2017 Bakersfield Train Robbers Season Recap - The Train Robbers Find Their Home at Sam Lynn Ballpark
The 2017 season marked the beginning of a new era of professional baseball in Bakersfield, California.
When affiliated Minor League Baseball left Bakersfield following the 2016 season, historic Sam Lynn Ballpark suddenly found itself without a professional baseball tenant.
The Bakersfield Blaze were gone. The California League had contracted, and affiliated baseball also disappeared from nearby High Desert after the departure of the High Desert Mavericks.
The Pecos League saw an opportunity.
For the 2017 season, the Bakersfield Train Robbers arrived at Sam Lynn Ballpark and began a relationship with the city that would ultimately last far longer than anyone could have known at the time.
Under manager Bill Moore, the first Bakersfield Train Robbers team immediately became competitive, finished second in the Pecos League standings behind the Tucson Saguaros and qualified for the postseason in its first season at Sam Lynn.
The playoff matchup would be particularly appropriate.
Bakersfield would face High Desert in the first all-California playoff matchup in Pecos League history, renewing a geographic rivalry between two markets that had competed against one another for years in the California League.
Professional Baseball Remains in Bakersfield
The arrival of the Train Robbers was important because Bakersfield had just lost affiliated professional baseball.
For generations, professional baseball had been part of the summer landscape at Sam Lynn Ballpark.
The Bakersfield Blaze had most recently represented the city in the California League, but changes to the league following the 2016 season brought that era to an end.
Bakersfield and High Desert were both removed from the California League landscape.
Two longtime professional baseball markets suddenly had open stadiums and no affiliated teams.
The Pecos League moved quickly.
The Train Robbers brought independent professional baseball to Bakersfield for 2017 and took over Sam Lynn Ballpark.
It was an obvious fit.
Bakersfield already had a professional baseball facility, generations of baseball history and fans familiar with attending games at Sam Lynn.
The Pecos League had a team that needed a permanent home.
The Train Robbers had finally found one.
Bill Moore Leads the First Bakersfield Team
The responsibility for leading the first Train Robbers club in Bakersfield went to Bill Moore.
Moore was already one of the most recognizable managers in the Pecos League and brought experience to a franchise attempting to establish itself in a new market.
The transition was successful almost immediately.
Bakersfield didn't spend its first season simply trying to survive.
The Train Robbers won.
Throughout the summer, Bakersfield established itself as one of the strongest teams on the schedule and remained near the top of the standings.
When the regular season ended, Tucson had finished first and Bakersfield finished second.
That meant the Train Robbers would play postseason baseball in their very first season at Sam Lynn Ballpark.
Jay Stout Leads the Bakersfield Offense
Jay Stout emerged as the leading hitter for the inaugural Bakersfield club.
Stout became a central part of an offense that helped the Train Robbers immediately establish themselves as a contender.
For a new team attempting to develop an identity in Bakersfield, players like Stout gave fans someone to follow throughout the summer and helped make the transition from affiliated baseball to the Pecos League successful on the field.
Stout's production helped Bakersfield finish second and put the Train Robbers into position to play for a championship in their first season in town.
Scot Hoffman and Garrett Alvarez Lead the Pitching Staff
The Train Robbers also received strong pitching from Scot Hoffman and Garrett Alvarez.
Hoffman and Alvarez emerged as the leading pitchers on the 2017 Bakersfield staff and helped give Moore the innings necessary to compete throughout the summer.
Their performances were especially important for a first-year team dealing with all of the challenges that came with establishing a new Pecos League operation.
Bakersfield had to build a roster, learn its new home and compete immediately.
Hoffman and Alvarez helped make that possible.
The Train Robbers weren't just bringing professional baseball back to Sam Lynn Ballpark.
They were bringing winning baseball back with it.
The First All-California Pecos League Playoff Series
Bakersfield's second-place finish created a playoff matchup filled with history.
The Train Robbers would face the High Desert Yardbirds.
It was the first all-California playoff matchup in Pecos League history.
But the Bakersfield-High Desert connection went much deeper than the Pecos League.
For years, Bakersfield and High Desert had been California League rivals.
The Bakersfield Blaze and High Desert Mavericks had competed against each other as affiliated minor league clubs.
Now, only one year after both markets lost affiliated baseball, they were facing each other again.
The uniforms were different.
The league was different.
But professional baseball was still being played in Bakersfield and Adelanto.
The old California League rivalry had been reborn in the Pecos League.
A True Home-and-Home Playoff Series
The playoff format made the matchup even more unusual.
Game 1 was played at Sam Lynn Ballpark in Bakersfield.
Game 2 was played at Mavericks Stadium in Adelanto.
It was a genuine home-and-home playoff series between two former California League markets.
For Bakersfield fans, Game 1 represented the first Pecos League playoff game at Sam Lynn Ballpark.
High Desert spoiled the occasion.
The Yardbirds defeated the Train Robbers in Bakersfield and took a 1-0 series lead.
The teams then headed to Adelanto for Game 2.
Bakersfield needed a victory to keep its inaugural season alive.
High Desert won again.
The Yardbirds completed the sweep and ended the first Bakersfield Train Robbers season.
It was a disappointing finish for a team that had finished second in the regular season, but Bakersfield had been eliminated by a club that was about to prove it was the best postseason team in the league.
High Desert Goes on to Win It All
The Yardbirds didn't stop after eliminating Bakersfield.
High Desert advanced and defeated the Tucson Saguaros, the team that had finished ahead of Bakersfield during the regular season.
The Yardbirds then continued into the Pecos League Championship and defeated the Roswell Invaders.
High Desert was the 2017 Pecos League Champion.
That gave Bakersfield's first playoff appearance some additional perspective.
The Train Robbers had not simply been eliminated by another playoff team.
Their inaugural Bakersfield season ended against the eventual league champions.
Two Former California League Cities Take Different Paths
The 2017 playoff series between Bakersfield and High Desert is especially interesting when viewed from a decade later.
At the time, the two organizations appeared to be following similar paths.
Both cities had lost affiliated California League baseball following the 2016 season.
Both welcomed Pecos League teams in 2017.
Both immediately fielded competitive clubs.
They met in the playoffs.
But after that, the paths of the two markets became very different.
High Desert won the 2017 championship, but its future in Adelanto was already becoming uncertain.
Mavericks Stadium was transitioning away from being primarily a baseball facility and toward soccer and entertainment uses, including reggae events.
The Yardbirds would play only one more season in High Desert.
The 2017 champions would soon disappear from Adelanto.
Bakersfield went the other direction.
The Train Robbers stayed.
Sam Lynn Ballpark Becomes the Train Robbers' Home
What initially began as the Pecos League filling a vacancy at Sam Lynn Ballpark developed into one of the league's longest-lasting relationships between a team and a city.
The Train Robbers continued playing in Bakersfield after 2017.
They returned in 2018.
They returned in 2019.
And year after year, Sam Lynn became increasingly identified with the Train Robbers.
The club eventually survived the COVID era, changing managers, changing rosters and the normal challenges of independent professional baseball.
By 2027, the Train Robbers were preparing for their 10th season of play in Bakersfield.
That longevity makes the decision to move the Train Robbers into Sam Lynn Ballpark in 2017 one of the most important moves in the history of the franchise.
One of Baseball's Most Unusual Homes
The Train Robbers also inherited one of the most distinctive ballparks in professional baseball.
Sam Lynn Ballpark is famous for facing west.
That unusual orientation puts the setting sun beyond the outfield and directly in the line of sight of hitters at home plate.
For decades, the problem affected the scheduling of Bakersfield baseball games.
Night games traditionally began late enough for the sun to disappear before pitchers began throwing toward home plate.
A massive steel and sheet-metal sun screen was eventually erected beyond the outfield, but even the enormous structure could not completely eliminate the problem.
The unusual configuration is rooted in the origins of the ballpark.
The field was developed inside the one-mile horse racing track at the original Kern County Fairgrounds, with the existing configuration helping determine the direction the baseball diamond faced.
What might have seemed like an inconvenience eventually became part of Sam Lynn's identity.
And beginning in 2017, it became part of the identity of the Bakersfield Train Robbers as well.
2017 Was Only the Beginning
The first Bakersfield Train Robbers team did not win a championship.
It finished second behind Tucson.
It lost both playoff games against High Desert.
Its season ended in Adelanto.
But judged from the perspective of what followed, the 2017 season was an enormous success.
Professional baseball remained alive at Sam Lynn Ballpark.
Bill Moore led Bakersfield into the playoffs in the club's first season.
Jay Stout led the offense.
Scot Hoffman and Garrett Alvarez led the pitching staff.
The Train Robbers participated in the first all-California playoff series in Pecos League history.
And Bakersfield established a permanent home that would shape the next decade of the franchise.
The Beginning of What Was to Come
Nobody watching the Train Robbers leave Adelanto after their 2017 playoff elimination could have known what the next decade would bring.
One year later, Bakersfield would win the 2018 Pecos League Championship, the only championship in Train Robbers history.
In 2019, the Train Robbers would return to the Pecos League Championship Series.
The club would survive the COVID era and return to the field.
Relly Mercurio would eventually become the winningest manager in franchise history.
New generations of players would arrive at Sam Lynn, use Bakersfield as a stepping stone and move on to other professional opportunities.
The Train Robbers would repeatedly qualify for the playoffs and become one of the Pecos League's most established franchises.
And Sam Lynn Ballpark would remain their home.
High Desert Won the Battle, Bakersfield Won the Test of Time
There is an interesting historical contrast between the two teams that met in that first California playoff series.
High Desert unquestionably won 2017.
The Yardbirds swept Bakersfield, defeated Tucson and then beat Roswell to become Pecos League Champions.
But the Yardbirds would only have one more season in Adelanto.
Bakersfield's story was just beginning.
The Train Robbers remained at Sam Lynn Ballpark and built something that lasted.
By 2027, a full decade after the inaugural Bakersfield season, professional baseball was still being played at Sam Lynn under the Train Robbers name.
That may ultimately be the greatest legacy of the 2017 season.
When the California League left, Bakersfield could have become another former minor league city with an empty ballpark and memories of what used to be there.
Instead, the Pecos League moved in.
The Train Robbers took the field.
Fans came to Sam Lynn.
Bakersfield finished second and immediately made the playoffs.
And a new era of professional baseball began.
The 2017 Train Robbers did not win the championship, but they accomplished something that proved even more important to the future of baseball in Bakersfield: they found a home.
Ten seasons later, that home is still Sam Lynn Ballpark.
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