One of the best springtime activities in the Bay Area is hidden away in plain sight. It’s college baseball, the classic national pastime boiled down to its essentials — the big leagues played small.

“It’s really the best of baseball,” said Michael Emery, whom I ran into during a game at the University of San Francisco’s Benedetti Diamond on the Golden Gate Avenue edge of campus.

“The players play hard and you are right on top of the action, close up so you can see it all,” he said. “No guys with million-dollar contracts either. They play for the love of the game.”

I’ve known Emery for years but the ballpark encounter was a surprise. I didn’t know his son Robert is a catcher for the USF Dons. They were playing the University of Nevada Wolf Pack the other afternoon, and Robert Emery went one for four in a losing cause.

It wasn’t USF’s day. Nevada pitchers threw a four-hitter, and the Dons’ pitching faltered. USF loaded the bases with no one out in the eighth, but the Wolf Pack brought in their closer and it was lights out, USF 1, Nevada 8.

“Sometimes it’s a cruel game,” Michael Emery said. It was a college game. Maybe he majored in philosophy.

But the afternoon wasn’t really about the score so much as it was about sitting in the sun, watching the slow rhythm of baseball. It’s not like Warriors basketball, all action all the time.

Baseball is a slower game, full of strategy and pauses, pinch hitters and relief pitchers, best savored with a hot dog and a beer. The price was right, too. Only $10 general admission, half-price for more seasoned fans.

Benedetti Diamond was rebuilt four years ago, and it is a little gem, with cypress trees beyond the outfield and the downtown San Francisco skyline in the distance. It was named for Dante Benedetti, a son of North Beach, who loved the city and baseball in equal measure. He coached USF for 16 years, often paid for the bats and gloves out of his own pocket, and won 373 games. He lost a lot of games, too, because he gave everybody a chance to play. Joe DiMaggio, his old pal, called Dante “Mr. Baseball.”

USF’s team this season isn’t bad, with a 21-16 record, good for second place in the West Coast Conference. But the real class of the local college scene is Stanford. The Cardinal have won 24 games and lost only six this year, and are ranked third in the country.

The Cardinal play at the lovely Sunken Diamond on the Stanford campus, perhaps the most beautiful college ballpark in the country. And one of the biggest — it can hold 4,000 fans.

But one of my favorite college baseball venues in the country is Evans Diamond in Berkeley, a kind of old-timey place with proper bleachers and the Cal campus and the Golden Gate for a backdrop. The Cal Bears play both day and night games.

Like other college parks, the atmosphere is casual and laid back. Cal’s big star is Andrew Vaughn, who plays first base and even pitches sometimes. Vaughn won the Golden Spikes Award last year, given every year to the best amateur baseball player in the country. It’s big-time stuff: Among past Golden Spikes winners are Tim Lincecum and Buster Posey. Perhaps you’ve heard of them.

You may also be familiar with Cal second baseman Darren Baker, who was a Giants batboy during the 2002 World Series and was nearly run down in the middle of a game. Now he’s 20 years old, 6 feet tall and a pro prospect.

Dusty Baker, his father, is often in the stands at Evans Diamond watching his son play ball.

It is not as if the world is paying attention to college baseball. About 900 or so fans is a good crowd at Evans Diamond. USF gets 250 fans on a nice Sunday afternoon. College ball rates only a line or two in the papers and is pretty much ignored on the big television sports shows.

But it’s big in its own way. Cal had an important series against UCLA, the country’s No. 1 team over the weekend.

Cal, Stanford and USF all have nonleague games this week. Stanford plays Gonzaga on Monday and San Jose State on Tuesday. USF hosts UC Davis on Tuesday as well. Cal plays Sacramento State on Tuesday night. Tickets for that one are only $2.

College baseball for less than the price of a cup of coffee. Imagine that.

Carl Nolte’s column appears Sundays. Email: cnolte@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @carlnoltesf