PITTSBURG — After a one-year hiatus, pro baseball is back on deck for summer play at City Park.
The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a licensing agreement to field a new baseball team that’ll play in the multi-state Pecos League.
The council approved a one-year contract with Pecos that calls for the new team to play 25 home games at City Park from June to August. The first game has been set for June. 2.
The Pittsburg team will be called The Anchors.
The team will compete in the Pacific Division, whose other teams includes the Bakersfield Train Robbers, Wasco Reserve, Monterey Amberjacks, Santa Cruz Seaweed and the Martinez Sturgeon. Three former Pecos’ desert teams — White Sands, California City and High Desert — meanwhile will revert back to the Mountain Division.
Pecos commissioner and owner Andrew Dunn was on hand for questions, but the council approved the league agreement without any discussion.
Dunn said his league was the only one to apply since the city’s former league, the Pacific Association, is moving to Fairfield. Though the league could have chosen from more than 21 other cities, he said Pittsburg “complemented” the new Martinez team the best.
“Pittsburg, in my opinion, is the best choice,” Dunn said. “As we continue to make major upgrades to the cities in our league, Pittsburg’s facility — and city support — was the obvious answer. They have made a huge investment in their ballpark, and even without a team their facility is in excellent condition.”
The ballpark is ready to go with no improvements needed, he added.
“We’re glad to be here,” Dunn later said. “And, we’re looking forward to the season.”
Under the agreement, Pecos will compensate the city $400 per game, including field prep work paid up front monthly. It is expected to generate revenue of $10,000 in its first season.
In late December, the Pecos League also nailed an agreement with the city of Martinez to play ball there, replacing the now-defunct Clippers.
Pittsburg got into the baseball business a few years earlier after renovating a field in City Park to attract a minor league team in 2014. Since then, two teams with the Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs league have call Pittsburg their home: Pittsburg Mettle, in 2014, and the Pittsburg Diamonds, 2015-2018.
Over the years, the Pacific Association made headlines with several three-game appearances by former Oakland A’s slugger Jose Canseco. It also signed baseball’s first openly gay player, Sean Conroy, and in 2017 Stacy Piagno became just the third woman to win a pro baseball game since the 1950s, when she pitched for the Stompers.
But then in 2018 the FBI raided the Martinez Clippers owners’ home and Benicia business, DC Solar, later accusing them of diverting investment money for luxury items.
With that, Pittsburg Diamonds owners Wolfgang Croskey and Khurram Shah threw in the towel.
Croskey said they were struggling to find investors and sponsorship and losing money.
“There just was not enough money in the community to support it,” he said after the meeting. “There’s a lot of hands stretched out from different nonprofits trying to get sponsorships, so it dilutes the pool.”
Croskey said he never expected the Diamonds to be a moneymaker, but it did not support itself either. The incoming Pecos League is set up differently, he said.
“I truly wish them luck,” he said. “It has great potential, but I am hoping they have a secret sauce that we couldn’t think of.”
In existence since 2011, the Pecos League has grown from six to 11 teams playing in California, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas and Texas.
“It (Pecos) is an established league,” Croskey said. “It provides good baseball.”
Dunn said his league, which is limited to players 22-25 years old, knows what it needs to do to be successful.
“The city of Pittbsurg understands this level of baseball. .. We all want Pittsburg to be a relevant team in the city’s entertainment community.”