Matadors Go From Worst to First

Hawaii’s Rainbow Stadium is Baseball America’s choice for the nation’s finest collegiate baseball stadium.

According to one man’s poll--Cal State Northridge Coach Bill Kernen--the school’s Matador Field is the worst baseball field in Division I.

So when Kernen’s players went from Matador Field to Rainbow Stadium last weekend, it was akin to going from the outhouse to the penthouse.

“It was like playing pro ball for us,” Northridge second baseman Chris Olsen said. “We’ve never seen stuff like that.”

Rainbow Stadium, a $12.2-million facility built in 1984, seats 4,312 on two levels and boasts an electronic scoreboard, complete with message board.

The field is covered with synthetic turf. The step-tiered dugouts lead to air-conditioned locker rooms, meeting rooms, a training room and a laundry room.

Northridge players were treated like kings by stadium equipment managers, who supplied numerous amenities: towels, buckets of ice water, Gatorade and pine tar (to improve the grip on their bat handles).

“They were as proud as pie to help us,” Olsen said. “I almost like playing on the road better than playing at home. It’s safer.”

At home, Olsen and his teammates must avoid the “Mataramp,” a lip between the dirt infield and the outfield grass that makes ground balls take strange hops and tangles the feet of retreating infielders. In addition, not only is the field not level, countless pebbles and rocks dot the infield.

“We know where the lips on the field are,” backup third baseman Tyler Nelson said. “You can tell when the other team is taking pregame fungoes that they are having a hard time.”

The outfield is dangerous because the concrete wall is unpadded.

Unlike Hawaii, which employs a maintenance crew, Northridge players take care of Matador Field themselves. Raking, mowing and watering takes 30-45 minutes per practice day. On game day, field preparation, including chalking the field with paper cups (the chalker is broken), takes 1 1/2 hours. If it rains, it can take three hours to prepare the field for a game.

Olsen believes playing at Matador Field will make him a better player.

“It gives you an advantage because you know you can play on any kind of surface,” he said. “Other teams don’t know where the Mataramps are.”

Kernen’s only complaint about Rainbow Stadium is that it doesn’t reward power. Its dimensions (340 feet down the foul lines, 380 in the power alleys and 400 to center field) and the dead air of Manoa Valley tend to keep the ball inside the park.

“(Mike) Sims just crushed the ball,” Kernen said. “It would have been a home run anywhere else but (Hawaii). And (Keyaan) Cook and (Andy) Hodgins hit balls that would have been out anywhere else.”

Rainbow Stadium is so large that no Matador player hit one out during three days of batting practice. The only Hawaii player to homer in the series was Kenny Harrison, who hit two out Friday against Northridge’s Keven Kempton.

“Those would have been out of an Air Force base,” Kernen said.