Big games in small packages

I got off I-5 to catch a few innings of Sunday afternoon California League baseball, the Stockton Ports and the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes at the nice new waterfront ballpark. For $10 I sat in row 3 behind the plate, watched future Oakland Athletics blast future Angels, and was in such a relaxed mood that I didn't strangle the leather-lunged ump-baiter over my shoulder.

Leaving in the sixth inning to get back on the road, I saw people walking into the modern, compact arena beyond the left-field corner. A hockey game, I figured out. The Stockton Thunder vs. ... who?

For the first time in my life, I bought a ticket without knowing what exactly it was for. It turned out to be the Thunder trying to stave off playoff elimination against the Las Vegas Wranglers. For $13, I was 20 rows from the ice, on a blue line, watching the Thunder chase the Wranglers goalie with four goals in the first 8:17, in a game Stockton won easily.

Stockton has a baseball team, a hockey team, an arena football team, an indoor soccer team and a county-fair horse track among its professional franchises.

The woman next to me at the hockey game said, obviously, the connection between teams and town is more intimate than in big cities. She named her dog Huxley, in honor of the Thunder's scrappy left winger Adam Huxley. When Adam heard about it, he arranged for the two Huxleys to be photographed together for the newspaper.

She said the indoor soccer team isn't catching on with the fans. Of course, the excuse is the same in Stockton as for struggling sports ventures in L.A.: There's just way too much going on.

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