By Ed Piper
A recent discussion has revolved around the location, configuration, and positioning of the original Viking baseball field--largely because of Dave Jordan (Class of 1955) and his amazement upon attending alumni events at the Muirlands field at the quality of the facility.
Eyes widened in wonder, Jordan said this past winter, "This field (at Muirlands) is really something."
Well, then, for someone who didn't grow up in La Jolla and didn't attend La Jolla High, the question moved to what the "old" baseball field on the LJHS campus was like. Jordan said, "We were used to the (old) field. It was all we knew."
A short porch in right field, near Rushville St., led to ground rules during baseball games that Jorden said made a flyball over the fence onto the tennis courts a double. Jorden, who went on to play in the pros, was a lefthanded power hitter, so this directly affected him.
There were no fences in center and left field--on the football field--so if you clobbered a flyball over those outfielders, you had to run the hit out. Also, a fact of life for the first 50 years of the school was that track athletes working out in Edwards Stadium were in danger of being hit by a batted ball.
That was scary enough that in 1977 and thereafter (according to the annual baseball yearbook), concern grew and games were moved off campus, including at Mission Bay High. That led to the creation of the present Ronnie Spelman Field, opened for the 1981 season.
Note in the photo above (displayed in the Alumni Office on campus) the parallel parking along Draper Ave. on both sides (lower left). (That's now parallel parking, where it isn't red-painted.)
Also, the Coggan Family Aquatic Complex at Nautilus and Fay streets (lower right of photo) didn't exist yet.
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