{"id":71007,"date":"2014-01-16T12:24:52","date_gmt":"2014-01-16T17:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=71007"},"modified":"2014-01-17T11:52:50","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T16:52:50","slug":"on-a-balmy-winter-day-the-boys-of-summer-take-to-garcelon-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2014\/01\/16\/on-a-balmy-winter-day-the-boys-of-summer-take-to-garcelon-field\/","title":{"rendered":"On a balmy winter day, the boys of summer take to Garcelon Field for some baseball"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Weather Underground reporting station near campus said yesterday’s high temperature was 48.7 degrees. A week before, it was 22. The big swing suited these Bobcat baseball players who gleefully took to Garcelon Field for an informal practice.<\/p>\n

\"Bates<\/a>

Bates ballplayers pause during an informal practice on Garcelon Field. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

“It’s unbelievably warm,” said Sam Maliska ’15, third from left, a 6-3 righthanded pitcher from Palo Alto, Calif. “I love being out here with the boys.”<\/p>\n

The Californian knows what Mainers know: The fun of a warm winter day is the surprise factor. “It’s unexpected,” he said. “Might as well take advantage of it while we can.”<\/p>\n

The college’s Facility Services staff keeps the FieldTurf surface of Garcelon Field clear from snow during the winter semester so anyone can relish a bit of green space\u00a0\u2014 even if the grass blades are polyethylene fibers and the ground is made of silica sand and rounded bits of cryogenic rubber.<\/p>\n

The jaunty informality of Phyllis Graber Jensen’s photo made me think of this photo from the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library that we ran in Bates Magazine<\/em> a few years ago.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The 1892 Bates baseball team, which posted a 7\u20131 record en route to the state title. (Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)<\/p><\/div>\n

The photo shows the 1892 team, which posted a 7\u20131 record en route to the state title. That year\u2019s stars included left fielder William Putnam 1892 (mustachioed, seated). A slugger who hit a team-leading four home runs, Putnam was 5 feet, 11 1\/2 inches and 165 pounds \u2014 somewhat burly in a senior class whose men averaged 5-10 and 151 pounds. (Believe it or not, graduates’ height and weight used to be included in The Bates Student.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Not so long ago, the only venue for winter baseball at Bates was indoors in the Gray Athletic Building. The dirt floor became a synthetic floor when the building was renovated in 1992 as a multipurpose space for events, recreation and athletics. Below are a couple photos of indoor baseball in the cage in the 1950s.<\/p>\n

\"Head

Head coach Chick Leahey ’52 demonstrates bunting technique during a practice in Gray Athletic Building in the 1950s. (Muskie Archives and Special Collection Library)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Unidentified<\/a>

Unidentified baseball players pose for a photo in Gray Athletic Building in the 1950s. (Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I love being out here with the boys,” says Sam Maliska ’15, a 6-3 righthanded pitcher from Palo Alto, Calif.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":71008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[24,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-enewsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71007"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71018,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71007\/revisions\/71018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}