“There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.” — Herman Melville
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Baseball does not feature prominently in Melville’s magnum opus Moby-Dick; or The Whale. Yes, there is clear spiritual and vernacular Venn-diagram-overlap. Any maritime story will offer these up when juxtaposed with our national game, a quintessential ship-of-fools pastime.
And yet, Melville was, however unintentionally, writing about baseball in the above paragraph.
The act of hitting, pitching and winning in competitive baseball as it is presently played is probably about as physically and mentally challenging as competitive golf, as it is presently played. The difference is, competitive baseball includes a traveling party of approximately 30 people, competing much more frequently than our golf hero who does battle in quiet serenity upon the links.
Imagine the grueling mental attrition of 18 holes multiplied by 30 or so competitors multiplied by 56 (for college) or 140-plus (for pros) discrete competitions. In front of crowds that can and will mock you. And that’s the baseline psychic ambient vibe of a ballclub. If you’re invested in the outcome, and you’re not careful, baseball could shatter a man. Even fans — who are not competitors but who are invested — can rattle off the specific catechism of their favorite team’s most awful pennant chase failure.
1993 San Francisco Giants fans, we see you.
Thus, it is with solemn understanding of the potential energy for human disaster housed within a baseball game and season we reflect on the Nevada Wolf Pack’s series win at Air Force last weekend.
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Contemporary analysis of nearly any subject in 2025 seems required by unknown clerical edict to contain sneering disregard toward any qualitative assessments, especially when offered by those who remember life before cell phones, or even interleague play. So instead of employing the miracle of human witness-bearing, we’ll just start with some bloodless numbers in an attempt to recreate the spectacle:
Game one: Nevada leads 4-0 and 5-0, loses 15-5 in a run-rule abbreviated eight-inning contest.
Game two: Nevada leads 4-0 and trails 14-4 before winning 17-15 in a regulation nine innings. This will forever be known as the Billy Ham Birthday Game. On his special day, the Nevada designated hitter hit a three-run home run as one of his three hits, drove in five and scored three times, one of which was the go-ahead run in a comeback for the ages.
Game three: A scoreless tie into the sixth inning. Nevada ultimately wins 7-2, with a dubiously allowable challenge of the game’s final out. Ultimately the call on the field was upheld, and Nevada had secured its second road conference series win in a row.
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Erdle Field at the Air Force Academy rests at 7,000 feet of elevation above sea level. The ballyard, like all of the vast academy grounds, is ensconced in the wooded eastern slopes of the Rampart Range of the Rocky Mountains. The supernatural ultimate reality of the universe, who some call God, is extremely present.
First, it is not difficult to pity the ghosts-to-be of the enemy combatants who someday will find themselves on the business end of the United States Air Force led by these cadets, and therefore meet ultimate reality. The academy grounds are alive with cadets — baseball players and others — jogging, marching and politely and humbly going about their deadly business, honing their skills to lead an unimaginably lethal and vigilant force above this earth. These people are so good and so serious that we rarely, if ever, have cause to reflect on how well we sleep because of their prowess, courage and commitment.
Second, Erdle Field is situated in a ruggedly beautiful mise en scéne featuring Sound-of-Music-worthy alpine peaks and conifers and equally alpine-dramatic meteorology. It’s similar to Reno, but 2,500 feet higher. Erdle is a wind tunnel and a band box a mile-and-a-half in the sky. The wind can and does blow forcefully, and not always in the same direction. At Erdle, it’s wind, and possibly lightning, and fog, and sometimes snow, and no lights to boot. You can only use the daylight hours to squeeze in the games no matter what the conditions present.
This past weekend, the winds were coming from the south and blowing straight out to left field at 15 to 17 miles per hour sustained, and gusting to more than 30 miles per hour. The press box itself whistled like a tea kettle on multiple occasions, with the rising pitch of the whistle serving as an auditory anemometer.
The dimensions at Erdle are allegedly 360 feet to left, 415 to center and 330 to right. We have not put a tape measure down to check these figures. However, even with an approximately 15-foot-high fence in left and left center and an approximately 30-foot-high fence from the batter’s eye to the right field foul pole, the place is, “arguably the best hitter’s park in the country,” per Nevada head coach Jake McKinley.
We have not been to every college ballpark in the country. It is hard to imagine a more hitter-friendly environment. It is also hard to imagine a park more dramatically set in nature paired with natural forces of such arbitrary fury.
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And therefore it is hard to imagine a more daunting pitching assignment than to take the mound at Air Force. Yet, Casey Burfield of Reed High School on Sunday offered the finest pitching performance of the season for Nevada in the biggest game of the year to date.
52 combined runs, 57 combined hits and two separate unanswered Air Force scoring streaks of 14 and 15 runs had transpired in the first two games of the weekend. And yet Nevada’s 17-15 win-of-the-year comeback victory after trailing 14-4 in game two meant Sunday’s game three was a winner-take-all affair.
Nevada was improbably in position to win the weekend and remain at worst three games back of first place with nine to play. First-place Fresno State woke up Sunday on the precipice of a sweep of Washington State (it would go on to win all three). Nevada had fallen from two games back to three back after their game one loss at Air Force. Nevada had to have Sunday at the Academy to stay within striking distance of first place with Fresno State due to visit Reno this weekend.
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Burfield took a shutout into the seventh inning. It was the damnedest thing. The wind blew harder on Sunday, directly out to left field, than it had all weekend. 7,000 feet in the sky. Air Force twice had multiple baserunner threats: once in the first inning and once in the sixth. Burfield pitched out of both jams without allowing a run.
Burfield gave up a wind-aided solo shot to Falcons’ first baseman Luke Elmore to lead off the seventh, walked the next man and then was relieved. It sounds insane given Nevada had already posted a comeback win having trailed by 10 runs in game two, but Burfield’s line of six-plus innings, allowing one run on five hits, was the biggest story weekend for the Silver and Blue.
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Nevada is tied for second place, three games back of first place Fresno State. The Bulldogs come to town for three starting Friday night. College baseball should be loved for many reasons, but a big one is this: pennant races in May. Why wait until September? The playoff chase is here, now.
Saint Mary’s of the West Coast Conference comes to Reno this afternoon. It’s a 305 p.m. start. Daytime baseball is the most attainable vacation for the mind, either on the radio or in person. Either way, join us and enjoy a relaxing non-conference afternoon with all your rowdy friends. It will be the quiet before the storm coming this weekend. Namaste.
John L. Ramey is the play-by-play voice of the Nevada Wolf Pack. You can listen to him broadcast Nevada football on 105.7 FM KOZZ, Nevada men’s basketball on 95.5 FM The Vibe and Nevada baseball on 630 AM FOX Sports. You can enjoy John’s writing at John Ramey Media. Follow him on Twitter @John_L_Ramey.