This, without a doubt, is my favorite time of the year. It's a time of the year where you get up every morning and try to find the boxscores from games played the previous night. Stats are the essence of baseball, the lifeblood of the sport. A boxscore, especially the expanded ones that include walks, strikeouts and batting average, can tell you so much about a game that you don't always need a story on the game.
Baseball is a sport I grew up on, and I was fortunate enough to attend a lot of Giants games growing up because my aunt and uncle had season tickets, and a few tickets would make their way to me during the course of every season.
I remember learning how to keep score from my dad, who has since passed away. I remember him putting his hand on my leg if I started to fidget. That wasn't often because I was enthralled with the sights, sounds and smells of Candlestick.
I remember the days where you sat in wooden bleachers out in right field. I remember the Sunday doubleheaders.
I remember the day when Willie Mays got his 3,000th hit. I was sitting in my aunt and uncle's seats that day, and when Mays came to the plate I started creeping up the steps toward the closest ticket booth because everybody who was in attendance that day could redeem their ticket stubs for tickets later in the season.
I remember the Bay Bridge World Series in 1989 when the Loma Prieta earthquake, which happened prior to the third game, disrupted the series for 10 days.
I was a reporter at the Contra Costa Times back then, and I remember sitting in the auxiliary press box in the upper deck when the portable TV in front of me went out. I remember looking up at the light standards and watching them sway back and forth. It was just moments later everybody knew an earthquake had devastated the area. We all remember the picture of the car on the Bay Bridge suddenly disappearing from view.
I also remember the fear in the eyes of many fans as they left the stadium, some running and some strolling. In many cases it was the out-of-town fans that were worried. Earthquakes in the Bay Area were routine, though this was much stronger.
I also remember the October day in 1962 when Willie McCovey lined out to Bobby Richardson to end the 1962 World Series. I was supposed to be there that day, but my mom (I came from a split family) wouldn't allow me to go. To this day I don't think missing school was the issue, I think she just wanted to tick my dad off. I remember the look on her face when I called her a Communist. Hey, what else do you expect from an 8-year-old kid?
Anyway, I'm glad the baseball season is here.
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A belated congratulations to former Carson High baseball coach Ron McNutt, who recently posted his 700th coaching win back on March 21 against Bishop Manogue.
McNutt already owns the state mark for coaching victories. He compiled a 657-267 in 29 seasons at Carson, capturing state titles in 1979 and 1992.
"I'm very proud of it," said McNutt, who took over at Galena prior to the 2009 season. "It's special I guess to myself and my family. It means that I've had some great kids and been coaching a long time. I've surrounded myself with a lot of great assistant coaches along the way, and things have fallen into place.
"I really didn't think about it much. I think it (the subject) came up at the end of last year. When I got started in coaching, I had no idea that I would coach very long, so you don't think about it."
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Carson grad Constance McAlman had a nice day at Saturday's USC Quad Meet in Los Angeles.
McAlman won the discus with an effort of 154 feet. McAlman took third in the hammer throw with a heave of 182-3.
