Fate of IBL season could be determined Monday
Whether “play ball” is heard this summer at the eight Intercounty Baseball League centres in Ontario could be decided as early as Monday.
Members of Canada’s oldest independent amateur baseball league, including the Welland Jackfish, are expected to join a conference call and vote on whether they should attempt to squeeze in a shortened season this year or hold off and play a full schedule in 2021.
A 36-game season had been set to start in mid-May and wrap up with a best-of-seven final in early September. However, given that COVID-19 crowd restrictions have closed municipal recreational facilities, including ballparks, until June 30, that schedule is already a non-starter.
“The way it looks right now, we wouldn’t be able to start until July at the earliest,” Jackfish president Ryan Harrison said. “So we would be looking to play as many regular-season games as we can between July and August and a small playoff in September.”
Harrison hopes the league can somehow find a way to make that happen, “but only if it’s safe and public health allows it.”
“It’s not a business decision, it’s not a monetary thing, it’s more just so we can feel some hope and some normalcy once this thing hopefully fades away,” said Harrison, a partowner of the team. “That’s pretty much the idea behind it. “The league has been around for more than 100 years and never missed a season, so if there is a way we can be a part of bringing people something, then we want to.”
While teams are allowed to play four imports, having players unable to cross the border won’t be an issue in whether to cancel the season.
“That’s not really a sticking point for us. If we’re not allowed to have imports, that’s not a big deal,” Harrison said. “At the end of the day, it’s going to be up to the borders opening and flights being allowed.”
Though the Jackfish would like to return to the diamond this season, they will agree with whatever the league decides.
“We’d have to be. We won’t have anybody to play, so we would have to go along with whatever they decide,” Harrison said.
He said the franchise, which moved to Welland in 2019 after two seasons in Mississauga followed by eight in Burlington, can afford to take a year off.
The Kitchener Panthers, who operate as a non-profit organization, also will survive if the IBL decides to cancel the 2020 season.
“We’ll be OK. Frankly, it’s the reverse that could hurt us,” Panthers president Bill Pegg said.
“If we gambled and did play and didn’t get the crowds and some of sponsors were skittish and all that kind of stuff. “That could kill us.”
Pegg hopes the league will cancel the season.
“Our position is that we should scuttle the season,” he said. “It’s best to err on the side of caution.
“That has been our position for over three weeks.” — with files from Josh Brown, Waterloo Region Record Bernd.Franke@niagaradailies.com 905-225-1624 | @TribSportsDesk