The California League is perhaps ending its future in Modesto, however skilled baseball seems poised to stay.
The impartial Pioneer League is in talks to put a staff at John Thurman Subject, the present residence of the Modesto Nuts.
In a closed session Tuesday, the Modesto Metropolis Council mentioned the potential phrases of a lease below negotiation between the town supervisor and Pioneer League President Michael Shapiro. The council took no motion Tuesday, and neither Shapiro nor a metropolis spokesperson instantly returned messages in search of remark.
Modesto’s California League historical past dates to 1946 — John Thurman Subject opened in 1955 — however the Nuts are all the way down to their last three homestands.
After negotiations for a renovated stadium and a brand new lease collapsed, the staff was offered final December and can transfer to San Bernardino subsequent season, a part of a California League shuffle that features the Dodgers’ affiliate transferring right into a new ballpark in Ontario.
A Modesto staff would give the league two new groups subsequent 12 months and 14 in all; leagues desire an excellent variety of groups for scheduling functions.
The opposite new staff would play in Lengthy Seashore, in what can be the town’s first entry in an impartial league since 2009.
On Tuesday, the Lengthy Seashore Metropolis Council unanimously accepted pursuing an settlement with an enlargement Pioneer League staff that might share historic Blair Subject with the Lengthy Seashore State baseball program.
“A staff in Lengthy Seashore is an opportunity to indicate what makes Lengthy Seashore nice: our range, our ardour and our group spirit,” Lengthy Seashore Mayor Rex Richardson mentioned in a press release.
Paul Freedman, the co-founder of the Pioneer League’s Oakland Ballers, can be one of many house owners of the Lengthy Seashore staff. In a Instances story final 12 months in regards to the Ballers and the way they had been filling the baseball void created in Oakland by the departure of the Athletics, Freedman already had his eye on Lengthy Seashore.
“I feel Lengthy Seashore ought to have a Pioneer League staff,” Freedman mentioned then. “Lengthy Seashore has its personal distinctive id. If I’m from Lengthy Seashore, I don’t wish to be instructed I’ve to be a Dodger or Angel fan.”
