PBL Spring Meeting Wraps Up

Team representatives from six of the seven Powerline Baseball League teams met in Camrose on Thursday March 27th to set out the framework for the upcoming 2014 season, scheduled to begin on May 10th. While the off season has been quiet on the PBL rumors front, there were some significant changes to the way the league will operate in 2014. 

The league will see all seven on the teams from 2013 return to the field in 2014 as the Armena Royals, Bardo Athetics, Beaumont Angels, Camrose Roadrunners, Holden Blue Jays, Leduc Milleteers and Ryley Rebels will all battle for the PBL Championship. The Holden Blue Jays were able to capture the 2013 PBL Pennant but were unable to overcome the Leduc Milleteers in the PBL Championship Final allowing the Millteers to collect their five consecutive championship despite only being in the league for six seasons. The Ryley Rebels, Camrose Roadrunners and Beaumont Angels were the unlucky groups left out of the PBL Playoff picture last season. 

Change will start right at the top for the PBL in 2014, as former PBL President Steven Pahl announced he would be stepping down from the role during the offseason. Taking over will be longtime Bardo Athletics outfielder Craig Neufeld who was introduced to the media as the new president shortly before the meeting was adjorned. Some were surprised that Pahl did not announce that 2014 would be his last season to enjoy the spoils of a farewell tour throughout the league much like MLB Commissioner Bud Selig. Leduc's Trevor Pahl will take over the vacated Tresurer role left by Neufeld and the Rebels Corey Epp will take over as league Secretary after teammate Kevin Reinholt unexpectedly abandoned the position. Blue Jays player/coach Stephen Hrabec remained as the PBL's Vice President of Operations.

One of Pahl's last legacies in the PBL was the passing of a line up rule only permitting nine batters. While for years the PBL resisted the traditional baseball rules and permitted teams to bat more than nine players with unlimited substitutions, the rule change was met with resounding success. As the league has become siginificantly younger in the last number of years, most teams were playing with nine players and traditional line ups anyways, but the new rule that was approved makes it official. 

The second major rule that was changed was the PBL's Mercy Rule which previously had been set at fifteen runs after five innings. The new rule states that a game will be in mercy should one team be ahead of their opponent by ten or more runs after five complete innings. During the old Mercy Rule the Rebels had only experienced the winning side of the rule with two mercy wins over the Camrose Roadrunners and one over the Bardo Athletics in the last three seasons. Should the new rule have been in place over the last three seasons, the Rebels would have seen two PBL Playoff mercy losses at the hands of the Leduc Milleteers and the Armena Royals. 

For a number of years now former PBL President Steven Pahl tried reaching out to the Battle River Baseball League to work on the logistics of a best of three series between the PBL Champions and the BRBL Champions for late July/early August. While the idea was a great one on paper and would add some more publicity to both leagues during the best months of summer, the logisitics seemed to be too difficult to overcome. Where would the games be played? When would the games be played? Would teams be able to have full rosters come out due to the prime vacation months? While BRBL teams like the Rosalind Atheltics and the Heisler Cardinals have shown some interest in the idea, it will have to be new PBL President Craig Neufeld that secures the event with the BRBL.

The last interesting news to come out of the Spring PBL Meeting was the announcement of four possible PBL tournaments running from late May to late June. The PBL Tournament schedule would start off on May 23 - 25 with a tournament hosted by the Leduc Milleteers. The tournament might be able to gain some traction after the eight team Axemen Invitational Tournament is no longer running in Camrose. A tournament early in the year will capture the enthusiasm and excitement of teams and players who have been sitting around since July or August in most cases waiting for baseball to start. Baseball fans would then have a weekend to recover before the second edition of the Armena/Holden/Camrose Tri-Hosted Tournament runs through Armena/Holden/Round Hill over the June 7 - 8 weekend. The league would then see the long running Bardo Sports Day on June 14 with the one day tournament running at the Bardo Recreation Grounds and then three day Ryley Sports Days Tournament and Curtis Stensrud Memorial Slo-Pitch Tournament from June 20 - 22 in Ryley. While the Rebels have committed to the Ryley Sports Days Tournament with the Village of Ryley, the other tournaments were listed as tentative, most likely due to the early stages of the Spring. 

The 2014 PBL Season is set to kick off on Saturday May 10th with a trio of games played across the league including the Beaumont Angels at the Armena Royals, Leduc Milleteers at the Holden Blue Jays and the Ryley Rebels taking on the Bardo Atheltics in Bardo. All games are listed as 5:00pm start times on the PBL website but might be subject to change as the meeting minutes indicated 2:00pm start times in Armena and Bardo with a 4:00pm start time in Holden. Stay tuned to the Rebels schedule for any changes. 

2014 Ryley Rebels Schedule (click here for a complete 2014 PBL schedule)