JJ SAYS: League tournaments mark the end of rivalries

Ordinarily, post-season tournaments don’t mean all that much. Their primary purpose is to provide competition for teams as they await the start of the North Coast Section playoffs. That wasn’t the case for the Sonoma County League and North Bay League baseball tournament finals last week.

Petaluma’s 14-1 win over Analy in the final of the SCL Tournament held particular significance. It was both historic and nostalgic.

The game was the last sporting event that will likely ever be played in the Sonoma County League. After 40 years of governing athletic competition for Redwood Empire teams, the SCL will now disintegrate. Analy, El Molino, Healdsburg, Piner and Elsie Allen will move into an expanded North Bay League. Petaluma and Sonoma Valley are moving into the newly created Vine Valley Athletic League, joining a grouping of mostly Napa teams.

Adding even more poignancy to a night of memories, both Petaluma and Analy were original members of the Sonoma County League. The rivalry between Analy and Petaluma stretches back for at least three generations and includes some of the most memorable athletic events ever played in the Redwood Empire.

In many ways, the rivalry reaches beyond the high schools back to the days when Sebastopol was the apple hub of Northern California and Petaluma, perhaps with just a bit of exaggeration, billed itself as the “Egg Capital of the World.” Teens from the two communities have a long history of not only athletic events, but sundry other high jinks that seem to grow with each telling.

It is exciting to think about a new league with new challenges and new places to play, but it is also sad to think about the end to rivalries like the one between Petaluma and Analy that stretch back nearly a half century.

At least Petaluma will still get to play a few games under the lights at Arnold Field, where the SCL baseball tournament is traditionally played, since Sonoma Valley’s Dragons will move with the Trojans to the new league. I’ve always enjoyed the visits to that historic park, with its lights and vehicle-dangerous parking lot. Besides, the Sonoma snack bar serves the best ribs - and this year, the best tater-tots - in the Redwood Empire.

It was equally fun to visit the spacious Santa Rosa Junior College diamond the next evening, where Casa Grande and Maria Carrillo resumed a much-less storied but equally intense rivalry.

That, too, will be gone next year as Casa joins Petaluma and Sonoma in the WCAL.

The Casa and Maria Carrillo rivalry is built not so much on tradition as on competitiveness. They are year-in and year-out among the top baseball teams in the Redwood Empire.

That competitiveness was magnified this year as Casa Grande was 19-7 on the season and won the league championship with a 12-2 reocrd. Maria Carrillo reached the 20-win plateau with a 20-6 mark and was second in the NBL with an 11-3 record. They split their league games, with Casa winning 3-2 at home and Maria Carrillo prevailing 5-2 in Santa Rosa.

Saturday’s contest was a great game, chock full of spectacular defensive plays, with Maria Carrillo coming out on top 4-2.

Casa Grande will receive the league championship pennant, but it hurt to lose the battle between the Redwood Empire diamond titans and, from the reaction of the giddy Pumas and their proud fans, it felt really good to be on the other side of the emotional ledger.

Too bad it’s over.

(Contact John Jackson at johnie.jackson@arguscourier.com)