Blowouts will be rare.
In the Shooters Bar & Grill Prince George Senior Baseball League, a decline in the number of teams for the 2012 season is expected to result in hotly-contested games night after night.
"The teams that have remained in the league are going to be strong -- 16 to 18 guys on the rosters," said president Adam Norn. "It's going to be a competitive league, more competitive this year."
The league has gone from seven clubs in 2011 to five this year. Gone are the Quesnel Jacks and the Prince George-based Predators. The Jacks were having trouble finding enough guys willing to make regular trips to Prince George for games. And, conversely, some of the local clubs were running into difficulties with road trips to Quesnel. The Predators, meanwhile, had simply run too low on players.
Norn is optimistic the Jacks will be back in the loop for 2013. In the meantime, he has taken steps to ensure interested players from Quesnel can still get a taste of game action this year.
"They still have several guys that want to play baseball so we're not going to turn our back on those guys," he said. "I've scheduled some games on Saturdays this year at Citizen Field and the Quesnel guys are welcome to come up and we're going to make available spots on our rosters for those guys who want to play."
As for the remaining Predators players, they went into a draft and were dispersed among the senior teams left in the league. Also in the draft were players graduating from the midget ranks.
The season-opening pitch was thrown last night at Citizen Field when the District Clothing/TQ Titans took on the IDL Midget Knights. The other three teams are the defending-champion Inland Control & Services Tigers, Barry Yip RE/MAX Shooters Gladiators and Queensway Auto World Red Sox.
The league will host the B.C. Senior Baseball Association provincial championship tournament Aug. 3-6. In the tournament, Prince George will be represented by the BID Group Grays.
See Wednesday's Citizen for a story on the Grays.
