With 10 teams slated for the 2011 season with the addition of Klamath Falls, the summer-collegiate West Coast League is also looking at adding more teams on the southern part of the league’s territory: Humboldt, Medford and Redding.
With 10 teams slated for the 2011 season with the addition of Klamath Falls, the summer-collegiate West Coast League is also looking at adding more teams on the southern part of the league’s territory: Humboldt, Medford and Redding.
There are already summer-collegiate teams in these cities: the Humboldt Crabs, the Southern Oregon Riverdawgs and the Redding Colt .45s. All three play loose schedules, focusing on rivalries and playing some teams in other leagues.
But the days of loose schedules may be coming to an end. Some of the traditional rivals of these three teams — like the former Aloha Knights, now the Corvallis Knights, playing in the WCL — have joined up with larger leagues. The Riverdawgs are looking at joining the WCL for the 2011 season and would be barred from playing Humboldt. (For the record, Miles Field — where various minor-league teams played in Medford — is gone. The summer-collegiate team plays at the smaller, newer Harry & David Field.) The Crabs are a successful summer-collegiate team, but may be forced to look at WCL membership: the team right now plays virtually all of its games at home (which is a great financial arrangement for them), but a lack of opponents may change that.
One option: setting up an affiliate WCL league in the southern part of the league territory. There’s already an affiliate league set up, the WCL Tri-State, but that could be expanded to up to eight teams. One suggestion: Taking the name of the old minor league in the region, the Far West League.
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