Barstow Sports Blog

Barstow High School pitcher Aaron Sanchez played in the AFLAC All-American High School Baseball Classic on August 16 in San Diego. Sanchez was one of 40 players, most of whom are entering their final year of high school, selected for the event. He helped the West team to a 4-4 tie against the East.

The game included talent such as Bryce Harper, who has earned national praise for his play as a sophomore at Las Vegas High School and attention for landing on the cover of Sports Illustrated in June. He was selected for the game because he is planning to obtain his GED and play for the College of Southern Nevada this upcoming season.

Sanchez took the mound in the fourth inning, faced five batters, allowed one run and struckout one batter.

Family and friends gave him a loud reception once he took the mound.

His family printed and sold more than 100 “Sanchez” T-shirts for the game.

The West took an early 2-0 lead, but the East came back to take a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning.

The West tied the game in the 9th, the teams traded runs in the 10th and the game ended in a tie due to predetermined rules.

Following the game, Sanchez signed autographs for fans around the West dugout.

Can you believe we’re already 1/6th of the way through 2009?

Neither can we.

As we enter March, our 2008 year in review podcast is finally ready to go. Even though we already have a couple of solid candidates for stories and games of the year for 2009, a promise is a promise. We were not about to not get this thing up.

We hit some major technical snags and then time restrictions in getting this up. The final step was getting the files hosted somewhere. It turned out be a long podcast, so there were some challenges there, which is why you see it in so many pieces. Finally, we found the site webng.com to host the podcast.

Again, we apologize for the delay. I hope people get some use and enjoyment out of listening to it.

On the podcast, which was recorded on New Year’s Eve, you’ll hear Sports Editor Matthew Peters and photographer Steve Saenz discuss 2008’s sports stories and games of the year for Barstow and the surrounding areas.

First the 10 best stories …

And finally, the 10 best games.

Phew … it feels good to finally get 2008 off our back.

A promise is a promise, and the podcast will be up eventually.

We continue to hit problem after problem, and each potential solution just sends us down another unending road. Trust us, we had no idea getting a podcast together would be this hard in 2009 but for us it has been. If anyone’s still sitting on the edge of their seat for this podcast, come down to the Desert Dispatch offices and we’ll play it for you straight from our computers (how Web -2.0 of us, right?). Until then, we’re still trying to find the best way to get it on the ‘Nets.

In the meantime, we’ve put together a little poll where you can vote for your favorite story of the year. Click here if you need a little more info to make up your mind.

As you may have noticed, the podcast isn’t quite up yet. This is the first time the Desert Dispatch is attempting a podcast (I know, we’re like three years behind the times), and it appears we’ve hit a few snags.

Rest assured, the audio has been recorded, and we’re just trying to figure out how to get it to the blog now.

We’re hoping those will be resolved soon. Until then, Happy New Year!

The podcast we promised in the newspaper will be up soon! Hang in there!

During the year we take a lot of photos … thousands. Many aren’t good enough to print but quite a few are. These photos just never see the light of day for various reasons.

Until now.

Here’s a selection (that’s right there’s even more) of what we didn’t print in 2008.

A curse was lifted on Tuesday evening. The curse of coverage by David Heldreth.
The West Barstow Junior Division All-Star team won 8-4 over Sunset on Tuesday to advance to the Sectional tournament in Rialto. They are the first little league team to get a win that I have followed out of Barstow.
Already this year I traveled to Richardson Park in Adelanto and witnessed two losses for West Barstow’s Major Division All-Star team. The team was undefeated in the tournament prior to my arrival defeating Victorville American and Spring Valley Lake.
The majority of the Major Division team was part of the 2005-06 11-year-old team that extended their season all the way to the Divisional tournament. They won several games last year including away games in Alta Loma for the Section 7 tournament. That was until I followed them to the Divisional tournament in Norwalk. They then fell in two straight games to be eliminated from the tournament. They lost 8-5 to Rancho Buena Vista and 8-2 to Long Beach.
I only hope that the curse is lifted permanently.

-David Heldreth, sports reporter