Play ball? Not so fast! Plug pulled on inaugural Riverhawks season

Hollywood would have us believe there are three classic blunders:

Never get involved in a land

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war in Asia.

Never go in against a Sicilian

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when death is on the line.

And never try to start up an

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expansion West Coast League franchise in Edmonton during a worldwide pandemic.

OK, that last one might not be from the William Goldmanpenned cult classic, The Princess Bride. But the Edmonton Riverhawks have to be feeling every bit the bridesmaid after the WCL announced all five of its Canadian clubs have withdrawn from the 2021 season due to COVID -19 restrictions.

In fact, you couldn't have written a more tragic script for the fledgling Riverhawks, whose ownership group was still in the nest-building stage after acquiring a long-term lease to Re/max Field.

They had already begun major and expensive overhauls to the artificial turf and scoreboard in preparation for its inaugural season, which was set to open June 1 against the visiting Victoria Harbourcats, whose own season was also scrubbed Wednesday.

The news comes exactly two weeks after the Riverhawks unveiled their inaugural general manager in former Major League catcher Kelly Stinnett, as well as pitching coach Ethan Elias, a former Canadian national team member and draft pick of the Chicago Cubs.

Both are being retained on staff over the cancelled season.

“We think that we're going to be around Edmonton for a long time and all the planning that we've done will just even solidify more when the 2022 season comes up,” Riverhawks managing director Dr. Randy Gregg said. “All the things we're doing to get that park back to the level Edmontonian's expect, we're still really excited about that.”

It all amounts to a big swing and a miss in Year 1 of existence for the summer collegiate club, who had 23 players listed on the team's website as of Wednesday.

The list includes Sherwood Park's Clayton Loranger, an outfielder out of Stephen F. Austin State; St. Albert's Michael Brisson, a utility player attending Niagara University, fellow

St. Albert product Tylor Jans, a pitcher at the University of Louisiana Monroe; Beaumont's Shaun Atamanchuk, who takes the mound at Gwinnett College; and Lacombe's Myles Pallister, a pitcher from Niagara University. The rest are U.s.-born athletes. “The other concern for us is we didn't want to wait so long that the players who committed to come up to Edmonton to play couldn't get another spot,” Gregg said.

While Re/max sits dormant for a second straight season, summer collegiate baseball is still expected to play in the capital region, as the Edmonton Prospects — previous residents of the river valley ballpark for the past decade — are still pushing to play in the upcoming Western Canadian Baseball League season.

The all-canadian-based league is looking to proceed with as many as seven of its 11 clubs, so long as government and health restrictions allow, with the Prospects planning on touring their home games through different locations in the greater-edmonton area as they await the construction of a new home base in Spruce Grove in time for 2022.