Visalia, CA

What I Remember

We wrapped up the first week of our Excellent Adventure with a study in contrast. Cashman Field was, at the time, one of the larger minor league ballparks; it was not quite major-league in feel but it was pretty close. Recreation Park in Visalia, was at the opposite end of the ballpark spectrum. The home of the Oaks was one of the smallest in baseball with a listed capacity of just 2,000 and it sits smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood. But that was already beginning to feel like home to me and I recall a very pleasant Monday evening.

The Game

High Desert Mavericks 4 Visalia Oaks 1

The Box (Click on the arrows to see more images)

Matt Mieske, who went on to eight-year career in the majors drove in a couple of runs in this game but Luis Galindez was the star of this game and his career topped out at Double-A later in 1991.

The Trip

Sequences like this one would make people shake their head when they looked at the schedule. You may recall that we went from Modesto, right through Visalia to Bakersfield bypassing the former then drove all the way to Las Vegas only to double back to Visalia the next day. Why? Because the San Francisco Giants and a couple of the other teams in the California League’s northern division had opened their seasons on the road in the first week. We had to go back to San Francisco anyway and so picking up Visalia on the way back lengthened the drive slightly on Saturday but made it a lot shorter on Tuesday. This kind of thing happened almost every week on our schedule.