Batter Up for Baja Ha-Ha XXVII

Holy smokes, it’s only four and a half months to the start of Baja Ha-Ha XXVII! That means it’s only a little bit longer until the grand Cruisers versus Turtle Bay Kids baseball game.

The Cruisers versus Kids game is played the way baseball always should have been played — nonstop action, women and children rarely ever getting called out, and parties in the outfield. There were so many people in the on-deck circle it had to become a 50-person-long line. The Grand Poobah has faced over 7,899 batters over the years, and still hasn’t struck one out. So he’s working on a behind-the-back knuckler.

One of the beauties of the game is that it’s played in Ha-Ha Stadium, home to the only green you’ll see along the entire coast of Baja. It’s AstroTurf, but so what?

The Grand Poobah has a favor to ask of every entrant: If you can, please bring along a bit of baseball equipment that we can leave behind for the kids. It can be anything, and it doesn’t have to be new. In some years we’ve been able to pass out thousands of dollars’ worth of gear, including pitching machines, bats, balls, gloves, hats … anything and everything is appreciated.

After the game we line the kids up; young ladies, some of whom are under 5, are first to choose what they want. One year the first little girl, having her choice of some fabulous new and in some cases expensive gear, chose a pair of socks. It was really cute.

With Mark and Carli McKinney signing up their San Jose-based Privilege 49 catamaran Arkouda just the other day, we’re now up to 134 entries. Assistant Poobah Patsy ‘La Reina del Mar’ reports that entries are running about 30 ahead of previous years, so we’ll be having a healthy fleet.

If you’re interesting in learning more about the Ha-Ha, or signing up, visit www.baja-haha.com. We sure hope to be sailing south with you.

(To the best of our knowledge, all photos in this post were taken by Fin Bevin.)