A Cheaper National Pastime -- Some Say Better -- in Fullerton
It’s a Wednesday afternoon, and the 150 or so fans watching Orange County’s only minor league baseball team are distracted. They’re seeking shade on one of the hottest days of the year, but here at Cal State Fullerton’s baseball field, there’s precious little.
Patricia Wehn and her husband, Herman, sitting five rows behind home plate, are grasping for their sun umbrella.
“I was counting on June gloom when I got these tickets,” she said. “I think some other people were too. There’s nobody here.”
And so it goes for a team playing the 22nd game of its existence. The Fullerton Flyers, a cobbled-together group of mostly minor league players once affiliated with major league teams, and former college players, are again testing Orange County’s appetite for minor league baseball, this time with the independent Golden Baseball League.
Independent leagues aren’t known for producing a wealth of talent for major league clubs. But the Golden League, one of six independent leagues in the United States, boasts at least one future Hall of Famer in Rickey Henderson, major league baseball’s all-time stolen-base and runs leader. Now 46, he is playing with the San Diego Surf Dawgs.
Other major leaguers with star power who have played independent ball include former slugger Jose Canseco, Dodgers outfielder J.D. Drew and former Dodger pitcher Jose Lima.
The last independent league experiment in Orange County didn’t go so well. The Mission Viejo Vigilantes folded after two dismal seasons in 1998, leaving a trail of creditors in their wake. The team, which played at Saddleback College, was successfully sued by Mission Viejo for $135,000 for failure to pay rent and utilities.
The Flyers are not exactly off to a flying start, but they did draw 2,700 on an opening night when, down the road, the first-place Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim attracted 40,000 fans. General Manager Ed Hart, a former concessions consultant for professional sports teams, said his club had hoped to average 2,000 to 3,000 for its inaugural season, but the Flyers were averaging barely 1,000 fans through nine home games.
“The first week we were competing with high school graduations and the Angels,” Hart said. “On a constant basis, we’re up against Disneyland, the beach and Raging Waters.”
The Golden Baseball League owns all eight of its teams -- three in Arizona (Surprise, Yuma and Mesa), four in California (Long Beach, San Diego, Chico and Fullerton) and the Samurai Bears, a roving Japanese team with no home field. Television personality Pat Sajak and Cisco Systems executive Kevin Outcalt are two of 12 investors who sank a combined $5 million into the league.
So far, three players have signed contracts with major league organizations. And that’s why it took John Hanley, a 22-year-old former Cal State Fullerton player, all of about two seconds to leave his graveyard shift as a UPS package handler for cramped motel rooms, long bus rides through the Arizona desert and the long-shot chance of playing in the big leagues.
“This is better than any 9-to-5 job that I can think of,” Hanley said. “I’m just happy to be here, playing the game that I love.” It’s a game that pays most of the players $700 per summer, with lodging.
On Wednesday, the real adversary was the heat. Five innings into a game against the Bears, Hart was checking the stands to make sure his fans hadn’t collapsed from heatstroke. “It’s good to see they’re not melting too much,” he said. “I guess there’ll be no more weekday day games.”
Still, the fans enjoyed themselves. Heather Maddox’s grade-school-age sons, Christopher and Shane, spent the afternoon chasing foul balls through the nearly vacant stands.
“My kids love any kind of baseball,” said the Fullerton mother, attending her fifth game of the homestand. “They won’t let me do anything else but come to these games. And it’s better than being trapped inside the house.”
It’s also cheaper than going to the movies.
Through a grocery store promotion, Maddox paid $10 for her four tickets. Tickets are regularly $5 and $8, available at the stadium. The team’s home schedule, which runs through Aug. 21, is provided on the Flyers’ website, www.fullertonflyers.com.
Hal Lewis, a nurse from Anaheim, was seated within whispering distance of Flyers manager Garry Templeton, a former major league All-Star with the San Diego Padres and the St. Louis Cardinals.
The same $8 would have gotten Lewis into the Angels’ parking lot, he noted. “Plus, these guys are hungrier than the major leaguers, and they haven’t forgotten where they came from.”
Lewis’ 17-year-old daughter, Jen, and her friend, Katie McWilliams 16, sat happily behind the dugout, viewing the action with a different set of criteria.
“I come for the baseball and the players,” said Lewis, her voice hoarse from shouting encouragement to her favorite Flyers. “A lot of them are pretty hot.”
On the field, the performance by the nomadic Samurai Bears and the Flyers wasn’t as hot. The Samurai catcher forgot there were only two outs and rolled the ball to the pitcher’s mound after a strikeout thinking it was the end of the inning. And the Flyers’ first baseman, who wasn’t wearing sunglasses, ran away from a high pop fly in foul territory after losing sight of the ball in the bright sky.
The Flyers eventually blew a late 4-2 lead and lost, 9 to 6. And with Sunday’s 14-8 loss to Surprise, Ariz., the team’s record of 11-16 puts it in last place in the four-team California Division.
“Everybody loves a winner around here,” said Hanley, the only Cal State Fullerton product on the Flyers roster. “Titans fans will turn into Flyer fans if we start winning.”
But until that happens, the team’s front office will use every gimmick it can to pull people into the 3,300-seat ballpark. Regular promotions include Too Funny Tuesdays, featuring a comic from the Brea Improv doing stand-up on the dugout between innings, and $2 Thursdays, with micro-brewed beer and hot dogs priced as such.
Later in the year, the marketing staff is planning Cosmetic Enhancement Night, when a fan can win a drawing for $2,000 for a face lift, nose job or breast implants; Singles Night; and Guinness World Record Night, when Flyers fans will collectively blow whistles for as long as they can without taking a breath, hoping to set a world record.
“We’re not packaging this as an alternative to the Angels,” Hart said. “We want to be a complementary product, sort of like mustard on the hot dog.”
Still, the Flyers don’t mind taking a dig at their major league neighbor. The Flyers’ T-shirt reads, “Top 10 reasons to be a Fullerton Flyers fan ... Reason No. 4: Because They’re Not the Los Angeles Flyers of Fullerton.”