Cowlitz Black Bears
We cross the Washington border to David Story Field in Longview, home of the Cowlitz Black Bears, a member of the collegiate West Coast League. They take on the five-time defending WCL champs, the Corvallis Knights. And I get to throw out the first pitch!
The afternoon had turned cool and gloomy when Dad and I arrived at David Story Field, home of the West Coast League (WCL) Cowlitz Black Bears. The league is one of the dozens of collegiate summer wood-bat leagues across the country that feature players who are still in college and might be planning a run at a professional career. They hone their skills against quality talent using big-league lumber instead of aluminum bats.
The WCL is easily the top collegiate summer league in the western United States. It grew to 16 teams in 2022, spreading its range from the Eugene area in Oregon to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, to Edmonton in the center of Alberta. Its athletes play college baseball at primarily western schools, from small community colleges to Pac-12 elites like Oregon State and Stanford.
David Story Field sits on the campus of Lower Columbia Community College, where Bud Black (former Major League pitcher and current Colorado Rockies manager) played for two collegiate seasons. It was remodeled for the Bears 2010 inaugural season and now sports a turf infield to go with its grass outfield.
The Black Bears share the same owner (lawyer and real estate developer Tony Bonacci) and front office with the neighboring Ridgefield Raptors, another member of the WCL. It is a model for stability found elsewhere in the league — in eastern Washington, where the Yakima Valley Pippins and Walla Walla Sweets are both owned by Pacific Baseball Ventures; and on Vancouver Island, where the the Victoria HarbourCats and Nanaimo NightOwls have the same managing partner, Jim Swanson.
Cowlitz has had fairly limited competitive success, making the WCL playoffs just once, in 2012. Attendance has typically averaged only 500-600 a night, last in the league. But the talent in the WCL makes most games worth watching. In fact, the Black Bears have one of the biggest claims to fame of any collegiate team in the country: alumni and 2020 Cy Young Award Winner Shane Bieber, who played for Cowlitz in 2014 while attending UC Santa Barbara. And this year’s squad was managed by Alan Embree, who pitched for 10 different teams in 16 Major League seasons.
A little after we arrived, I met Gavin Manheimer, an operations and sales associate for the team. When he heard about our trip six weeks earlier, Gavin had offered to let me throw out the first pitch for our opening game. We had a quick chat and discussed first-pitch logistics, then he went off to tend to business. I walked over to the visitors’ dugout for a look at the five-time defending WCL champions, the Corvallis Knights.
Soon enough, it was time for me to walk out onto the field. This first pitch was so much more than a light-hearted, ceremonial baseball toss to me. This was my chance at redemption after bouncing my first-ever first pitch the previous year in Gastonia, North Carolina, in front of Charlotte’s Fox46 TV news crew and everything. That first pitch had haunted my nighttime thoughts ever since. I had seriously overestimated my ability to throw off the mound the way I had 40 years earlier. In the middle of my confident stride toward the plate, I had a slow-motion realization that I had been far too confident and now seemed to be tumbling toward the earth like a middle-aged cement building. I remember being surprised to be looking down at the mound and not home plate, so I whipped my head up in an attempt to reacquire the catcher, Gastonia Hitting Coach Chuck Stewart. But it was too late. My body could not answer the call. My pitch came so far from reaching the plate, I actually may have thrown a strike on the bounce.
This time, I was ready. I had played catch with my son a few weeks earlier. I had stretched out in the hotel. I reminded myself to keep my weight back, take a short step, and get a nice, high release point. The public address announcer called me out to the mound, and thankfully, I threw it over the plate — a little high to be a strike, but still the old pop of a catcher’s glove, and a small bit of restored dignity.
Our first game got underway. The Black Bears starting pitcher was Carson Angeroth, from Umpqua Community College, who found himself in trouble early against the perennial league favorites. Angeroth gave up two walks, then two singles. Toss in an error, and Corvallis was up 3-0 in the top of the first.
Jaden Harris of the University of Utah took the mound for the Knights and looked good early, sailing through the first two innings.
I took a walk down the left-field line toward the team store, a tent set up near the concessions stand, and found my first of many new hats.
Next it was time for a little food. Cowlitz has a modest menu of standard ballpark favorites. A brat and a good beer did the trick — especially the good beer.
Cowlitz pushed across single runs in the third and fourth innings with a sacrifice fly and a fielder’s choice, but it was enough to finish the day for Harris with two outs in the fourth. Angeroth, meanwhile, had settled down nicely for Cowlitz and would pitch through the fifth, giving up just two more hits after his rough first inning.
And that’s when Corby the Bear came through the stands with a high-powered squirt gun and pure menace in his eyes.
When he had completed his reign of terror, Corby awarded a free pizza to a lucky fan and presided over a few kids competitions between innings. Still. Maybe keep an eye on this Corby fella.
The sun made a late, golden-hour appearance at David Story Field, spilling shadows across the diamond and casting a light glow over our summertime ritual.
I headed back down the left-field line to get a closer look at the Bob’s Sporting Goods Party Deck. Next to it is the Cowlitz bullpen, on the other side of the short left-field fence. During the game, Knights left-fielder Logan Johnstone saved a home run at the short fence and tumbled head-over-heels into the bullpen.
The bats went quiet for both teams. The four relievers who followed the two starters gave up a total of just one hit over the next few innings. Corvallis tacked on an unearned run in the eighth.
The Black Bears went down 1-2-3 in the final two innings, and Corvallis took the game 4-2. It was looking to be another strong year for the Knights, who we would visit a couple of weeks later.
We’re always rooting for the home team on these trips, but it had been a competitive game and a terrific first night of our journey. One ballpark down, 15 to go.