After months of holding out hope that Long Beach youth baseball and softball leagues could return to the diamonds this summer, the extension of the Los Angeles County “stay-at-home” order last week changed the landscape indefinitely. Over the weekend, Long Beach PONY became the first local league to suspend the remainder of its 2020 spring […]
Local Schools Bracing For Major Budget Cuts
Last week, California governor Gavin Newsom released his May Revision to the proposed budget for for the 2020-21 fiscal year. Because of a $54 billion deficit associated with revenue loss due to COVID-19 shutdowns, there are significant cuts to education, a harsh blow for the city of Long Beach, where the Long Beach Unified School […]
LB In MLB: Unanswerable Questions Surround Draft, Minor Leagues
Turning an amateur athlete into a professional though the draft process is obviously full of uncertainty, but the 2020 Major League Baseball Draft on June 10 will be the most unpredictable in history. In an effort to survive the COVID-19 closures, MLB is cutting its draft from 40 rounds to only five rounds, while also […]
FEATURE: Sports Shutdown Strands Unsigned Seniors
Photos courtesy Beach City Hoops/@ClutchClipHoop The spring and summer months traditionally serve as a final opportunity for unsigned high school athletes to find a college scholarship. Through showcase events and travel ball, seniors who have yet to sign with a university can use this time to get discovered and forge an opportunity at the next […]
FEATURE: Uncertainty Plagues Yoga on the Bluff in Long Beach
Photo courtesy Yogalution Movement As some retail stores and public spaces are beginning to reopen around Long Beach, the desire for a return to normalcy only continues to grow. Changes to the stay-at-home order seem to be arriving daily, meaning there’s still plenty of uncertainty for local businesses forced to decide between sticking to their […]
Feature: Peyton Watson, Long Beach Poly’s Star Hooper Stuck At Home
A five-star basketball recruit is usually a kid with the world on a string. But for Long Beach Poly junior Peyton Watson, life looks pretty much the same as it does for the other students at his high school and in the city of Long Beach. Were school still open, he’d be turning heads on […]
PODCAST: Interviews With Dirtbags Adam Seminaris & Jacob Hughey
This week on the podcast we’re updating you on the latest COVID-19 news for Long Beach sports and schools (is no news good news?) before interviewing Long Beach State Dirtbags Adam Seminaris and Jacob Hughey about their unpredictable future. We also talk to Hughey about believing in the existence of aliens, and why the way […]
The 562 Chosen For Long Beach Gives Fundraiser
The562.org has been selected as one of the participating organizations in the Long Beach Gives campaign, which raises money annually on a special day of giving for nonprofit organizations. The 2020 Long Beach Gives campaign will be the first for The 562, which recently began its third year of operation serving the Long Beach community […]
LBUSD Closed For Summer, Evaluating 2020-21 Sports Plans
The Long Beach Unified School District announced last week that in-person graduation ceremonies are officially off for the class of 2020, and that summer school and other programs will not take place on physical campuses this summer, with a few limited exceptions. There had been some hope of a delayed in-person graduation ceremony, but with […]
PODCAST: LB Fee Show With Dirtbags Coach Eric Valenzuela
This week on the LB Fee Show we talk to Long Beach State Dirtbags coach Eric Valenzuela about the MLB draft, recruiting virtually and Tony Gwynn.