Eleventh Heaven for Foresters

On August 1, the Los Angeles Dodgers agreed to acquire reigning two-time AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers in a blockbuster trade in a bid to increase their championship streak to three years, once again prompting complaints that the SoCal team, which has the highest payroll in history, was ruining baseball. That was also right around the time the Santa Barbara Foresters played their last game of the year in the collegiate summer season. 

The Dodgers proceeded to lose six straight games after securing Skubal’s services, proving that money isn’t everything in baseball. 

The Foresters? All they did on August 1 was claim their 11th National Baseball Congress (NBC) World Series, which brings together most of the best summer baseball leagues (outside of Cape Cod) for a weeklong tournament. Twenty years to date after the Santa Barbara nine won their first of (what is now) 11 NBC World Series, the Foresters not only beat the similarly undefeated six-time champs Alaska Goldpanners, but set records during the world series itself, including the lowest recorded earned run average of any tourney winners in the National Baseball Congress’ 92-year-history. 

“This might be the best team I’ve ever coached, outside of the pandemic, when half of the players would have been on Team USA if not for COVID,” said Bill Pintard, the Foresters longtime coach who has led every team that has played in the NBC. “We had a remarkable team that ended up having four or five first round picks in the MLB draft.” 

Pintard said the 2026 team was the most talented other than 2020, noting the Foresters dropped only four games in its division, six overall out of 33 games during the summer. At the world series, they dropped none, hurled four shutouts, and only gave up four runs total in six games.

“Our pitching was really deep,” he said. “But we also had tremendous team speed, which we utilized a lot, and very good defense. Mostly what I feel is so much gratitude, not just for their ability, because the most rewarding part was their work ethic and their willingness to buy into our philosophies of playing the game.”

Still, winning the series wasn’t a foregone conclusion, as Pintard and the ‘Sters had failed to finish first for four years running, prior to 2026. And having two of his starting pitchers and a closer leave the team after being drafted or forced to return to college early added to the questions. Which made setting the ERA record all that much sweeter. 

“The guys we still had really stepped up,” Pintard said. 

Now it’s time to step back for a moment and enjoy the spoils of victory. Pintard said the Foresters are arranging a team celebration for the City of Santa Barbara – home games have been played at SB High’s Eddie Matthews Field for several years – with details still to be ironed out, while the city council will present a proclamation during one of its Tuesday meetings, tentatively slated for August 18. 

“I also received a phone call from the County Supervisors’ office who want to honor us, too,” Pintard said. 

The ‘Sters annual benefit golf tournament takes place in November, and the annual Hall of Fame induction dinner is set for February a week before the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, Pintard is already thinking about putting together another championship team for next summer. 

“We already got a phone call from one of the college coaches about their players today,” he said. “It’s not even September.”

Visit www.santabarbaraforesters.org.