Long Beach Coast Breeze Through First Spring Training Practice
On a cloudy Tuesday morning in mid-May, Long Beach’s only professional sports team, the Coast, opened its first-ever spring training.
Thirty-four players were seen stretching, warming up and laughing with one another at 9 a.m. while the coaches were giving pointers and taking off the tarps on Joe Hicks Memorial Field at Long Beach City College. Just a few miles south, the Coast will play its first home game at Blair Field on June 2.
This marked the first time media saw synergy between the players and coaches. Similarly, it’s the first time the coaches were able to see the players all together and begin preparing with the season opener one week away against the Yuba-Sutter Freebirds at Bryant Field.
They started with the basics — fielding groundballs, practicing pick-offs, swinging in the batting cage, all while the pitchers warmed up.
The loud, satisfying sounds of bats cracking and baseballs whooshing into gloves reverberated inside the stadium.
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