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Bob Keisser's column in the Long Beach Press-Telegram today is a good read. It begins:

"Welcome to the Greatest Show on this small patch of Earth called Long Beach, or to be more specific, that great ball diamond on Seventh Street named Blair Field.

See! A bevy of professional scouts with their magical radar guns, aiming them at every 60- foot, six-inch delivery the Wonder Boy on the pitcher's mound makes, all the while imagining how he would look in their uniforms.

See! The Left Field Loonies, who can be found, naturally, in the seats behind the dugout and right-field foul line, rooting for their beloved Dirtbags and zipping one-liners at any bewildered opponent who strays too close. "

Well worth reading the entire column here. I do have to take except to one point made by Bob:

"When Dave Snow arrived as Long Beach State's baseball coach in 1989, an offhand comment about the "quality' of the team's campus field led him to use of the word "Dirtbag.' It quickly become the team's unofficial nickname and personality.

It also spawned its own sub-culture. Local businessmen who otherwise might think twice about attending games and donating funds to a college baseball program looked at the Dirtbags as something they could enjoy. What's not to love about a team with an attitude that likes to get its uniform dirty?

These fans dubbed themselves the Left Field Loonies back when the Dirtbags played on the campus field. They were so ingratiated within the program that a former 49er athletic official gave them a key to the gate and equipment shed so they could let themselves into games and get their lawn chairs and coolers.

When the team moved to Blair in 1993, the Loonies moved to right field, but kept their old name. The group has become so well-known as the pulse of Dirtbag baseball that the seats around the core group are now filled with other fans who want to be where the action is.

Those loonie wannabes include families of Dirtbag players and 49er athletes in other sports."

You got it wrong Bob, we aren't "loonie wannabes." We sit where we do for two reasons. First, because it's our "kids" dugout. And second, because the "loonies" are often as entertaining as the game. They unmercifully heckle opponent's first base coaches. It is hillarious to here "you're out of gas 23 [pronounced two three...or whatever the opponent's pitcher's number is]"...in the first inning! Or Houston Bob's constant needling delivered with a south Texas drawl. No, we don't wannabe loonies, we just enjoy being around them.