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Wood bat baseball league looking at Vancouver

Locall team would play at Clark College field

By Brian T. Smith
Published: August 5, 2010, 12:00am

The Triple-A Portland Beavers will not be relocating to Vancouver in the near future.

But that does not mean Clark County will not have an opportunity to add a new baseball team during the next two years.

Ken Wilson, president of the West Coast League, said this week that the amateur baseball organization could have a franchise in Vancouver by the 2012 season. If a long-planned deal goes through, the club is expected to share a field with Clark College.

“We’re really interested and have been for some time, and we continue to be interested in Vancouver,” said Wilson, a Portland resident who formerly broadcast Seattle Mariners games. “We think a West Coast League franchise will be highly successful there.”

The WCL is a wood-bat summer league that features collegiate players from the Pacific-10, Western Athletic and West Coast conferences, among others. The nine-team organization has squads based in Corvallis; Bend, Ore.; and Bellingham, with Klamath Falls, Ore., set to join in 2011. The league is also eyeing possible expansion sites in Portland, Salem and Medford in Oregon, and New Westminster, British Columbia.

“We’re really doing well,” Wilson said. “We have owners wanting teams, and we’re trying to match some up right now. And so, financially, we are more than holding our own. We think we have one of the finest college wood-bat summer leagues in the country.”

Wilson said a current WCL owner holds an option for a Vancouver franchise with a set purchase price. Wilson would not reveal the name of the owner, but acknowledged that he does not reside in Clark County.

“He’s not really been involved,” Wilson said. “He just knows that he’d like to have it, and we gave him that option.”

With the Beavers set to leave Portland following the end of the 2010 season, Wilson sees Vancouver as an ideal new location for the WCL. But the league must wait to see how renovations proceed with Clark’s baseball field before the organization can move forward.

Clark interim athletic director Denny Huston said the WCL presents an ideal partner for the Penguins, whose baseball team will begin play this fall after an 18-year hiatus.

Clark’s season would end just as a 48-game WCL campaign that runs from June to August begins. In addition, the Penguins’ players would be eligible to play in the league if the college’s Board of Trustees approved a partnership between Clark and the WCL.

“This could be a perfect marriage,” Huston said.

Next week, Clark will start Phase 1 of a three-stage field-upgrade process, during which everything from leveling the playing surface and adding a sprinkler system to installing a scoreboard and bleachers will be undertaken. The Penguins hope to have the upgrades complete by spring 2011.

Huston acknowledged that Clark will have limited financial resources during the renovation. But Wilson said the WCL will possibly contribute money toward the overhaul if needed.

“When I have something more concrete, then I’m going to go back to (the) owner and say, ‘You know, you’ve got an option to buy Vancouver for this price. Here’s the situation with Clark College. Here’s how I see the market. Here’s how I see the progress. And it looks to me like we’re going to have to write a check for $120,000 to finish their stadium to meet our standards.’ To which Clark County would be happy,” Wilson said.

Previous attempts to have a Vancouver-based WCL team play at Propstra Stadium or new community fields located near Northeast 78th Street and St. Johns Road were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, recent wood-bat summer league teams in Vancouver have not fared well. But Wilson said his organization is different.

Names such as Nike chairman Phil Knight (Corvallis), Mariners minority owner John Stanton (Walla Walla) and former Mariners infielder Jeff Cirillo (Walla Walla) are associated with the league, Wilson said. Meanwhile, major-league players Tommy Hanson (Atlanta), Jeff Francis (Colorado), Jacoby Ellsbury (Boston), and Nyger Morgan (Washington) all spent time in the WCL.

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“We look to be part of the community. We look to help support and grow amateur baseball, and give people a place to go to have inexpensive entertainment on a summer night,” Wilson said.

Arch Miller, a longtime Southwest Washington baseball advocate, is not directly involved with the WCL or Wilson’s current attempt to place a team in Vancouver. But he avidly supports the idea.

“I know Ken and he has my ear,” said Miller, chairman of the Vancouver-based International Air and Hospitality Academy.

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