Dim Views and Bright Optimism : Reactions to Playing Prep Baseball Games Under Lights Are as Different as Night and Day

The headlights of Coach Dave Johnson’s Jeep Cherokee did little to light up the batting cage at Burbank High. The light bulb above Johnson’s head, however, brightened spirits considerably.

Johnson wheeled a pitching machine to within 50 feet of home plate and cranked up the speed control to 95 m.p.h. Burbank players peered through the evening shade at pitches that seemed to emerge from pitch dark.

Swung on and missed.

Swung on and missed.

But as the sound of baseball striking aluminum became more frequent, illumination was the least of anyone’s concerns.

“The feeling at the end of the night,” Johnson said, recalling the evening last season, “was that this was the best practice we had had all year.”

The unorthodox drill was in preparation for a rematch with cross-town rival Burroughs and hard-throwing right-hander Mike Rossiter, last season’s Times Valley pitcher of the year. A month earlier, under the lights at Burroughs High, Rossiter had beaten the daylights out of Burbank, hurling a no-hitter in a 12-0 victory.

Hence, the nocturnal rehearsal.

“Ninety-five m.p.h. at 50 feet is some serious gas,” Johnson said. “When we got under the lights, his fastballs didn’t look like much.”

In fact, they were crystal clear. Burbank tagged Rossiter for two runs in the first inning. By the fourth, the Bulldogs had seven hits, a 7-0 lead and had knocked Rossiter from the game. Burbank won, 12-3.

But despite lighting up Rossiter, playing at night doesn’t exactly light up Johnson’s life.

“We don’t practice at night and we don’t see the ball well at night,” Johnson said. “The kids like to play at night, but when we do they just act like fish out of water.”

A few teams in the region have no choice--their home games are played at night. Crescenta Valley plays at Stengel Field in Glendale; Burbank, Bell-Jeff and Providence play at Foy Park in Burbank; St. Francis plays at Brookside Park in Pasadena; and Burroughs plays on campus.

Most teams play at night at least once during a season in tournament or league games.

But mention night baseball to the handful forced to take the field in the heart of darkness and reactions are as polar as AC and DC.

Players enjoy the increase in attendance and the added attention that goes with playing night games. Yet they loathe the high pop flys and low temperatures.

“I like playing at night, but when the sun is going down and the lights are on, it’s kind of hard to see,” said John Workman, a senior right-hander for St. Francis. “The thing I don’t like about it is that I can’t always see the signs.”

Or sometimes feel fingertips.

“It gets cold out there,” said Josh Canale, a senior right-hander for Crescenta Valley. “I heard one umpire call (Stengel Field) The Ice Box. It affects pitchers because their arms get cold between innings.”

Coaches’ opinions equally vary. Some like night games. Others would rather fight than switch on the lights.

“I like it for two reasons,” Crescenta Valley Coach Tony Zarrillo said. “One, it gives parents and others who don’t get to see our games that often a chance to get out and see us. And two, I like it because most of the teams in our league don’t.”

Johnson, in his third season at Burbank, disliked night games so much that he lobbied for an exclusive day schedule this season.

For years, Burbank and Burroughs have played night games at Burroughs and at Foy Park. This season, however, at Johnson’s insistence, the teams will meet for only one night game at Burroughs.

At Foy Park, Burbank is scheduled exclusively for day games.

“I couldn’t do anything about it the first two years because I (inherited) the schedule,” Johnson said.

For the most part, night games are played not because they are desired so much as they are required.

Burbank schools Providence and Bell-Jeff, as well as a variety of youth-league teams, share Foy Park with Burbank High, necessitating the scheduling of many night games.

Stengel Field also is home to the Glendale College baseball team and several youth leagues.

Simply stated, there are not enough fields to accommodate the number of games and practices taking place. Consequently, some teams are forced to wait until dark.

“Burbank has first rights to (day games at Foy Park),” said Bell-Jeff Coach Sab Manente, whose team also is scheduled to play night games on the road against Maranatha, El Segundo and St. Francis. “We kind of get shafted.”

Not that night baseball doesn’t have its supporters.

This season, Chaminade scheduled two night games at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Field.

On Monday, the Eagles will play host to Notre Dame in a Mission League game. Last month, a night game at UCLA against West Albany High of Oregon was canceled because of rain.

“There’s a little bit of interest in night baseball here,” Chaminade Coach George Vranau said. “We’re toying with the idea of moving the baseball field to our Chatsworth campus and having a lighted baseball and lighted softball field.”

Efforts have been made in recent years to bring night baseball to the Valley area, but they have died largely because of prohibitive costs.

Five years ago, Birmingham High explored the possibility of installing lights but could not raise the estimated $150,000 needed for installation. A similar drive at Saugus High the same year met the same dead end.

While night games assuredly would attract more spectators, many coaches argue that the increase in attendance would be small and not worth the inconvenience of playing at night.

“It gets chilly out there,” Manente of Bell-Jeff said. “That’s something you have to get used to.”

Those who favor playing at night seem destined to remain in the minority.

Providence Coach Richard Mena concedes that night games are an inconvenience. But he has grown to like the night life and so have the players. “The truth is, we love playing at night,” he said.

First-year St. Francis Coach John Yakel is a 1984 graduate of the school and was the shortstop in the Golden Knights’ inaugural night game at Brookside Park in his senior year.

The majority of the team’s players and parents support the night schedule, he said. Some opponents, he said, do not.

“The majority of our league schools are very receptive,” Yakel said. “But some teams don’t like to play us at night, so we don’t.”

Reasons for refusal vary. Some schools say they fear venturing into unfamiliar neighborhoods after dark. Others simply want to be finished with school and athletics by sundown, especially on weeknights.

But any reason usually is sufficient enough to nix a night game. According to San Fernando League rules, a night game cannot be scheduled unless both schools agree to it. St. Francis and Bell-Jeff belong to the San Fernando League.

Burbank and Hart are the only Foothill League schools willing to make an evening trip to Burroughs. Alhambra, San Gabriel and Schurr have long refused, according to Burroughs Coach Terry Scott.

“They don’t want a piece of it and there’s really nothing we can do about it,” Scott said.

Next season, Saugus and Canyon will join Hart, Burbank and Burroughs in a revamped Foothill League.

“We’ve talked with the schools who are coming into the league,” Scott said. “They seem to be OK with playing at night.”

Zarrillo of Crescenta Valley said he would happily oblige Pacific League rivals by scheduling day games at Stengel Field if only it were possible. A scheduling logjam forces the Falcons to play home games at 7 p.m.

The only thing left to do, Zarrillo said, is make the best of it.

Crescenta Valley schedules practices in the early evening after Glendale College has completed workouts. Practice usually includes a few exercises tailored for evening play.

“At the beginning of the year, we take our pitching machine and send the balls straight up in the air so the guys can get used to catching them,” Canale said.

“You get used to it. The lights are pretty good there.”

The same cannot be said for the lights at Burbank’s Olive Park, where Bell-Jeff and Providence often conduct evening practices when Foy Park is unavailable. Mena described them as “horrible.” But all the better to practice by.

“I spend a lot of time hitting fungoes as high into the air as I can,” Mena said. “If the kids can catch them in those lights, they can catch them anywhere.”