The Popcorn Stand: Lost in the wilderness without WNC baseball

I feel like a lost soul wandering around in the wilderness. I know the World Championship of Professional Football, otherwise known as the Super Bowl, is still going to be played a week from Sunday in February (something I’m still trying to get used to).

But during this time of year my mind wanders to the greatest game there is, baseball. Spring training is just around the corner, but there’s still something missing.

Western Nevada College baseball is missing.

WNC would have opened another season this weekend had the program not been disbanded after the 2016 season. This Popcorn Stand won’t be used to rehash what happened. What’s done is done. A difficult decision was made to disband WNC baseball and I understand that.

But I loved that program. So I’m a lost soul wandering around in the wilderness. It doesn’t matter the baseball team would have likely been in Arizona or Las Vegas this weekend. That the first home games wouldn’t have likely been for several weeks, maybe not even until March.

It didn’t matter I had to wait several weeks to attend my first WNC baseball game. WNC baseball was playing. Somewhere. And that’s all that mattered.

I’ll miss my discussions with WNC coach D.J. Whittemore on the finer points of baseball. Whenever I disagreed with him, he always convinced me otherwise, bringing me to his point of view. Except once.

I will always maintain the first hit of a game — any game from Little League to the Major Leagues — should be a clean hit as to not break up the potential for a no-hitter.

Whittemore is just one of many people associated with WNC baseball I’ll miss and my discussions with Whittemore is just one of about a hundred things I’ll miss about WNC baseball.

Life goes on. And I’ll move on. But for now, I’m still a lost soul wandering around in the wilderness.

— Charles Whisnand