Image courtesy of West Coast League
This breaking news is per the West Coast League:
Fans of the West Coast Baseball league have been prepared for some news since yesterday. The news is here, the new expansion team, The Springfield Drifters are set to begin playing in 2022. This will be the 16th team to join this league. They will join the Portland Pickles, Bend Elks, and Corvallis Knights in Oregon. Making it four teams in the state.
How does the commissioner feel about another team joining the league?
” When you look at a map”…”Commissioner of the WCL Rob Neyer couldn’t contain his excitement about a new expansion team entering the league. “Adding another team in Willamette Valley is an easy call for us. We are simply waiting for the perfect situation , and with the Springfield Baseball Project, that’s now exactly what we’ve got,” Neyer said.
The Drifters will join the Edmonton Riverhawks, Kamloops Nanaimo and Nanaimo Owls in the next wave of expansion teams joining the West Coast Baseball league in 2022.
It is going to be extremely exciting for Drifters fans as they hope the team can start swinging right off the bat.
Who’s the Drifters owner?
“Springfield’s ownership team of Ike Olsson who is from Olsson Industrial Electric and Kelly Richardson of Richardson sports planned this idea for one whole year”(WCL).
“The West Coast League has been around for quite some time. It’s one of the most well known and well trusted summer collegiate baseball leagues. The league has expanded quite a bit over the last couple seasons with the Ridgefield Raptors, Edmonton Riverhawks and others. Now you add in the Drifters in Springfield” said Dacota Haynes (Cowlitz Black Bears staffer 2017-2020).
As you can see some west coast league fans are excited that team in their hometown has been finally created, and they finally get something to go and root for.
Hows the formatting?
For those not familiar with the West Coast Baseball League format, Dacota will explain it for you, “This will make it an even 16 teams in the league. Now they can do 4 four-team divisions or Have 2 8-league conferences.”
Although this year, that format will not happen. The Drifters join the Riverhawks, NorthPaws, Kelowna Falcons, Harbourcats, and the Nanaimo NightOwls in the list of teams that will not play in the summer of 2021. These six will be joining or returning in 2022.
It is only going to grow more and more with additional expansion teams likely joining in the future. It’s always exciting for cities that don’t have a baseball team to get one so fans can go support a local team.
It will be an interesting few years for the new expansion team and everybody wishes them nothing but the best!
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Northwest Sports Desk 