Santa Barbara rises again as an NBC World Series power

Everybody talks about the advantage the Kansas Stars had in the NBC World Series this year being a bunch of former big leaguers.

Well, what about the Santa Barbara (Calif.) Foresters playing in Santa Barbara, heaven on the west coast?

And playing for Bill Pintard, who has established himself as an NBC legend after the Foresters won their sixth tournament championship Saturday night by beating the Hays Larks 6-2 at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

Pintard’s players refer to him as a “players coach,” which could be misconstrued as a guy who lets his team run wild.

That’s not how it works, though. Pintard has high expectations on and off the field, he said, but he doesn’t apply pressure.

After all, he’s from Santa Barbara, which might be the most pressure-less city in America.

“That place is just unreal,” said Santa Barbara’s Bret Boswell, from Texas, who led the World Series with 13 RBIs and has been with the Foresters three straight summers. “It’s so relaxed playing baseball there because you’re right next to the ocean. I play some of my best baseball there.”

Santa Barbara is 95 miles up the Pacific Coast from Los Angeles where around 100,000 lucky souls live. The Foresters have managed to make a name for themselves there and winning another NBC World Series championship won’t hurt the team’s notoriety.

Santa Barbara’s six championships — in a span of 11 years — tie the Fairbanks (Alaska) Goldpanners for the most in NBC history and the Foresters have only been coming to Wichita since 1995. They also won in 2006, 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2014 after finishing second in 2003 and 2005.

Pintard doesn’t try to grasp the history of his team, though. Instead, he focuses on the season at hand.

“Every year, we only have three or four returning players and that’s about it,” he said. “So we’re always recruiting a new team. We have to rebuild. This group right here — every team has its own personality.”

Pintard is a baseball guy who has made his living in commercial real estate. His goal every summer is to bring the Foresters to Wichita and see what happens. It’s almost always something good.

“This being the sixth championship is really something that never entered my mind until someone just mentioned it a little bit ago,” said Pintard, fresh from a Gatorade bath from his overjoyed players. “I wanted so badly for these kids to win. I’m a players coach and I love coaching kids. When I see them improve and I see them really care about each other — not being ‘me’ guys but being team guys — that’s when I feel a real sense of accomplishment.”

So where does Santa Barbara rank among all-time NBC franchises?

For me, there are four that stand above the rest: the Foresters, Fairbanks, Anchorage (Alaska) Glacier Pilots and Liberal BeeJays.

Those four have combined to win 21 of the 82 championships in NBC history and have finished second another 17 times.

Fairbanks, which made an appearance in this year’s tournament but hasn’t been attending regularly for more than 20 years, had an incredible run in the tournament from 1962 through 1983, winning five championships and finishing second six times.

The Goldpanners either won or finished second in seven straight tournaments from 1971-77.

Santa Barbara, meanwhile, has finished either first or second eight times in the past 14 tournaments.

I still think Fairbanks is the greatest franchise in NBC history but Santa Barbara is a strong second with Liberal (five titles, seven runner-up) and Anchorage (five titles, six runner-up) third and fourth, respectively.

It says something about Pintard and the Foresters organization that they’ve been able to make this kind of an impact in only 21 years. Fairbanks, Anchorage and Liberal have been NBC powerhouse programs for a half century.

Pintard, explaining what he thinks it means to be a players coach, said he allows his players freedom to play.

“I want them to strive for success and learn to deal with the failure of this game,” he said. “If they fail, I don’t get on their case. I let them play and get better. I say before every game, ‘What are you going to do today to help us win.’ I put it on them.”

And Santa Barbara’s players love the guy. He’s able to recruit players — with a nice assist from the Santa Barbara climate — from some of the best Division I schools in the country.

The Foresters’ roster includes four players each from Florida State and Texas, three from Arizona and others from Rice, Houston, Nebraska, Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine, UNLV, Tulane, Mississippi State and UCSB, which made its first College World Series appearance in 2016.

“We have a great group of guys here,” Santa Barbara infielder Kyle Isbel, from UNLV, said. “Obviously, you can’t beat the weather and the beach but I’m also coached by one of the greatest coaches I’ve ever had. So it’s a really special experience and an awesome feeling to win this tournament. This team has been like family and it’s been an awesome experience.”

This story was originally published August 13, 2016 at 11:22 PM with the headline "Santa Barbara rises again as an NBC World Series power."