Western Canadian Baseball League puts season on hold

The weather makes it feel like baseball season is near, but the Western Canadian Baseball League is delaying its 2020 season due to COVID-19.

The league made the announcement Thursday following a board of governors call on Wednesday night. The season will be delayed until at least the end of June or the start of July.

“Although the circumstances are not moving quickly enough at present in our favour, we want to look at all options in order to play this year,” WCBL president Kevin Kvame said in a media release.”The start of the season as scheduled in late May is impossible to maintain at this point and thus, we regrettably need to make this decision.

“At the same time, however, we express that with ever-changing dynamics and circumstances on this pandemic and the measures needed to curtail it, we still want to maintain hope that a partial season can be played should health and government positions on the pandemic change enough to make it feasible.”

The league features teams from Saskatchewan and Alberta including the Regina Red Sox, Swift Current 57s, Weyburn Beavers and Moose Jaw Miller Express. The Melville Millionaires and Yorkton Cardinals have been granted a one-year leave of absence.

The league announced that all decisions when it comes to playing games at all or some of the league’s ballparks will depend on guidance and approval from local, provincial and health authorities.

A legacy project is being developed by the WCBL that will allow teams to continue to show community pride and brand in better ways whenever the league returns to action.

The WCBL has been in existence in various forms since the 1930s.