Introduction
BY JIM BUCKLEY
This is a story about baseball …
That’s how I began an article that I wrote in 1994 (reprinted starting on page 22) about the Santa Barbara Foresters. But as we have learned through the 30 years since, the story of the Foresters is about way, way more than baseball.
It’s about love and community and family and hope and joy. It’s about pride and success and entertainment. It’s about teaching and learning and growing … and laughing. And much more.
After nearly 30 years working with Foresters manager Bill Pintard, I thought it was time to put all of the memories we’ve created into one place. Well, most of the memories. There’s just not room for them all. The book would have been 1,000 pages long! Instead, this book is a wide-look, year-by-year overview of the stories, people, games, championships, triumphs, tragedies, and love that has made the Foresters into the premier summer college baseball program in the United States. We have collected articles from local Santa Barbara media along with stories from our annual game program to tell the story of the team and its unprecedented success, which includes (through 2023) an all-time record ten National Baseball Congress World Series championships since 2006.
As we tell the story, we’re going to be dancing around a bit. The main timeline is the year-by-year story of the ballclub, with a focus on the championships, but we will also step away from the ongoing chronology to look at the many parts of the story off the field that are just as much part of the Foresters’ tale. My thanks to the dozens of people who have contributed their time and memories to this book
I should also say at the outset that there is no WAY we could have includedall of the literally thousands of stories that have happened to and around the Foresters over the decades. This book instead hopes to create a permanent record of our many successes (and occasional failures), to honor and thank many of the people who have contributed to the team’s history, and perhaps to spur new fans to jump in and “’Ster it up!” As you read the book and remember your particular moments with the Foresters, long past or recent, we hope you are able to rekindle your own best memories. Many of the former players, coaches, and others who have been nice enough to recount some of their stories have done so here for the first time. (And I apologize if we spoke and your story is not in here or if we didn’t manage to touch base. Know that your story is appreciated, too!) Plus, there are hundreds more stories waiting to be told, so ask a Forester next time you see one. And, indeed
