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Article: Diamond dreams: minor-league baseball in the Central Valley is a big-time hit.(Classic West)(California's Visalia Oaks)(related article: The valley of baseball)
- Article from:
- Sunset
- Article date:
- June 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Sunset Publishing Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"This is a simple game," says the manager in the movie Bull Durham, distilling baseball to its essence. "You throw the ball. You hit the ball. You catch the ball."
It's a perspective that's easy to lose in a world where major-league ballparks have swimming pools and steam-locomotive replicas, hotels, and art galleries, where stadiums are named for banks and beers, tech companies, and Ted Turner. Pony up $50 million, and they might even name one after you. Even the minor leagues have gotten more gussied up with their scaled-down yet state-of-the-art throwback parks.
And then there's the simplicity of a Visalia Oaks game--just baseball in a ballpark with ...