Stanislaus County shuts down sports complex during softball event
Modesto’s Rainbow Fields was shut down Friday afternoon because it was hosting a youth softball event against statewide COVID-19 orders, a Stanislaus County official said.
Employees at the facility northeast of Modesto were served with a cease-and-desist order by a county officer after an overwhelming number of complaints from residents and operators of other facilities who had closed their venues while Rainbow Fields hosted games, said Royjindar Singh, a county emergency operations center spokesman.
Under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s four-stage reopening plan, the county is only in Stage 2, where youth sports “activities should be limited to conditioning or individual skill-building drills,” among myriad other guidelines.
No games “within the team or with outside teams are allowed,” until approval from the state – in Stage 3.
“Youth sports activities are not allowed under the state order,” Singh said.
Mike Miranda, owner of the softball and baseball complex at the southwest corner of Claribel and Claus roads, reasoned that he’s taken every precaution to keep athletes, coaches and patrons safe. He said he’s limited field capacity by 50 percent, given temperature checks to all entering the facility, limited seating at the restaurant/snack bar, emphasized social distancing and use of face coverings and disinfected dugouts and other areas.
Still, anyone playing and their parent or guardian had to agree to a liability waiver that included a paragraph on the event of contracting COVID-19.
“I followed every guideline like every other business,” he said. “I’m a private business owner. I pay my taxes. ... What’s the difference between a swap meet and youth kids who are playing sports?
“I didn’t just throw this together.”
When told there’s no way for a first baseman holding a runner at first to social distance from the runner, and that playing games was not in compliance with the state mandate, Miranda said: “Maybe I rebelled a little bit. I was fighting for these kids.”
Singh said the county has been stressing the no games/no competition policy to schools and youth sports leagues. Summertime also is known as a critical period for elite travel teams, which play at venues like Rainbow Fields to hone their athletes’ skills and showcase their players’ talents.
Still, competition in congregate settings are largely why athletic competition is being held back until the later stages of the reopening.
“The main culprit has been Rainbow Fields,” Singh said. “They have not been abiding by the order and doing whatever they had to do. It’s raised a lot of frustration among other organizations.”
Miranda admitted there have been games played there throughout the month, but labeled them as “scrimmages,” although there’s no difference to what’s taking place on the field.
Singh, meanwhile, said county officials also were told by some that those attending games at Rainbow Fields were not doing enough to protect themselves, although there were signs at the gate Friday that said “No entry without a face mask” and “Practice social distancing 6 feet apart.”
“The fields were full, the snack bar was full, the stands were full and most people weren’t following basic social distancing,” Singh said officials were told.
The three-day event that opened Friday – Miranda refused to call it a “tournament,” saying no scores were kept (even though the event website showed there were scores) and no trophies would be handed out – started Friday at 7:15 a.m. By 3:30 p.m., the parking lot was nearly empty, and someone clearing the front entry of signs had said the event had been shut down.
Sixteen teams from throughout California were scheduled to participate in the “State Championship Scrimmages,” according to Chris Kappmeyer, owner of 1st to 3rd Softball Events, which organized the event. Rainbow hosted the 18-and-under portion of the event, while other age groups were listed to play at three fields/complexes in Stockton and one in Tracy.
Those publicly owned facilities were closed to tournaments. No games were played.
Fifteen games had been played Friday at Rainbow Fields, the last starting at 11:45 a.m. No scores were listed for games that started in the afternoon beginning at 1:10 p.m.
“Mike (Miranda) has done a good job at creating an environment where people, in my opinion, can participate responsibly,” said Kappmeyer, who has a COVID-19 section on his website that includes a ballpark social distancing plan. “We followed all the CDC guidelines. We’re doing the best we can based on our interpretation.”
Kappmeyer said he feels for athletes who have been hurt by losing out on sports, especially those competing this weekend, either juniors or seniors in high school, who missed out on their spring seasons and now, travel ball. He said competition is a great elixir for the potential mental health issues resulting from stay-at-home orders and lost seasons.
Singh said some complaints about having games were coming from parents who wanted to follow state guidelines, yet by doing so, felt their kids were being punished by not having the opportunity to compete or market their skills.
“This isn’t necessarily for recruiting,” Kappmeyer said. “It’s for the mental health of kids.”
As for the physical health of the athletes, Miranda said in baseball and softball, you’re social distancing “95 percent of the time,” unlike other sports such as football, basketball and wrestling.
He said umpires and batters wore face-coverings, and players wore masks in the dugout.
“It’s OK that we can go into all these brick and mortar stores, and go into supermarkets?” Miranda said. “It’s not a perfect world.”
Miranda said he’s lost a “substantial” amount of money by the limited schedule and now, the closure, but that he will certainly abide by the county order.
“These kids deserve to be on the field,” he said.
This story was originally published June 27, 2020 at 6:09 AM with the headline "Stanislaus County shuts down sports complex during softball event."
