Sherwood Park Ceases Operations

On Tuesday afternoon the Sherwood Park Athletics dropped a bomb on the entire Powerline Baseball League when they informed the league that they will not proceed with the remaining eleven games of the 2019 season. 

Citing player availablity and unfortunate circumstances, the A's season came to an abrupt halt on the day they were to travel to Rosalind in a battle of the Athletics. Instead Rosalind will now have the night off and teams will now have an additional day off throughout the rest of the season. In the A's accouncement they expressed gratitude to the league and teams for the last three seasons and let everyone know how disappointed they were in having to make this tough decision. 

The most recent team to fold during a season was the 2004 Chipman Crackerjacks. They would be unable to fulfil the final five games of their schedule that season. The Armena Axemen would travel to Chipman only to find the field vacant before eventually holding a team practice on the road to make the trip worth something. That season the league would keep the Crackerjacks 4-7 record intact before adding the five forfeit losses to give them a 4-12 final season. While the league hasn't officially announced what will happen to the A's record yet, one would expect the final eleven games to be forfeited to give them a 0-15-1 finish. 

When the Sherwood Park Athletics were admitted to the Powerline Baseball League for the 2017 season, the league had high hopes of a talented young team with one of the better minor baseball associations in the area, the Sherwood Park Minor Baseball Association. Unfortunately it became tough sledding for the Athletics as they would finish 2017 with a 2-12 record. That off season there was a break up of the team with some players leaving to form the Edmonton Expos for the upcoming 2018 season. The Athletics would limp through the season picking up only one win, a forfeit win against the Edmonton Expos due to an illegal roster player. Two games later the Athletics would end the season with a forfeit loss to the Holden Blue Jays due to player availability. They would finish 1-13 in 2018. This season became another tough one as the Athletics would have eight players in Camrose against the Axemen and had a lineup with a player who appeared to pitch for the Edmonton Expos on a Monday (vs Roadrunners) and then play shortstop for the Athletics on the Wednesday (vs Rosalind) to field a team of nine. Senior men's sports is always tough with work schedules and famiy commitments coming first, leaving team organizers roster juggling often just to field enough players. 

First Sherwood Park game played: 11-3 loss to Camrose Roadrunners (May 16, 2017)

First Sherwood Park win: 9-6 vs Armena Royals (June 8, 2017)

Last Sherwood Park game played: 11-1 loss to Tofield Braves (May 24, 2019)

Sherwood Park players who are still interested in playing baseball this spring/summer will now hit free agency allowing teams to potentially bolster their lineup should they have room on their twenty one player roster.