Hello California. We finally made it.

Today was the first stop on our two-week stint of California, and there was no better place to start than Bakersfield. Sam Lynn Ballpark is one of the only (if not the only) ballparks that face directly west into the sun. Why is this such a big deal? Because the batters are staring right into the sun as they face oncoming pitches, making it virtually impossible to see the ball. For that reason, all of the Blaze games start after the sun sets each night. It has a bunch of other interesting quirks—the center field wall is the shortest in all of professional baseball, just 354 feet to straightaway center. The dugouts are located around 80 feet from each side of home plate, making for quite a long walk back to the dugout after you strike out. On the flip side, you can stare down the pitcher after you smoke a homerun to dead center for a good 10 seconds.

Tom, Steve and the rest of the staff were great—and special thanks to Jill for serving us food tonight! We were interviewed tonight for the Bakersfield 29 news, and I assume at some point we were on the local nightly news. It was a good start to our long journey in California.

Before the game, we had a chance to try out the batting cages located in the parking lot of Sam Lynn Ballpark. For just 50 cents, you get to hit 13 balls. Chris shot a video of me swinging a bat for the first time in almost 10 years—the shoulder-dropping needs some work.