They come from U.S. universities and colleges big and small, from the NCAA Pac-12 and Big Ten to NAIA, to play summer baseball in small towns in B.C., Washington and Oregon to mid-markets such as Victoria and larger markets such as Edmonton and Portland.
They do more than hit, chase and throw a small white ball around a diamond. They chase dreams. For the select few, such as the 40 West Coast League alumni in Major League Baseball this season and the 20 who played in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, it will lead to big things. For most, however, this will be as good as it gets.
Wherever it ends for the players, the Victoria HarbourCats became part of the journey 10 years ago and the Nanaimo NightOwls last season. The HarbourCats open the 2023 WCL season Friday night at Wilson’s Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park against the Kamloops NorthPaws in the first of 27 regular-season home dates through early August. The NightOwls open at home Friday against the Walla Walla Sweets at Serauxmen Stadium.
“The spectrum of cities, towns and communities in the WCL brings so much of the intrigue to the league,” said Jim Swanson, co-owner and managing partner of the company that owns both the HarbourCats and NightOwls.
“They can drive from a game in Bend, Oregon, and then catch a ferry to the Island for the first time in their lives for many of these players — it’s an exotic twist for many of them.”
That the HarbourCats and WCL have lasted a decade in Victoria, minus the two seasons lost to the pandemic, is a story in itself. The capital has an eccentrically fabled history in the sport at Royal Athletic Park, including as a New York Yankees farm team city between 1946 to 1954 with the Yankees-affiliate Victoria Athletics and Tyees. Those Victoria teams produced the likes of eventual Yankees star Gil McDougald.
The HarbourCats have followed the Single-A pro Victoria Mussels and Blues from 1978 to 1980, the pro Victoria Capitals of the defunct Canadian Baseball League in 2003, the amateur collegiate Victoria Royals in 2004 and the Victoria Seals of the independent pro Golden League in 2009 and 2010.
“Baseball has been here then gone, been here then gone, been here then gone in the history of Victoria,” noted Swanson.
“For us to reach 10 years is a notable achievement.”
Not that the past wasn’t quirkily noteworthy, something the HarbourCats have acknowledged during previous WCL seasons by wearing throwback jerseys in a nod to former Victoria teams. Among the HarbourCats throwbacks were the powder blue old Mussels jerseys, which actor and former SNL great Bill Murray donned for a game in 1979 at RAP, for his buddy and team owner Van Schley, before being turned away at the plate by the umpires and so instead contenting himself with coaching first base. The late Danny Gans did bat for the Mussels and hit .234 in 35 games in 1978 and went on to gross $18 million a year — not in baseball — but as one of the most successful entertainers on the Las Vegas Strip. Sixteen-season MLB knuckleballer Tom Candiotti was a walk-on who slept in the Royal Athletic Park dressing rooms when he first got into town with nowhere to stay.
The HarbourCats do have places to stay, although a call had to go out last week for billet families. Such is life in summer collegiate ball. But you could have a future pro staying at your house.
Movin’ them on up
“I don’t think people on the Island realize how close our players are to the top end of baseball,” said Swanson.
Case in point are Nick Pivetta of the Boston Red Sox, the hometown Victoria product who pitched the first game in HarbourCats history in 2013, and fellow-former HarbourCats Andrew Vaughan, now of the Chicago White Sox, and Nathan Lukes of the Toronto Blue Jays.
They are among the 40 WCL alumni this year in the MLB, including 2020 American League Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber out of the Cowlitz Black Bears, 2022 AL rookie of the year runner-up Adley Rutschman out of the Corvallis Knights, 2022 National League all-star Tyler Anderson out of Corvallis, AL all-star Mitch Haniger also from the Knights, 2015 MLB home-run leader Chris Davis out of the Kelowna Falcons and 2020 and 2022 AL Gold Glove award winners Griffin Canning and Steven Kwan.
The WCL has an annual Top Prospects Award. The inaugural 2018 winner of the award didn’t disappoint as shortstop Matt McLain, out of the Bellingham Bells, made his MLB debut this spring with the Cincinnati Reds, which is something close to WCL commissioner Rob Neyer’s heart.
“That [2018] was my first season with the West Coast League,” said Neyer, in a statement.
“I’m pleased to recall seeing Matt’s second game in Bellingham. He played second base and hit the ball hard just once or twice, but still somehow stood out from everyone else on the field. We all look forward to seeing what Matt does next.”
That is what it’s all about in the WCL, part of a system of collegiate leagues in which varsity players perform through the summer after their university and college seasons end.
There have been 126 former WCL players make it to the MLB, including former HarbourCats standout Alex De Goti with the Houston Astros, and now in the Minnesota Twins system.
“Guys like Nathan Lukes and Alex De Goti were not on many people’s radars when they came to the HarbourCats,” noted Swanson.
“Then Alex pretty much did it all for us and Nathan put up video game numbers here in Victoria and they got noticed and the next thing they are drafted.”
Lukes was majoring in criminal justice at Sacramento State and thinking of becoming a parole officer if baseball didn’t work out.
“I just have to go out and do what I do. Whatever happens will happen,” he told the Times Colonist, during his playing days in Victoria.
What happened was pretty good as Lukes has returned to Canada this year as a Blue Jay.
De Goti wasn’t even a starter on his NCAA team at Long Beach State when he played three seasons in Victoria.
Vaughan, however, had all the tools at Cal-Berkeley and that was evident in Victoria as well as he went from Royal Athletic Park to Guaranteed Rate Field, formerly Comiskey Park, on Chicago’s south side.
“Vaughn is a first-round MLB draft pick in two years,” predicted then-HarbourCats GM Brad Norris-Jones in 2017.
“He is one of the best college players I have seen. He has a pro baseball player’s body and a pro attitude.”
Norris-Jones proved to be prescient, as Vaughan went third overall in the first round of the 2019 MLB draft, and now patrols first base and the outfield for the White Sox.
That sort of talent in the HarbourCats’ first decade has led to some good seasons and the Victoria club has been WCL North Division champion twice and to two league finals, losing in 2017 and 2019 to the dynastic Corvallis Knights, named for the wife of Nike co-founder Phil Knight and main team sponsor Penny Knight.
More than a ball game
The HarbourCats have also had considerable success off the field and led the WCL in attendance six consecutive seasons from 2014 to 2019 and have never finished out of the top four in the league in terms of filling seats. The Portland Pickles led the WCL last season by averaging 3,011 fans per game. The Edmonton Riverhawks were second in 2022 with a 2,342 per-game average, Bellingham Bells third at 1,931 and Victoria fourth at 1,919. Nanaimo was eighth in the 16-team WCL at 1,094.
The Madison, Wisconsin, Mallards of the Northwoods League led all 170 summer-collegiate teams in North America with an average attendance of 5,550 fans per game. Portland ranked sixth, Edmonton 14th, Bellingham 24th, Victoria 25th and Nanaimo 70th.
“We can’t guarantee a win every game but we can guarantee atmosphere and that fans will have an outstanding experience every game from the food trucks, music and between-innings entertainment,” said Swanson.
“We pride ourselves on our entertainment platform and that’s why we have led the league in attendance so many times.”
The Island ownership group is now in the second season of bringing that same spirit to Serauxmen Stadium in Nanaimo with the NightOwls, including playing off the city’s famous confection with third jerseys featuring the iconic Nanaimo Bar, and having the Harbour City recording artist known as Details performing at home games.
“Nanaimo is a vastly underrated but budding market that is on the verge of exploding,” said Swanson.
“The intimacy of the stadium is spectacular, the City of Nanaimo has done a terrific job with it, and people are becoming more and more interested in checking out a stadium that was opened by Mickey Mantle [in 1976]. We believe Nanaimo can be as strong a baseball market as Victoria.”
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