Recently in Cal State San Bernardino Category

Updated with comment from Parks and Recreation chief Kevin Hawkins at 4:46 p.m. Monday.

By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO -- Cal State San Bernardino's men's baseball team is set to move its home games to Fiscalini Field, the city's historic diamond at Perris Hill Park.

The team has previously played at Arrowhead Credit Union Park, the south-of-downtown stadium that is also home to the Class A Inland Empire 66ers.

The deal, which comes with three options for one-year renewals, lets the Coyotes men's baseball team use the field from Dec. 26 through Dec. 25, 2010.

In return, the university must pay the city $17,500 per year, replace sideline and field fences, take charge of basic field maintenance, maintain the player's clubhouse and host two youth baseball clinics.

Cal State and city parks officials attempted to negotiate a deal in 2008 to let the Coyotes play ball at Fiscalini but were not able to complete an agreement in time for the 2009 collegiate baseball season.

"With essentially 1 1/2 years to work on the details, there were discussions and compromises ... that resulted in a solid agreement that allows for continued usage by all," parks director Kevin Hawkins wrote in an email.

Previously, the prospect of bringing the university team to Fiscalini alarmed members of recreational leagues who have also played ball at the Perris Hill Park stadium.

Art Solis, president of Inland Empire Pony Baseball, said Monday that his league "lucked out" and will have access to Fiscalini from May through mid-November under the current arrangement. Pony must also raise about $2,000 spruce up Fiscalini's concessions stand and press box.

"We're going to work together. It will be a good thing because the college will be giving back to the kids," Solis said, referring to the planned clinics.

Solis also said, however, that the deal is not so good for San Bernardino Adult Baseball, the other recreational league that has played at Fiscalini. He said the adult league will have to shorten its season.

Fiscalini Field was built in 1934 and named after San Bernardino High School baseball standout John Fiscalini. The field is also the former home stadium of the minor league San Bernardino Spirit, who counted future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. on their roster in 1988.

Cal State athletics officials could not be reached for comment Monday. The university was closed.

The Coyotes' first home game of the 2010 season is scheduled for Feb. 19 against the Sonoma State University Seawolves.

The screenwriter of "StarTrek: The Next Generation" and the 1978 animated film "The Lord of the Rings" will be at Cal State University San Bernardino on Thursday to discuss his work.

Peter S. Beagle will be at Cal State's Pfau Library at 7 p.m. in room PL-4005.

Beagle is best known as the author of "The Last Unicorn," as well as a screenwriter for the 1978 Ralph Bakshi animated film, "The Lord of the Rings," university officials said.

He has received many honors, including the Hugo Award, and the Inkpot Award in 2006, the Nebula Award and the Washington Science Fiction Association's Small Press Award in 2007.

His appearance will include a lecture, a question-and-answer period and he will sign autographs.

The event is open to the public and is free. Parking is $5.

melissa.pinion-whitt@inlandnewspapers.com

From the university's Web page:

New M.F.A. in creative writing offered at CSUSB
Jan. 7, 2008
By Sam Romero

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - Looking to fine tune the literary skills of future novelists and poets, the sole creative writing Master of Fine Arts program offered in San Bernardino County will launch at Cal State San Bernardino in fall 2009.

The new writing program is accepting applications through April 1, 2009. General applications for admission to the university run through March 1.

"The pool is deep and in need of tapping," said Jim Brown, the M.F.A. coordinator in fiction, speaking of students around the inland region - an area often stereotyped as a weak source of culture and talent. "We've placed students at UCR, UCI, Syracuse, University of Massachusetts and many other prestigious schools," he said. "Now it's time to keep our students local and give them a voice here at Cal State San Bernardino."

A two-year terminal studio arts degree, the M.F.A. program requires writers to choose a concentration in fiction or poetry and, by the end of the program, produce a publishable, book-length manuscript. The book requirement is pretty typical of an M.F.A. program, Brown said. "It's our thesis."

Untypical, however, is that the degree offers a teaching focus in composition, the "beef-steak" of part-time work in higher education, he said.

The five CSUSB faculty, including Brown, who will teach in the M.F.A. program are all nationally recognized writers. Brown's work includes essays, novels and short stories. His "L.A. Diaries" has been optioned for film by Art Monterastelli, producer and writer for "The Hunted" and his personal reflections on his mentor, writer Oakley Hall, who passed away in October and was instrumental in UC Irvine's graduate creative writing program, was recently published in Orange Coast Magazine.

Brown's colleagues, Kevin Moffett and Glen Hirshberg, also have been widely published. Moffett's writing has appeared in McSweeney's, Tin House and The Chicago Tribune, while Hirshberg has published two collections of stories and two books. Poets Julie Paegle and Juan Delgado round out the M.F.A. program's faculty team. Paegle has appeared in literary publications such as The Iowa Review, Ploughshares, Best New Poets and Prairie Schooner. Delgado has published several books of poetry, including "A Rush of Hands," which is in its second printing.

For more information on the M.F.A. in creative writing, call the CSUSB English department at (909) 537-5824.

For more information about Cal State San Bernardino, contact the university's Office of Public Affairs at (909) 537-5007 and visit the news Web site at http://news.csusb.edu.