A league on its own: NBC World Series no longer on ABL’s radar

PALMER — For decades in the storied Alaska Baseball League, teams fought for the opportunity to earn a chance to compete in the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kansas.

But there’s a new era in the ABL, widely considered one of the top summer collegiate amateur baseball leagues in the country. ABL teams are no longer eager to make the journey to Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in Wichita. The league has instead created its own destination for organizations hungry for a championship.

Thursday marked the start of the ABL’s 2016 postseason, which includes a new four-team, two-round format. Each round features a best-of-3 series, and the mini-tournament includes four straight days of baseball, with a champion crowned on Sunday. The opening series features top-seeded Mat-Su against the fourth-seeded Anchorage Bucs at Hermon Brothers Field Thursday and Saturday. The No. 2 seed Peninsula Oilers host the third-seeded Anchorage Glacier Pilots in the other first-round matchup Thursday and Friday at Coral Seymour Park in Kenai.

Friday’s action at each venue features Game 2 of the best-of-3 series at 2 p.m. A third game, if necessary, would follow about 40 minutes after the conclusion of Game 2.

“I think it’s exciting,” Mat-Su Miners head coach Ben Taylor said of the new format. “I think it gives everybody a chance to do the best they can with what they’ve got this time of year, and let the chips fall where they may.”

The winner of each first-round series meets at the home park of the higher seed Saturday and Sunday in the Top of the World Series.

While some ABL faithful still believe there’s a place for the ABL in the NBC World Series, Taylor, Mat-Su’s fourth-year head coach, said Wichita is the furthest thing from the Miners’ minds right now.

“Wichita has never been on our radar. We worry about the local championship,” Taylor said.

Taylor, rather, focused on the importance of the ABL postseason.

“I think the ABL championship is really special,” Taylor said.

During the offseason, the debate over whether or not ABL teams should continue to go to Wichita led to the elimination of one team from the league, at least temporarily. The Alaska Goldpanners, the oldest organization in the ABL, chose not to be a part of the ABL in 2016, opting instead to play as an independent. The Panners also played as an independent team in 2011. The Panners did not participate in the league in 2016 because of the organization’s desire to compete in the NBC World Series.

“They care more about going to the NBC than being a member of the ABL,” Mat-Su Miners general manager Pete Christopher said.

Mat-Su is a two-time NBC World Series champ, winning it all in 1987 and 1997, but Christopher said the Miners have not seriously considered sending the team back to Wichita since 2004, when Mat-Su finished as the runner-up.

“It’s too much money,” Christopher said of the expense to send an ABL team to Wichita for the tournament.

Christopher estimated a cost of around $30,000 to fund the trip in 2004. In 2016, Christopher said it could cost the organization anywhere from $40,000 to $50,000 to cover costs that include airline tickets, rental vans, meal money, lodging and rental of a practice facility.

It’s a cost that could bankrupt a team, like the Miners, that now operates as a nonprofit 501c3.

In 1987, former Miners general manager Stan Zaborac mortgaged his own home to cover the expenses of sending his team to the NBC World Series. The Anchorage Glacier Pilots also made the trip to Wichita in 1987, and could not afford to have a team the following ABL season.

Aside from the money, Christopher said, the NBC World Series has lost some of its allure.

“It’s not what it used to be,” Christopher said.

This is the fourth year in which the ABL has hosted a postseason tournament. The league hosted just one championship series in each of the first three years, before expanding the playoffs to four teams prior to the start of the 2016 season. Christopher said there’s excitement throughout the league, about the tournament.

“We took it and made it work,” Christopher said.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.