Even amid a pandemic, the Yuba-Sutter Gold Sox hold onto a season and storied history
Baseball lives on here because of its indomitable spirit.
Bats, gloves, players, peanuts and patrons are as much of the regional slice of life in Yuba and Sutter counties as its agriculture.
The old park on C Street in Marysville has been revamped and rebuilt over the years, with home plate moved from one end of the park to the other. The field is a relay throw away from Ellis Lake and the metallic, glistening water tower that hovers beyond the center field fence.
This setting holds a lot of the charm of eras past with outfield sponsor signage and the yellowish lights that illuminate the Yuba-Sutter Gold Sox summer collegiate wood-bat league. The 1940s big-band music from the speakers is fitting.
“We’ve had baseball here in one form for 140 years, a long, long time,” said John Cassidy, a front-office man of many hats and duties for the Gold Sox. “Baseball means everything to a lot of people here. We didn’t want to lose any of that.”
That there are actual live games here is a testament to the club’s ownership group and the theme of, “play ball!”
It has been a lost summer of baseball with the coronavirus pandemic, canceling everything from Little League to all levels of minor league ball across the country before anyone even threw out a first pitch. Not here. With clearance from Yuba and Sutter county health officials and in adhering to every safety measure with masks and more, the Gold Sox are in the midst of a season that nearly wasn’t.
The Gold Sox have a reduced schedule, with many opponents closing down seasons. Only 100 fans are allowed into the 4,000-seat stadium per game, meaning a crushing loss for the financial bottom line. But this mandate ensures a season heavy on social distancing.
“We found a way to make it happen with political will, a community will,” said Marysville mayor Ricky A. Samayoa, peering down at the action from the press box during Thursday night’s contest against the Lincoln Potters, a team from Placer County that also found a way to have a season. “This town is gritty, a lot of pride, because we take care of each other. Even tonight, you see the silver fox fans, old timers, and their bells. There are fans that peek through the fence because they love baseball, need baseball.”
Thursday’s scene was something out of baseball Americana, a small town embracing the game, and the game embracing the town right back. It makes the description of this park and setting described decades ago by the local paper the Appeal-Democrat all the more applicable — “The center of the baseball universe.”
That quote was rooted to the time Babe Ruth swatted two home runs in a barn-storming stop-over at the Marysville venue in 1927, then eating like a king at downtown eateries.
“The history here is amazing,” said Tom Linegar, one of the club owners who doubles as an attorney. “A lot of great memories for a lot of people here. We did everything we could to get this season in. Parks are open, and this is a park setting. We jumped on that, and here we are.”
Family feel in Marysville
The Gold Sox game manager/coach is Brock Stassi. The family name is a household one in this region, including the Stassi 4th Ward Tavern, a Marysville staple since 1870.
Stassi’s great grandfather, grandfather, father and brothers all played on the Marysville field. Some played pro ball. Some even reached the major leagues, including Brock. He was with the San Francisco Giants in 2019 before a wrist surgery shelved his season. He was with the Oakland A’s in spring training this year when the pandemic stalled the start of the campaign.
Feeling a need to remain in the game but not willing to wait for it at the big-league level, Stassi jumped at the chance to coach the Gold Sox. He has visions of managing pro ball.
“It’s been a great experience, but there have been plenty of challenges with the virus,” Stassi said. “It speaks volumes of what the owners did to make it happen, to give us and the players and this town some sort of normalcy in these tough times.”
Stassi’s third-base coach earlier this Gold Sox season was brother Max, who bowed out of that role to report to work duty with the Angels as a catcher. But Stassi has retained the services of father, Jim, who coached the Stassi brothers at Yuba City High.
Jim mows the Gold Sox grounds and throws batting practice. He can’t get enough of this sport and venue, either.
“I wish our team could experience a normal summer of ball here, with the post-game fireworks and big crowds, but at least we have something — a season,” Brock Stassi said. “I tell our players all the time to appreciate any part of the game they can right now.”
The Gold Sox roster includes players from Sacramento, Yuba, Sutter and Placer counties with college experience at local community colleges and at Sacramento State and UC Davis. For the first time, no players stayed with host families, another effort to enforce distancing.
Real-time history is happening
The Marysville Baseball Club of the early 1900s was a roster made up of those who worked in the mills or farms. Some were lawyers and accountants. The game extracted the boy out of the men, and they roughed it in travel.
Teams traveled throughout Northern California by train, trolley cars or the “you’ll feel it in the morning” means of horse and buggy.
On Aug. 7, 1921, the Marysville Merchants semipro team arrived in a fleet of Model T autos to the Friesley Field airport in nearby Gridley for an 80-mile flight to Woodland. It took 43 minutes and everyone’s ears hurt for days.
That was the first flight for any baseball team in the country, ever. That flight information and photo is displayed in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
But the real fun played out on Oct. 24, 1927, weeks after the World Series that included the famed Murder’s Row, deep-ball Yankees.
For $1, fans could pack 2,000 strong into the Marysville park to watch the barnstorming team of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. The “Bustin’ Babe” Larrupins defeated Gehrig’s team 9-7 in a day game. Both stars hit two home runs.
Wrote the Appeal-Democrat a short time later, “The day Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig came to town, stores were closed when it appeared that every employee’s grandmother had become ill and needed bedtime attention.” Local officials called for schools to have the day off to allow children a chance to get to the ballpark. By the dozens, they stood on top of the dugouts to get a peek at Ruth and Gehrig.
Ruth and Gehrig traveled the West Coast on that tour, including a stop in Sacramento, to help drum up interest in the sport well before any Major League teams arrived in Los Angeles or San Francisco.
Jackie Robinson in 1948 played on an All-Star team at Marysville’s Bryant Field against a Yuba-Sutter semi-pro team. Robinson had a hit in two at-bats in the 11-6 loss.
The Gold Sox name honors the Yuba-Sutter regions, counties separated by a river. The area in the 1840s was deemed the “Gateway to the Gold Fields” during the gold rush. Baseball here has gone from semi-pro to independent leagues to college kids swinging wood for the first time after a life of welding aluminum bats.
The stadium was revamped in 1999 with new seats and bleachers and the wood-bat league started in 2003.
Today’s climate
It was 98 degrees at first pitch on Thursday against Lincoln.
There were masks but no dour faces. It was baseball. Masks, a temperature check and a signed waiver at the entry gate did not dull anyone’s spirit. The beers were cold, the hot dogs savory.
“I love this because it’s baseball, and baseball is part of any part of this country, and we need it,” said Mary Evans, seated down behind home plate.
Cassidy, the man of many Gold Sox duties, said he has been moved by the spirit of fans.
“We’ve probably upset more people than we’ve pleased this summer because we can only get 100 people in here,” Cassidy said. “Hurts to do that, but we have to.”
Added Mayor Samayoa, “It’s no fun wearing a mask when it’s this hot, but it’s OK to have a bite of your hot dog and a sip of that beer with the mask pulled down. We can still enjoy the place. This game, this place, it’s a big part of who we are.”
This story was originally published July 12, 2020 at 5:00 AM.