The dream starts here.
The Victoria HarbourCats will hand the ball to starters Jake Finkelstein of Montana State, Flynn Ridley of the University of Ottawa in Kansas and Malik Harris from the University of Memphis for the opening three West Coast League games tonight through Sunday in Kamloops against the NorthPaws.
The Nanaimo NightOwls, meanwhile, will give the start to Aiden Russell from San Diego State for their WCL opener tonight in Kelowna against the Falcons and to returnee Adison Mattix from Everett Community College on Saturday with Sunday’s starter to be announced.
They would all do well to watch and learn from the compelling Legends of the WCL video series posted to the league’s website and also available on YouTube. It features six WCL alumni who are now in Major League Baseball — Steve Kwan, Mitch Haniger, Phil Maton, Shane Bieber, Eli Morgan and Jarren Duran.
There were 37 WCL alumni on MLB opening-day rosters this year, including AL all-star Adley Rutschman, 2020 AL Cy Young Award winner Bieber and two-time AL Gold Glove Award winner Kwan. A total of 62 WCL alumni appeared in MLB games last season. If that doesn’t motivate this current batch of WCL aspirants to pitch their hearts out, or tear the hide off the ball, nothing will. A miniscule number will reach MLB heights, of course, but that’s not the point. The journey, wherever it leads, is the point.
“Summer [collegiate] ball has that romantic kind of energy,” recalled the Cleveland Guardians’ Kwan, in his video about his WCL career with the Corvallis Knights.
“It’s cool. It’s really unique because you’re playing with guys from all over [North] America you would never have an opportunity to play with and you create these really long friendships. The people that you meet is amazing. I still talk to those guys. It is baseball at its purest.”
Haniger, of the Seattle Mariners, described his WCL days as: “A blast in a great league and it gave me a taste of kind of what it was like to play professional baseball with playing every day and the long bus rides. I made a lot of good friends on those teams, with a couple of big leaguers on my [Corvallis] team. You get to meet guys from all over who come together who all try to get better and push each other.”
“It’s a grind but good and you embrace it and enjoy it,” said veteran HarbourCats pitcher Finkelstein, the Montana State hurler from Richmond.
These players are here to learn about playing every day after climbing out of a bus rumpled and accordioned.
“On the mound, I consider myself a crafty lefty with enough movement on the ball to make it difficult for hitters. Off the mound, I am mindful that I have more of a leadership role now on the team as a returning veteran,” said Finkelstein.
Joining Finkelstein as a key returning HarbourCats pitcher is six-foot-four Burnaby product Ridley, a third-year HarbourCat who was all-conference and 6-2 with a 2.00E ERA this past season with the Ottawa University Braves in Kansas: “If you’re hoping to play at the next level you have to adapt to the bus travel and fast food stops and then going out there and playing your butt off. It builds character. You get to play alongside [MLB] drafted players in this league and you get to see up close the margins that separate them from the other players and how they prepare for and approach the game. It’s high-level development and I’ve grown as a player in this league and am taking on more of a leadership role now”
Mild mannered and respectful off the diamond, Ridley becomes Hulk-like on it: “I like to get angry on the mound.”
The HarbourCats’ opening three-game set in Kamloops will be followed by three games in Kelowna against the Falcons starting Monday. The Victoria home opener is next Friday at Wilson’s Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park against the Wenatchee AppleSox. That will be the first of 27 home dates though Aug. 7 at Royal Athletic Park, a fortress where the HarbourCats were 25-2 last season.
The HarbourCats’ new sluggling-outfielder brothers Lucas and Manny Jr. Ramirez, sons of former MLB star Manny Ramirez — the 2004 World Series MVP who hit 555 career home runs — arrive on the Island on Saturday and will not play this weekend in Kamloops. It is not known if they will play the three games in Kelowna next week ahead of debuting at Royal Athletic Park next Friday.
The NightOwls will complete their three-game set in Kelowna on Sunday before returning for their home opener Tuesday night in the Harbour City at Serauxmen Stadium against the Cowlitz Black Bears.
While the HarbourCats made the WCL final last year, the NightOwls missed the playoffs. But there are indications of upward movement heading into the franchise’s third season.
“The biggest sign for me was that 22 players from last season indicated they wanted to return this year to play in Nanaimo,” said NightOwls GM Jim Swanson, who is also the managing partner of the company that owns both the NightOwls and HarbourCats.
“These are mostly American players coming here and the only thing they knew beforehand about sports here is hockey and curling. As for our Nanaimo fan base, the drafting of [2023 NightOwls standout and WCL top-prospect of the year] Elijah Ickes by the Texas Rangers sent a tremendous message to the mid-Island market about what this league is about.”
