LET IT SNOW - BC Minor's 15U AAA League Heads into Winter at a Crossroads with Many Questions Looming

Question #1 – Will the qualification process for Westerns and Nationals change in 2017?
Since the fall of 2014, when the executive and membership of BC Minor Baseball voted to no longer affiliate with their Provincial Sports Organization, Baseball BC, the sport has been in a state of transition; something that has arguably had the greatest impact on the 15U AAA league. For decades, the winner of the BC Minor 15U AAA Provincial Championship represented the province at Nationals and the runner-up qualified for Westerns. With Baseball BC now holding the keys to those Championships, and the link between BC Minor and Baseball BC severed, that qualification process changed in 2015. The 32 game 15U AAA single season league and the BC Minor Provincial Championship, no longer served as the qualification route. In 2015, only two BC Minor 15U AAA teams (Tri City & Victoria Black Eagles), chose to enter what became a five team Baseball BC Provincial Championship (including three PBL Bantam teams), that served as a qualifier for Nationals and Westerns. Only two teams entered because they would be on the hook for the entire travel bill if they qualified for Westerns and Nationals and they had to front a deposit of $5000 to confirm their willingness to travel. BC Minor, countered with US based travel for their provincial winners, sending a team to a tournament in Milwaukee (from a qualification tournament) and another team to Kennewick, Washington. At the conclusion of the 2015 season, the 15U AAA teams told BC Minor they wanted BC Minor to drop the US based post-provincial travel and instead fully fund BC Minor teams to Westerns and Nationals. BC Minor listened and agreed to pay the travel bill should a BC Minor team advance. Instead of two teams entering Baseball BC Provincials, 11 of the 17 teams entered. However, with the expansion of the PBL Bantam league to six teams, this meant that a qualification tournament was required as 17 teams wanted to participate in a 10 team provincial. The six Bantam PBL teams were granted an automatic berth to provincials based on their league’s membership in Baseball BC, in addition to Kamloops as host. This left the ten remaining BC Minor teams to play for the final three berths. So, while funding improved this season, access was actually reduced for BC Minor teams. This inequality can be understood by those at the administrative level of the game but is hard to understand for 14 year old athletes wanting to compete for the opportunity to represent their province on the game’s highest stage. What happens to this qualification process remains a major question heading into the winter political season.

Question #2 – Will BC Minor re-join Baseball BC and what impact would that have on the 15U AAA league?
This will be a question that will be answered at BC Minor’s fall Annual General Meeting in November. The question has been put to members three times already and will likely see a forth vote this fall. In the fall of 2014 a vote at the BC Minor AGM gave the executive the authority to remove itself from Baseball BC. This was reconfirmed at a spring 2015 Special General Meeting. The motion was again debated at the 2015 Annual General Meeting, with only about 15 associations voting to return to Baseball BC. However, the tone seemed to be changing and BC Minor seemed to indicate that they were negotiating a return to Baseball BC and asked for more time to negotiate favorable terms. It has remained quiet on that front ever since. In order to return to Baseball BC, the majority of BC Minor’s member associations (Burnaby, Coquitlam, Cloverdale, etc.) and executive will have to vote in favor. A few things could transpire this fall. BC Minor’s executive could recommend a return, which would all but guarantee the support of the associations. But what happens if the executive recommends the status quo. The motion will probably be brought to the floor again, and one would expect the vote to be very close this time around. Both results would have implications that could splinter baseball further in the province. A vote to return to Baseball BC, without the recommendation from the BC Minor executive, would be a vote of non-confidence to their leadership and would likely cause significant executive turnover at BC Minor. A vote to remain apart from Baseball BC, may cause a group of Associations to break-away from BC Minor and form their own league; or more likely, directly affiliate with Baseball BC themselves. Whether BC Minor chooses to affiliated with Baseball BC will impact the qualification process for Westerns and Nationals at the 15U AAA level. A return to Baseball BC, would not bring back the old days of BC Minor teams alone competing for berths in Westerns and Nationals but should mean an equal qualification process with the PBL Bantam teams. Not returning, could mean the status quo in terms of qualification or BC Minor could decide not to support Westerns and Nationals as they did in 2015 and pursue other programming for its winning teams.

Question #3 – Which teams will stay in BC Minor’s 15U AAA League and which will jump to the PBL Bantam League?
This isn’t a choice available to every team in the league as the PBL is only accepting Bantam teams who are affiliated with their current franchises. It is all but confirmed that the Cowichan Valley Mustangs will leave BC Minor and join the PBL Bantam league as an affiliate of the Nanaimo Pirates, whose whole program may be rebranded as Mid Island. The White Rock Tritons, who are currently affiliated with their PBL franchise, are also rumored to be switching leagues. With two of the top ten teams leaving, the dominos may begin to fall. Abbotsford is the next likely team to move and may be followed by the Victoria Black Eagles because both have association connections to their PBL franchises. Those rumors were floating around Nanaimo all weekend and seem to have some traction; however, those teams have yet to announce a decision.   

Question #4 - How will the movement of teams to the PBL Bantam League affect BC Minor’s 15U AAA league?
The loss of White Rock and Cowichan will have a significant impact on the quality of the 15U AAA league. The loss of other teams will only further decimate the league of talent top end teams. In addition to the four teams rumored to be considering their options, there are other rumors circulating that the PBL will grant an expansion Bantam franchise to Vancouver, likely to be run out of UBC beginning in 2017 or 2018. This would significantly impact the Vancouver Community and Minor 15U AAA teams. Burnaby, Tri City, and Cloverdale are already facing challenges of keeping players with introduction of PBL Bantam teams in Coquitlam and Langley and in the case of Tri City and Burnaby are unsure if they have AAA talent for 2017. If the league weakens, will well established teams like Richmond and Delta be able to continue to hold on to their own players despite their solid program and experienced coaches. In 2016 the quality of the PBL and BC Minor Bantam teams were fairly similar, with BC Minor’s arguably having the majority of the top teams. This may not last much longer as the PBL branding seems to be attracting teams and talent to their league and the ball seems to be clearly in BC Minor’s court to create programming and membership links that entice players and teams to remain in their league. Hoping that teams with stay without change puts the league at risk of becoming a glorified house league within a few seasons.

Question #5 – Will a joint PBL-BC Minor 15U AAA league be formed for 2017?
Rumors had been circulating that BC Minor has apparently suggested the idea of a forming a joint league for 2017, although at the provincial championships 15U AAA Director Mike Kelly indicated that this was not the case and he did not support a joint league. The PBL is lukewarm to the idea. There has been no communication from BC Minor to their 15U AAA teams on this topic, or requests for opinions so the details are sketchy on what this could look like or whether any conversations have actually occurred. The league could potentially be run through Baseball BC and serve as a qualification process for Westerns and Nationals. While the idea of a joint 15U AAA league seems like it could have significant benefits for competition and therefore player development, it seems extremely unlikely that this is something that would get off the ground in 2017.

Question #6 – Will there be baseball in 2017?
That much is certain – there will be baseball for 15U players in 2017. It’s now up to the adults who have accepted the responsibility for administering the game in British Columbia to work together to build the best possible leagues, programs, teams, and opportunities for the athletes that they have been entrusted to lead. Ultimately, as long as quality programs exist, it doesn’t matter whether they are under the banner of the PBL, BC Minor, Baseball BC, Little League, Babe Ruth, or Chuck-E-Cheese Baseball or whether any one individual is in power; players ultimately won’t care, nor will they even notice, so long as they have positive experiences and have the opportunity to achieve their personal and team goals.  

The landscape of baseball continues to change and evolve in British Columbia. Arguably a 15U AAA season has never ended with so many questions and uncertainty as to what that landscape will look like when the snow melts and teams take the field in six months time. It promises to be an interesting off-season.