Summer Baseball in Brevard

By Stephen C. Smith
Publisher
June 13, 2010

 

The Viera Nationals celebrate their Gulf Coast League pennant on September 3, 2009.

 

The summer of 2010 officially begins on June 21, which nicely coincides with Opening Day for the 2010 Gulf Coast League season.

The Nationals are scheduled to play the St. Louis' Cardinals rookie team from Palm Beach at noon that day at their minor league complex in Viera. The GCL Nationals have gone to the league's championship series the last two years, and won the 2009 pennant.

Across the parking lot, The Brevard County Manatees will open a homestand that night against the Clearwater Threshers, the Philadelphia Phillies' affiliate in the Florida State League. It will be Game #68 in the Manatees' 70-game first half; they're out of the first half division title race, but the second half begins on June 24 with a home game against the Lakeland Flying Tigers.

North on the I-95 at historic Cocoa Expo Stadium, the semi-pro Space Coast Rockets will be nearing the end of their first half. The National Extreme Baseball League format, known as “Double Diamond Baseball,” adds a second set of bases on the infield colored orange. The first batter in an inning runs the white bases in the traditional counterclockwise direction, then the second batter runs clockwise on the orange bases. I'll write more about the NXBL in an upcoming column, but as a left-hander I find it delightfully insidious in that it eliminates the 150-year long bias the game has had towards right-handers.

My wife and I moved to the Space Coast one year ago from California. In that year, I've found much more baseball in Brevard than I knew existed.

I knew about the Manatees and GCL Nationals, but in the fall a new league began, the Florida Winter Baseball League. The idea was to create an independent professional minor league that woud be a place for affiliated and independent ballplayers to audition for a job next spring. Although many had doubts about its long-term success, none of us imagined that it would suddenly fold without warning three weeks into its season. Some players received paychecks, and many of those bounced, although most players were eventually compensated.

So we were left without any baseball until the Brevard Community College Titans and Florida Tech Panthers began playing college ball in February. The Washington Nationals arrived a couple weeks later for spring training, and their minor leaguers reported in early March.

Not to be overlooked are two adult amateur leagues, the Brevard County Baseball League and the Brevard County Amateur Baseball Association. The BCBL is run by Brevard County Parks and Recreation, while the BCABA is a private operation affiliated with the National Adult Baseball Association. The BCBL is recruiting now for a summer program, while the BCABA will take the summer off.

Space Coast summers inevitably feature afternoon thunderstorms, and the occasional hurricane threat. But baseball remains an affordable entertainment option.

The GCL Nationals are free. Games are scheduled for 10 AM or 12 PM. Just pull up in the parking lot and walk in. There's little shade and no concessions, so wear a broad-brimmed hat and bring plenty of bottled water. But you can sit behind home plate, the best seat in the house, and watch potential future major leaguers without charge.

The Rockets charge $7 per game. The NXBL plays only on Saturday nights but their schedule runs through October 2. As you can see in this video, the Double Diamond Baseball format results in baseball action you've never seen before. I especially recommend the NXBL for left-handers, because you can finally rejoice in seeing how baseball would have been played if we lefties dominated the population.

The Manatees also charge $7 per game, or $5 for military and students with an I.D. Their schedule runs through Labor Day. Knowing hot it is during Space Coast summers, I've always thought it's a better deal to spend evenings at Space Coast Stadium to enjoy Nature's air conditioning instead of running up your electric bill at home.

For the next four months, the baseball scene will be hot in Brevard. Literally, and figuratively.