In November 2024, the Peninsula Oilers said they would be suspending their 2025 season “due to financial hardship.”
That announcement sent a ripple through the Alaska Baseball League, leaving it with four teams and the need to develop a completely new schedule for the upcoming season.
That schedule now includes significantly fewer games, and will wrap up two weeks earlier than previous editions of the summer collegiate baseball league.
Mat-Su Miners general manager Pete Christopher said he reorganized the schedule, which is now at 30 games per team, down from the normal 40.
While the league would much prefer additional teams, Christopher said the shortened schedule should benefit the players.
“Instead of the guys going home Aug. 8 or 9, they’re going home July 24 or 25,” Christopher said. “So it gives them more time at home to decompress and heal up and get ready for school.”
The Anchorage Bucs won last year’s league title, taking the honor based on their regular-season record after the postseason championship against Mat-Su was rained out.
The previous three league titles were won by the Anchorage Glacier Pilots.
Despite the fewer games, Christopher said the league is still rich with talent, continuing to showcase a good share of quality West Coast players as well as college players from elsewhere in the Lower 48.
“I still think the Alaska League is the second-best summer league in the country (after the Cape Cod League),“ Christopher said.
The Oilers plan to return to the league in 2026, giving the ABL the five teams it has maintained for the last decade.
There have also been discussions in ABL circles in recent years about the Alaska Goldpanners, of Fairbanks, returning to the league.
The Goldpanners played against ABL teams last summer in a showcase series in Anchorage. This year, the Anchorage Glacier Pilots will travel north to compete in a three-game series, including the Goldpanners’ signature Midnight Sun Game.
While Goldpanners general manager John Lohrke said the team is excited about the opportunity to play ABL teams, he believes the league needs an organizational restructuring with a leadership position at the top.
“We are very open to listening to the Alaska League about participating in the future,” he said. “At the current time, without a commissioner, the Goldpanners organization feels like it’s in our best interest to stay and compete as an independent.”
In 2023, the ABL had brought on former college assistant baseball coach Chip Dill as commissioner, a stint that only lasted a few months.
The first rivalry game between the Anchorage Glacier Pilots and Anchorage Bucs is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday at Mulcahy Stadium.