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Summer love: for one long, sunny night every year, Fairbanks, Alaska, is the baseball capital of America.(KNOW IT ALL)
Fairbanks, Alaska, requires toughness. Living on the 65th parallel, you don't exactly spend time thinking about how the petunias are coming along. The average high temperature in January is 2-below. Extension cords dangle out of car grills, and most parking spaces are equipped with electrical outlets. That's because if you parked for a few hours during an Alaska winter without plugging in, your engine would become an Ice Pop.
Mother Nature hung a Keep Out sign here, and most of humanity listened. The population of Fairbanks, Alaska's third-largest city, is 30,000. That's a couple of city blocks in midtown Manhattan. But there's evidence that Alaskans are not daft. After all, even here, they find ways to play baseball.
In the early 1900s, on Alaska's southern tip, locals built a field on the tidal flats of Ketchikan Creek. When the tide was high, the field was underwater. At low tide, they played. In Barrow, on Alaska's northern tip, there's a field with a road through right field. The right fielder has the right of way on a batted ball. And in Fairbanks, on every summer solstice, they play the Midnight Sun game. It starts on June 21 and ends June 22, no lights allowed.
That was confusing for Chu Yuan-Chin, a 19-year-old Taiwanese outfielder for the Goldpanners, Fairbanks' entry in the Alaska Baseball League--a respected summer training ground for U.S. college players.
The Goldpanners have been the hosts of the game (first played in 1906) since 1960, and Chu soon learned he wasn't just adjusting to America--he was adjusting to Alaska. But when Goldpanners starter Chris Kissock threw his first pitch against Beatrice (Neb.) at Growden Memorial Park, it was 10:27 p.m. and sunny, with the temperature in the 50s. By the seventh-inning stretch, it was 11:43 and still sunny.
At 12:31, Chu fought fatigue and doubled in the bottom of the 10th to give the Goldpanners a 2-1 win. "It's weird," Chu says. "I never thought I'd play a day game that ends at 1 a.m. It was tough to see."
Tough. Exactly. The Midnight Sun game is baseball under any circumstances, even the ...
- Alaska beckons for Gloyd.
- Newspaper article from: Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, CA) April 10, 2007 700+ words
...manage the prestigious Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks, a summer...the highly respected Alaska Baseball League...very excited." The Goldpanners have won 70 percent...six NBC titles and 22 Alaska League championships...
- The "midnight sun" game; on Alaska's long sunny evenings, you can watch some...
- Magazine article from: Sunset June 1, 1986 700+ words
...Pilots and the Bucs. Fairbanks' Alaska Goldpanners were the 1985 state champions...for the pitch, a determined Alaska Goldpanner takes aim at home...to watch the home team, the Alaska Goldpanners, play hardball. This far north...
- June events calendar.(Alaska)
- Magazine article from: Alaska Business Monthly June 1, 2002 700+ words
...Regents Meeting The University of Alaska's Board of Regents will meet...wide variety of music performed by Alaska musicians. Presented by Fairbanks...needs artificial lighting? The Alaska Goldpanners face the Fairbanks team at this...
- The Day That Night Disappears; Summer Solstice Slides Into Alaska
- Newspaper article from: The Washington Post Tom Bell June 21, 1996 700+ words
...Friday to watch the Alaska Goldpanners play the Anchorage Bucs...stand and sing "The Alaska Flag Song." Although...it was too dark. The Goldpanners took the field. Taiwan...Bethel area in southwest Alaska, people are scattered...
- Interior tourism highlights. (Alaska)
- Magazine article from: Alaska Business Monthly Bostian, Kelly May 1, 1993 700+ words
...Fairbanks Fairbanks, the hub of the Interior and Alaska's second largest city, is located in the...the sky never really gets dark. Each year the Alaska Baseball League and the Alaska Goldpanners baseball team host a visiting team for the Midnight...
- For 99th season, Alaska ballplayers venture out in midnight sun.
- Newspaper article from: Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL) June 30, 2004 700+ words
...FAIRBANKS, Alaska _ As June 21...Fairbanks Goldpanners right-hander...1960, when the Goldpanners were founded...expand into the Alaska Baseball League...spent summers in Alaska. They honed skills with the Goldpanners and Oilers...
- Alaska Democratic Party.(Right Moves)
- Magazine article from: Alaska Business Monthly May 1, 2007 700+ words
Former Alaska Lt. Gov. H. A. "Red" Boucher...Lifetime Achievement Award from the Alaska Democratic Party. Sen. Johnny...Council. He founded the Fairbanks Goldpanners, which was the beginning of the Alaska Baseball League. He also is known...
- Aluminum bats losing their luster?
- Newspaper article from: Chicago Sun-Times June 27, 1986 700+ words
...worked with several current major leaguers in their college years when he coached summers for the amateur Fairbanks Goldpanners in Alaska. "I don't think aluminum hurt Kevin McReynolds' or Oddibe McDowell's or Tim Wallach's transition to the...
