Cal notes: Rawhide tap roots with Dairy Day

VISALIA, California -- When Colin Bray heard that Visalia was putting on a pregame cow-milking contest on Saturday, it didn't take him a whole lot of consideration to decide he'd take part.

"Stryker [Trahan] came up to me and was like, 'Hey, dude, they've got a cow coming out here. We're milking a cow tomorrow,'" said Bray. "I was like, 'Yeah, dude, sign me up. I'll be on your team.'"

The outfielders both grew up on farms, as did pitcher Cameron Gann, who joined Bray, Trahan and Visalia video coordinator Corey Swope on Team 1 of the yearly contest, part of the ninth annual Dairy Day at Rawhide Park.

Right-hander Nick Baker, on Team 2, came into the contest with a different level of dairy experience.

"I'd seen cows before, and I've driven by many dairy farms, but I'd never milked a cow," he said.

Baker's squad included first baseman Rudy Flores, catcher Tyler Baker and bench coach Javier Colina, who -- having milked cows as a boy in the Dominican Republic -- was Team 2's most prepared member.

"We had three guys that had never touched a cow before," Baker noted.

What he lacked in background, Baker made up for by studying.

"I learned that our competition had three guys who grew up on farms," he said, "so I took the liberty to look up a few YouTube videos and get some strategies. It's a little different in the real world being out there than it was on the YouTube videos, but that was my best strategy.

"The textbook technique was to grab the udder, I guess, with two fingers [on top] so you pull the milk down, and with three fingers on bottom, you squeeze to release, then let it fill back up and repeat the process."

The hurler found that his hand quickly started to cramp, though, and Team 2 lost, meaning its members had to drink the freshly drawn milk. Some of Team 1's members already knew the taste of unpasteurized milk.

"I've had it before, but I don't want to drink it again," Bray said. "It was gross. It's warm and has a bad after-taste. I just wanted to throw up after."

Baker and company managed to not be sick, but they didn't necessarily enjoy the guzzle.

"I didn't get too much flavor. I think the warmth really overpowered the flavor. Definitely a good thing. It was a lot different from milk coming out of the fridge," he said. "There was some stuff floating around, which wasn't too appealing. I was lucky enough to stay away from the chunks, but I think some of the other guys got some."

Players weren't the only people in the park downing dairy. On the concourse above the third-base dugout, four fans partook in a one-hour gallon challenge.

"They volunteer. Don't ask me why," Rawhide general manager Jennifer Pendergraft said. "Either last year or the year before, it was 100 degrees, and we still had four people trying to drink a gallon of milk in an hour."

Traditional gallon challenge rules are strictly enforced.

"They can't go to the bathroom, because you don't know if they might puke or not, so they have to sit and stay for the hour," Pendergraft said.

Dairy Day -- which also included cow-themed home jerseys -- ties directly into the team's brand identity, which was rebuilt in 2009 after 14 years as the Visalia Oaks. (The club's home, Rawhide Ballpark, is in its 70th year of pro baseball.)

"[With the rebrand] we just bee-lined in the direction of agricultural, dairy in particular," Pendergraft said. "This county [Tulare] -- just this county -- is the dairy capital of the world. Just this county produces more dairy than some countries or states. It's insane. There are more cows than people. That's a fact. And cows are fun."

The team has tried several ways to tap into that fun, and into livestock and agricultural themes more generally. A month ago, they brought in a mini-pony for good luck.

"We used to have a petting zoo come in for a day and we'd do Agriculture Night," Pendergraft said. "We used to do a Cow Appreciation Day, so anybody came dressed as a cow would get a free ticket. But that one never took off. Gee, wonder why."

While coming out to a ballpark in triple-digit heat in a cow costume to save 10 bucks might not get many fans excited, the cow-milking contest does.

"We had some of the host families and a lot of the girlfriends or wives yelling down, 'C'mon! C'mon, Tyler! C'mon, Nick!'" Baker said. "They were yelling at us harder to milk a cow than they would to cheer for us during the game. I didn't know it was that serious of an event around here."

In brief

Hitters in a huff: Lake Elsinore's Chris Huffman has been lights-out since moving from the bullpen into the rotation. Over eight starts from May 1 to June 17, he's gone 4-0 with a 1.24 ERA. His 2.10 ERA led active Cal League hurlers through the games of June 7.

Starry, starry night: On Wednesday, the California League announced the roster for June 21's California-Carolina League All-Star Game at Lake Elsinore's The Diamond. Among those named to the squad is Kyle Garlick, who won't be able to participate on account of having been promoted to Double-A Tulsa on June 1. He batted .306/.367/.551 with 11 homers and 13 doubles over 49 games.

Noche de beisbol: Modesto celebrated Latin American influence on baseball Friday night with the latest edition of a long-running annual "Noche de beisbol." There was also a pregame demonstration featuring dancers in traditional Mesoamerican costumes.

Noche de BEISBOL pt. 2 pic.twitter.com/nKtIgYY9dw

- Modesto Nuts (@ModestoNuts) June 11, 2016