July is – as usual – a down time for sports on the national and local scale. It’s more than a month away from the high school sports season and weeks after the end of the NBA and NHL season. It’s the dog days of the summer. It’s nothing new or old. It just is. But in this region, the month of July is certainly a point of pride. With the lack of sports going on and kids home for the summer, Little League, Babe Ruth and – in the case of Morgan Hill – Pony baseball has taken over. And with all of the success of those leagues in the three cities – specifically in Hollister – it’s easy to see why exactly that is.
The middle of July is – as usual – a down time for sports on the national and local scale. It’s more than a month away from the high school sports season and weeks after the end of the NBA and NHL season.
It’s the dog days of the summer. It’s nothing new or old. It just is.
But in this region, the month of July is certainly a point of pride. With the lack of sports going on and kids home for the summer, Little League, Babe Ruth and – in the case of Morgan Hill – Pony baseball has taken over. And with all of the success of those leagues in the three cities – specifically in Hollister – it’s easy to see why exactly that is.
They win. And they win big.
Of course, at this level winning isn’t supposed to be everything but you couldn’t tell attending a game from the stands. Sure kids get angry – I’ve seen a few stare-downs from batter to pitcher – some are disappointed – a lot of tears go into a Little League game – but there is a lot of excitement and pure joy.
Here in Hollister – and to some extent in other neighboring cities – youth baseball means a lot more than just having fun. Winning – and everything that comes with it – is a tradition.
Just look at the past two years here in Hollister. Of the eight spots in the championship round of the District 9 tournament this month, five were from Hollister. Two were in the junior division, which Hollister doesn’t participate in.
In three divisions, Hollister baseball controlled the five of the top six spots. In all three, they were crowned the champions.
“It’s really unbelievable to see that,” 9-10 American coach Richard McAbee said while going over his team’s run to the title earlier this week. “It’s a great thing for Hollister.”
Because of all that success, Hollister will battle for a sectional championship in all three divisions. Again.
They’ve reached the state title – before the league was split into an American and National division because of the city’s population – and they’ve played in the sectional championship, including last year’s 11-12 squad.
Regardless of what year it is, Hollister always is one of the last teams standing. And for someone who did not grow up in the area that type of constant success is close to unfathomable. Mathematically, it doesn’t seem reasonable.
With the constant ebb and flow of sports, routine success shouldn’t happen at any level. Just look at professional or collegiate sports. Stanford was one of the best teams in the country – see John Elway’s era – then they were terrible for nearly two decades before Andrew Luck and Jim Harbaugh saved the Cardinal on The Farm.
In San Francisco, the 49ers were the crowned jewel of the NFL for nearly 20 years before Steve Young’s career ended and the team was sent into a 15-year sinkhole.
In sports, nothing lasts forever, except it seems in Hollister. Seriously, what do the kids here eat?
Athletic success – and in this case, baseball – is almost a given. Just walk to the stadium at San Benito High and look at the outfield fence. They’ve won the Tri-County Athletic League title seven years in a row. The past two years they’ve finished the runner up in the Central Coast Section’s Division I playoffs – something that hasn’t been done by a public school in nearly 10 years.
And then you have the extreme success of the Little League and Babe Ruth programs. Last year, Babe Ruth sent four teams to their respective regional tournaments and crowning three state champions.
“This has never happened here before,” the former San Benito Babe Ruth president Angel Rueda said last year.
In the past 10 years, San Benito has sent six teams to their regional tournaments and this year they’ve already sent one.
And of course, there are the Little League teams, which in three age groups will begin sectional tournaments with a chance to play in the regionals later this month.
Regardless of what happens, it’s a remarkable accomplishment from a city so small. But more importantly, it’s proof of a true never-ending pipeline of baseball success and pride.
Who knows when it will end?
