Expansion might never be the PBL way
Posted November 6, 2012
When I was younger, I heard the phrase, “History will always repeat itself.”
I laughed. I scoffed. I made fun of old guys in the Powerline Baseball League who snorted and huffed when some young guys proposed 18 or 20 games, weekend doubleheaders and expanded playoffs.
Am I now the old guy? Are the guys running the teams like myself now the old guys we used to poke fun at?
In the past week four teams have inquired about how to play games with our league either in an inter-league or outright submission into the standings. Three of them are more than a couple hours away. They included:
- Fort Saskatchewan
- Hobbema
- St. Paul
- Cold Lake
The immediate reaction of most, is this wouldn’t work.
- We play Tuesday-Thursdays. This would require some sort of weekend planning at least once for each team in the traditional league.
- Travel is a concern. A league stretched as thin as the CFL in the mid-90s would be hard. The charm of knowing most guys on every team might be lost.
- How would playoffs work? The historic three-game series every Tuesday-Thursday would be over. Would we need a tournament? Would we have to do what NCABL does and have neutral site doubleheaders?
Besides Fort Saskatchewan, the other three would require thinking out of the box. This would include having to play on Sunday afternoons or weekends perhaps. Finding neutral fields either in the PBL or in Vegreville for example maybe.
A 10-team league that looks an awful like the NCABL in terms of schedule, might not be too appetizing for the current PBL members. A 5-7 team league sticking with the playoff formats and 14-15 game regular season is the easy thing to do – especially when just fielding teams isn’t always easy.
There seems to be interest building in the league. Now seems like the time to expand and change, or once-and-for-all keep with the same and stick with what we have, telling everyone, if you aren’t within an hour or so of Bardo/Tofield area (The middle), it’s not going to work.
Thoughts?
Posted on November 6, 2012 by Jason Buzzell
