Cal, Stanford prepare for pandemic baseball seasons

After the 2020 season got shuttered in early March because of the coronavirus pandemic and after an offseason full of uncertainty — including whether there even would be a 2021 season — simply going through practices this month has been a balm for Stanford head coach David Esquer and his players.

“It’s as near normal when we’re on the baseball field,” Esquer said in a phone interview. “Maybe that’s why it’s so therapeutic to be there. You feel like it’s what you have known and are used to.

“Maybe that’s that little oasis away from life the way it is.”

Of course, life the way it is certainly affects college baseball. Many teams, including Cal, begin their seasons Friday. The Bears have held workouts in cohorts, but have not had their full team together ahead of the opener against Pacific.

“The first time we’ll have everybody together will be on Friday,” Cal head coach Mike Neu said in a Zoom news conference.

Neither Cal nor Stanford held their typical “fall ball” programs. The Cardinal did not get on the field until early this month, so Stanford canceled what would have been its seasonopening series this weekend against Cal State Fullerton.

“We just weren’t going to be ready,” Esquer said. Stanford instead will get under way Thursday in the opener of a fourgame series against Santa Clara.

Like most teams, the Cardinal and Bears have made major alterations to their schedules beyond Pac12 games.

“We’ve essentially changed every single game in our nonconference schedule,” Neu said.

Out are crosscountry trips. Cal was supposed to open at No. 1 Florida, play in a tournament in Minnesota and host Connecticut. Stanford had planned to face North Carolina in Chapel Hill and host St. John’s.

In are games against California teams. On their website, the Bears list 24 of an allowable 26 nonconference games, all of which will take place in Northern California against instate teams. Stanford’s website lists only nine nonconference games (all against instate teams), but Esquer said more will be added pending approval from the university.

Major League Baseball’s decision to trim last year’s draft from 40 rounds to five altered the makeup of this season’s college rosters. Cal almost assuredly would have lost second baseman Darren Baker, a preseason thirdteam AllAmerica selection by Baseball America, and Quentin Selma, a powerhitting corner infielder, to pro ball after their junior years.

Instead, Baker and Selma are back as seniors.

Esquer figured five of his seniors — infielder Nick Brueser, outfielder Christian Robinson, utilityman Tim Tawa and pitchers Brendan Beck (brother of Giants pitching prospect Tristan Beck) and Jacob Palisch — would be in the minors now “if the draft were even 15 rounds.”

Esquer, who played shortstop on Stanford’s College World Serieswinning team in 1987, spent 18 seasons (200017) as Cal’s head coach. He led the Bears to the CWS in 2011, the year in which the program was going to be eliminated before an alumni fundraising effort kept it intact.

Those experiences, Esquer believes, should help him navigate a season in which the pandemic remains front and center.

“Baseball is a great trainer for this, right?” Esquer said. “I tell (the players) often baseball itself has brought me to my knees more than once as a player or as a coach.

“You know, I lived through getting a program cut as a head coach. There’s no playbook or manual to get through that.”