Grow Up California!

I remember playing American Legion Ball and traveling from Redding, with John Strohmayer and Bill Plummer, future major leaguers, to play Sacramento opponents.

The word was that Sacramento had great baseball talent. I remember the Sacramento team had little regard for the rubes from Redding.

I remember we surprised them and beat them!

Of course we had major league talent; like they did. I was a major football athlete, there were players who went on to Santa Clara, Fresno State etc.

This was almost 50 years ago. Since then, the North State has exploded in people, and talent.

I just got back from attending a memorial fund raiser in the name of John Strohmayer. He was not only a great ball player, he was a great man; rising to School Superintendent.

Along the way he was a great baseball and basketball coach, winning the state championship one year…

Imagine, tiny high school, Central Valley, beating teams from the “big cities”….

IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME!

Sacramento has been treated that way by the Bay Area, missing the point that the inland cities have grown hugely over the past 75 years.

It is time Sacramento got a Major League Baseball team, it already has a major league Basketball team (the Kings). Football also!

CSU Sacramento could rise to a D-5 state in football, basketball and baseball (plus track etc). CSUS Sacramento has rising to high levels both athletically and academically!

We could make Sac State, Fresno State, San Diego State, San Jose State, etc to join Stanford and Berkeley in a new PAC 10 or 12…adding Oregon State, Oregon, Washington, Washington State etc.

Right now the AAC has destroyed the PAC 12, leaving in a sense the Pacific states in the same predicament that California cities like Sacramento left without major sports teams. We are leaving out what amounts to the most prolific athletic talent IN THE COUNTRY!

We are living with basically a 21st century sports approach in the 22st century!

It is time to grow up!