It’s all downhill from here, as the Victoria HarbourCats sold out Royal Athletic Park for the franchise’s first match in the summer collegiate West Coast League. A crowd of 3,026 was on hand to see the HarbourCats host the Kelowna Falcons. The game was delayed 55 minutes after the Falcons bus broke down on the […]
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WCL expands to Victoria for 2013
It’s official: Baseball returns to Victoria’s Royal Athletic Park in 2013, as the summer-collegiate West Coast League signs a three-year lease for the historic facility. We reported on negotiations for this move last fall. John McLean and Dwight Willet will own the team after coming to a lease agreement. Pro ball was played at Royal […]
WCL eyes Victoria for 2013
The summer-collegiate West Coast League is negotiating to put a team in Victoria’s Royal Athletic Park for the 2013 season. It would be the circuit’s first foray into Canada. Currently the league features teams in Washington State and Oregon. Royal Athletic Park was home to the Victoria Seals (independent; North American League) for two seasons […]
North American League expands to Fort McMurray
A Fort McMurray (Alberta) team is now part of the independent North American League, but the team won’t play next year except perhaps as a road team. Your primer on Fort McMurray: it’s in northeastern Alberta and is in the middle of oil country. The population isn’t large — just some 76,797 residents, according to […]
Golden Baseball League
The Golden Baseball League launched on the West Coast and Arizona with a unique business model: teams would begin play after the college-baseball season and in most cases play in college ballparks. That plan was augmented with the addition of Canadian and other Western teams before the league became part of the North American League […]
Seals: Canaries in the coal mine?
Many in baseball were stunned when respected operators Darren and Russ Parker pulled the plug on the Victoria Seals (independent; Golden Baseball League) for the 2011 season, citing issues with the city and concerns about the future of the GBL. Was the decision a harbinger of what’s to come with independent baseball? When the Parkers, […]
Victoria Seals fold
The ownership of the Victoria Seals (independent; Golden Baseball League) have ceased team operations, saying that issues with the lease at Royal Athletic Park made it impossible to turn a profit. From the team’s press release: Despite expressing continuous concerns over the current least agreement at out-dated Royal Athletic Park, the Seals were unable to […]