Baseball Is Back!

by Harry Cummins

  " Love is the most important thing in the world,
     but baseball is pretty good, too" -Yogi Berra

                                                   

     I know, it's still January.

      Manny Machado and Bryce Harper still don't know where they will hang their golden spikes this summer  (or at least we don't know yet) and snow is blanketing many playing surfaces across this land.  But baseball is definitively back!

     It just a few short weeks, many small colleges will embark on their 2019 seasons.  Locally, Concordia University will host 19-time NAIA champion Lewis Clark State College and their new head coach Jake Taylor in a 4 game weekend set beginning Feb 1st.  The opening series is part of a 50 game season for the Cavaliers, 40 of them as Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) contests.

     The 47 year old Taylor is enshrined in LCSC's Hall of Fame as a standout member of their 1992 National Championship team. In his playing career, he was a team captain, team MVP, and a 2-time selection on the NAIA All-District 1 team.

     Former coach Jeremiah Robbins, in his 6 years at the helm, led the Warriors to 5 straight national title game appearances, winning 3 of them.  He is now the head baseball coach at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon.  The Warriors begin the Taylor era ranked number 5 in the NAIA preseason national rankings and will open the season in Portland as one of the best attractions in small college baseball history.

     Come back to this space throughout the season for extensive coverage of our national pastime.  We will highlight the game in a way you won't find anywhere else, from high school to junior college, to NAIA, to NCAA, to Minor and MLB.  Fantasy baseball too!

      Walt Whitman once said of baseball, "It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us."  Starting soon at Craw's Corner, we hope to help fulfill the poet's promise.