Staring Out The Window: Is It Spring Already?

Rogers Hornsby didn't know 8U softball

Welcome to Warning Track Power, a weekly newsletter of baseball stories and analysis grounded in front office and scouting experiences and the personalities encountered along the way.

It was snowing in New York on the March day when I departed from JFK on a westbound JetBlue flight. My winter clothes were already on a truck destined for Pacific Beach, San Diego — not that I’d need them there. Underdressed, the promise of SoCal sunshine kept me warm enough during those final few hours on the Eastern Seaboard.

I was driving across the Coronado Bridge by late afternoon.

As a passenger in the car, I could scan the skylines on both sides of the water as well as any seafaring activity below. Views of downtown — look, there’s Petco Park! — gave way to the sight of the iconic red rotunda of the Hotel Del Coronado.

The image that still sticks with me all these years later, though, was what I saw just over the bridge as we descended upon mainland Coronado: baseball fields.

Yup, there are ballfields in the park next to the bridge. Of course there are. As an hours-old east-coast transplant whose roots were still covered in frost, this vision represented the ideal I was seeking. It was March 8th, and I swear I saw at least six different Little League games taking place.

Is this what growing up in San Diego is all about, I wondered. Youth baseball season is more than just the fickle month of April?

For the next couple weeks, I shared what I had witnessed with any east coaster who would listen. We could have been outside all of the time!

I came to believe that, if Princess Peach or Zelda had to rely on San Diegans, they’d never be rescued. Who — tell me who! — would knock out Mike Tyson? (Eventually, I met locals and learned that they, too, had Nintendos. These thinner-blooded creatures retreated indoors when the temperatures dropped below 60.)

This 18-year-old memory is prologue to last night. Forget about March! On February 2nd, an 8U girls softball team practiced for the first time as team.

They took the field as a nine players who had never been in the same place at the same time and huddled up one hour later as the Wildcats. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, and these girls grabbed their bats and gloves! Sign me up for this day over and over.

Now, 8U is a long way from 6U. The bottomless counts and free bases of Fall Ball will be replaced by girls pitching on Opening Day later this month. Yes, this month, I write with sincere apologies to all of you reading back east or to the north or anywhere else where weather-dependent outdoor activities in February seem laughable.

I’m fairly certain that Commissioner Manfred will disapprove of this 8U league. Pace of play? Not around here, Rob. In the extremely likely event that the pitcher throws four balls, the batter does not take her base. Instead, a coach from the team at bat comes out to pitch, and every pitch is a strike, swinging or taken.

You want 1,000 words on what it feels like to strike out your daughter? Stick around, friends.

50/50 Club

And if you know anyone else who might enjoy a little softball sprinkled into their MLB, please share this story.

Substack recently released a new feature that breaks down subscribers by state. Earlier this week, South Carolina came off the board, and now WTP is in 37 states.

Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia: Where are you?

Well, one thing those 13 states have in common is no Major League team. But there are still plenty of great big leaguers who hailed from them.

As this newsletter lands for the first time in a South Carolina inbox, let me remind you that we are three weeks away from the first Spring Training games. Sons of the Palmetto State Chad Green, whose unfortunately timed free agency reached resolution recently, and Jordan Montgomery will each be reporting to camp for the first time as a Blue Jay and Cardinal, respectively.

When I think South Carolina, I go to Shoeless Joe. But there are others. Do any come to mind for you?