“Go Fish!” at a Baseball Game? You Bet!

It’s fun to watch baseball at any level, so you won’t be surprised to learn that I enjoyed watching the Sturgeon play.

Photo courtesy San Francisco Chronicle

I live in Martinez, California, a town of 38,000 about an hour north of San Francisco and the birthplace of Joe DiMaggio, whom I once interviewed.

The Martinez Sturgeon, a team in the independent professional baseball Pecos League, has been here since 2019. Before the Sturgeon, we had a team called the Clippers (named for the Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio). The Clippers played one season in 2018 in the Pacific Association but folded after that year. The owner was indicted for running a solar Ponzi scheme!

The Sturgeon used to be the Mackerel. A fish by any other name . . .

Joe DiMaggio Field in Waterfront Park, capacity 360 fans (photo by Craig Lazzeretti for Martinez News and Views)

“Strugill,” the mascot (author’s photo)

I attended my first Sturgeon game the other night and thoroughly enjoyed it. The team plays at Joe DiMaggio Field in Waterfront Park near the marina. The team has many things, including a mascot, Sturgill the Sturgeon (I know the woman who wears the costume), an announcer, a streaming broadcast, a raffle, a refreshment stand, and great fans, many of whom wear Sturgeon caps and jerseys. One of the fans clanged a cowbell, another one blew a horn, and all the locals love their Sturgeon.

My friend Pam is a Sturgeon host. That means she has taken two Sturgeons into her home for the summer, shortstop Tanner Graham of Fennimore, Wisconsin, and centerfielder Mike Kelly of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For both, this is their first year on the team. As a host, Pam gets choice seats right behind home plate, and I was her guest.

The players are mostly college ballplayers who are looking to advance up the baseball ladder, and some, like Kelly, have Major League aspirations. Several players in the Pecos League have gone on to play in the Majors.

Kelly plays a very smooth center field and is the fastest man on the team. A left-handed batter, he pushed a beautiful bunt down the third base line and beat it out for a hit. Then he stole second base.

The teams play a full nine innings with Major League rules, including the pitch clock. On the night I attended, the Sturgeon faced off against the San Rafael Pacifics, who were in first place, just a half game ahead of the Sturgeon before the game.

The Pacifics carved out an early 3-0 lead against aptly named left-handed starter Elijah Pacheco-Martinez, and the Sturgeon were not having much success at the plate. As at any level, good defense is the key to winning baseball, and the Pacifics’ defense abandoned them (they committed two costly errors). The Sturgeon took advantage, scoring two runs in the fifth inning, one in the sixth, and four in the seventh to take a 7-3 lead. They eventually won 8-4 to take over first place.

Photo courtesy The Pacifics

The key hit for the Sturgeon was a long line-drive double to center field by first baseman Andrew Curran, a bruiser who is batting .516 with four home runs in 64 at-bats this season.

Curran is less adept defensively. At one point, a San Rafael batter bounced the ball between first and second base. Curran, who appeared to have a good chance of snagging it, didn’t go after it, leaving his second baseman to scramble and lunge for it as the ball rolled into the outfield.

There were other mental errors. The Sturgeon were mounting a comeback, having scored twice to cut the lead to 3-2 in the fifth inning, and they had the bases loaded with one out. The batter hit a ground ball between third and shortstop. The third baseman ranged to his left, gloved the ball, tagged the runner from second who was trying to advance to third base, and then fired to first base for the inning-ending double play.

The mental error was on the part of the runner on second. In that situation, he needed to stop before the third baseman could tag him, which would have prevented the double play.

Courtesy Martinez Sturgeon Fan Club

The next inning, with the Sturgeon still down 3-2 with a runner on second base, the batter scorched a hard ground ball down the third base line, past the third baseman into left field. The runner scooted around third base, and, realizing there would be no play on him at home, slowed down and jogged the last 30 feet toward the plate. The problem was that he was unaware that the batter was trying to stretch his hit into a double.

If the batter were tagged out at second base before the runner reached home plate, the run would not count! Fortunately, the batter slid in safely to second base, but just barely. Had he been out, it looked to me like the runner from second had not quite crossed home plate when the tag was made at second base, which would have cost the Sturgeon a run.

The other thing I noticed is that, as in the Majors, a lot of these players hold the bat down at the end and are invested in launch angle, upper-cutting their swing, trying to hit the ball out of the park. So, batters hit a lot of lazy fly balls and pop-ups for outs.

I still believe in level swings to make contact and put pressure on the defense. Oh well.

But overall, it was good baseball. I liked that the Martinez manager played some small ball, looking to advance the base runner with a bunt at one point. There were a lot of stolen bases by both teams, too, a reflection in part because neither catcher had a Major League arm. But even the speedy Mike Kelly did get thrown out trying to steal second base.

The enthusiasm of the fans, many of whom are regulars, is contagious. Moreover, as in Major League stadiums, I found that hot dogs do indeed taste better at the ballpark.

Go Fish!