. I've umpired at all different levels, and schools/leagues are always looking to low-ball the men in blue, figuring that anybody can get back there and do the job.
When the league decided to go with local umpires, it made a travesty of the game. League officials told me they were unhappy with the lack of experience in Reno and Yuma, and after the all-star break decided to bring some veterans in to help out in the second half.
In 2005, the GBL used umpires with Division I and pro experience, but GBL commissioner Kevin Outcalt said there were a lot of confrontations and a lot of ejections. That doesn't surprise me. After watching the Western Baseball League for three years in Sonoma County and the GBL this past season, one thing I noticed is that the many of the players have way too much attitude compared to their ability level. There is a reason why many of these players are where they are.
The umpires are taught to have an attitude (to a degree) when they are trained for professional baseball, and if you give any ballplayer an inch, he'll take a mile. Established umpires aren't going to put up with a lot of flack, and when the veteran guys came in to work there was a lot less crap that happened. Experience and reputation is everything on a ballfield.
The third thing, and the one that triggered the column, is the league's lack of deadlines for acquiring players or making trades.
Supposedly there was a date to acquire players, and Reno just got in under the deadline when they acquired three solid players late in the year. I figured that was that, and Reno had to go the rest of the season with that roster.
Wrong.
Right before the Reno-Fullerton playoff series started, Silver Sox pitcher Jared Bonnell was unable to pitch. The league allowed Reno to acquire Chico pitcher Nick Singleton with the understanding that his rights would be traded back to Chico after the playoffs ended.
Ridiculous.
If the league is going to allow Reno to replace a player at that late date, it should have been from outside the GBL, and it should have been a player matching Bonnell's experience level. Actually for a five-game series, Reno could have played with one less player and been fine.
The next thing that irked me was the way the GBL handled the playoffs. The team with the best record overall should get three home games in the playoffs.
Reno was four games better than Fullerton during the season, yet the Flyers would have had the deciding fifth game on their home field had Reno not wrapped it up in Game 4.
And, the fact that the teams didn't get a travel day wasn't the brightest thing to do, either.
I chalk it up to learning. Maybe the third year will be better. One thing is certain, I'd sure like to see more people show up at Peccole Park.
• Members of Montreux Golf & Country Club were expected to start casting votes this week to determine whether they wanted the Reno-Tahoe Open to return for another year.
A year ago, the members voted by a wide margin to keep the tournament, though they asked tournament officials to do several things, including getting tougher on parking. Parking? What parking. I don't know about other tournaments, but this one sure is a pain in the neck.
I made mention of it in my notebook on the final day of this year's event, and I'll bring it up again.
The Reno-Gazette Journal did a piece on the easiness of the golf course, and apparently members at Montreux or supporters of the tournament, took exception. The RGJ is one of the sponsors of the tournament, and has a tent near the 18th green. When workers got to the course on Sunday, the paper's sign outside the tent had been defaced, all the chairs had been taken out and a note was left telling the RGJ it wasn't welcome.
Come on people, it was only a column, and only one person's opinion. It's hard to argue with the author of the piece when you look at all the under-par scores, but no way does it justify people acting like idiots and defacing public property. The people don't realize it, but they hurt the tournament by doing that, not the writer.
I've said this before and I'll say it again, the course does need to be toughened up. It's too easy of a course to drive because the fairways are too wide. What I would do is make it a par-70 or 71. There are two par-5s that played to a 4.5 average. Make them par-4s and shorten them by a few yards.
In closing, I hope the members do the right thing and keep the tournament. The pros obviously like coming here, and the fact that the PGA gave it a new contract, tells you that the PGA likes coming here.