JetHawks eye season's biggest prize

Because of an electrical fire at Lake Elsinore, all three of the Storm-Stampede playoff games will be played at San Bernardino.

By BRIAN GOLDEN
Valley Press Staff Writer

And the Lancaster JetHawks aren't far behind.

This year, though, after an outof-this-world regular season, there's one big piece of unfinished business: the California League playoffs.

So landlords, accustomed to returning security deposits, are instead working out different kinds of transactions.

Say, two more weeks rent for two tickets behind the JetHawks dugout for Friday night's Southern Division championship series opener at The Hangar?

"We've had a great season, but now we want to go and and get this ultimate goal and win the whole thing," said JetHawks outfielder Harvey Hargrove, who stayed on in September a year ago as a member of the California Fall League champion Lancaster Stealth. "This has been such a great group of guys from Day One in spring training, we all want to win it for each other.

"I talked to a couple of guys on the teams we've been playing, and they're ready to go home. But us, we've worked hard all year for this, and we're going to stay until it's finished."

By virtue of their 89-51 record, one of the best in minor league baseball this season, the JetHawks earned a first-round bye and home field advantage throughout the California League postseason.

They will meet the winner of the Lake Elsinore-San Bernardino best-of three qualifier in a best-offive series for the Southern Division title beginning Friday night.

After taking Labor Day off, hitting instructor Dana Williams and pitching coach Scott Budner put the Jethawks through a two-hour twilight workout at The Hangar Tuesday.

"This doesn't come around very often," said Budner, who estimated he was only involved in one minor league championship in his own career. "This is for the ring. These guys have earned this opportunity by how hard they have worked day in and day out this season."

With the California League's best hitting team, its MVP (Juan Silvestre), Rookie of the Year (Willie Bloomquist), Manager of the Year (Mark Parent) and four of the league's eight positional all-stars, Lancaster projected as a solid favorite to give the Seattle Mariners their first California League championship since an affiliation in Bakersfield in 1987.

But don't tell that to Budner. Or his players.

"There is no complacency in the program here," said the Lancaster pitching coach. "We didn't get to this point by taking anything for granted. We got here by working hard each day, and that approach is not going to change."

Lancaster is bidding for the first minor league baseball championship in Los Angeles County since the Los Angeles Angels won the 1956 Pacific Coast League (PCL) championship.

To Bo Robinson, there is much more operative recent history to consider.

Robinson, Silvestre, Craig Kuzmic and several other JetHawks were with the 1999 Wisconsin Timber Rattlers who lost a hard-fought Midwest League championship series to Burlington (Iowa) in five games.

"The biggest thing we've got to do is make up for what we didn't do last year," said the Cal League's all-star third baseman. "Wisconsin came up one game short and a lot of those guys are on this team.

"We want to get a ring."

Uploaded September 6, 2000