The boys of summer will be batting and fielding in the Harbour City next year.
Nanaimo will get a West Coast League baseball team beginning in 2021 to join the Victoria HarbourCats. The team will be the league鈥檚 13th.
A name-the-team contest will聽be held, said co-owner Jim Swanson. He quipped that 鈥淏athtubbers鈥� would be a unique starting point as a nickname and that he looked forward to what the community comes up with.
The Nanaimo team will be owned by the same company that owns the HarbourCats, which includes Swanson, his brother Ken Swanson, Victoria businessman John Wilson and Richard Harder of Vancouver.
Dual ownership of teams by a single person or company is not an unusual situation in the WCL. The Yakima Valley Pippins and Walla Walla Sweets are both majority owned by John Stanton, who is also majority owner of the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball.
鈥淭he successful program that has been built in Victoria will now have an Island rival to go along with the other natural rivalries already in place with Port Angeles, Kelowna and Bellingham,鈥� said Wilson. 鈥淔ans from the mid-Island area know we [HarbourCats] had many mid-Island players 鈥� Griffin Andreychuk, Adam McKillican, Alex Rogers, Garrett Goodall and others 鈥� and the level of baseball will be the highest Nanaimo has ever seen.鈥�
Swanson is the managing partner and will oversee business operations in both Nanaimo and Victoria.
鈥淭he HarbourCats and Nanaimo team will have separate baseball operations departments, so there won鈥檛 be any conflicts that way,鈥� said Swanson.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a great Island rivalry.鈥�
The Nanaimo team will play at Serauxmen Stadium.
鈥淭he City [of Nanaimo] will erect new lights and a scoreboard,鈥� said Swanson. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an awesome facility with so much potential.鈥�
Serauxmen Stadium was opened in 1976 by the late baseball great Mickey Mantle, who was in Nanaimo at the time for a fundraising dinner.
鈥淲hat an amazing addition to our Third Street sports zone,鈥� Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog said in a statement.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 wait to hear the cheers from the big crowds watching this level of baseball at Serauxmen Stadium.鈥�
Nanaimo鈥檚 new team will be officially announced today at a news conference. Information about the team and season tickets will be available at nanaimobaseball.com.
The WCL is a collegiate league featuring players in summer ball from top NCAA conferences, such as the Pac-12.
The HarbourCats open their eighth season in the WCL on June 5 at Royal Athletic Park against the Ridgefield Raptors from Washington state.
