MRPBL, Glacier Outlaws in limbo
WHITEFISH — The Mount Rainier Professional Baseball League, which published a press release on Saturday stating the league would fold in 24 hours without financial help, has revised its stance. The Glacier Outlaws of Whitefish are one of six teams in the fledgling professional baseball independent minor league.
In a new press release published on Monday, Mike Greene, the league owner/commissioner of the MRPBL, stated the league was in the process of restructuring ownership. The league hopes to resume play on June 6 in four cities with four separate owners. The four cities were supposed to be announced on Tuesday, but were never released.
“All players who want to leave will leave, and understandably,” Greene said in the press release.
“I apologize for the way things have gone so far. (It was) never my intent and we are trying to fix this.”
He stated that all players from the two contracted teams that wished to remain in the league would be placed on another team. He also stated that roster sizes would be expanded if necessary before stating in the next bullet point that rosters would stay at 24 players per team.
The league has had a hectic start to the season for the Outlaws since play began on May 21.
The Outlaws’ first game was delayed after the opposing team’s bus overheated on the drive to Whitefish. Neither side in that game had team uniforms, Skagit Valley (Washington) playing in blue T-shirts while Glacier borrowed jerseys from the Glacier Twins American Legion baseball team.
The team uniforms showed up for the Outlaws’ four-game series in Ellensburg, Washington, only for the last two games to be called after the league ran out of funding. The team was left in Washington without money for lodging, meals or transportation, all of which was supposed to be provided by the league.
Glacier team management was able to provide funding to get the players and coaches back to Whitefish but the future of the league is in question.
The league has yet to pay the stadium lease to the Glacier Twins for using Memorial Park and has also left other bills unpaid. Whether Outlaws players and coaches will receive payment for their second week of games is yet to be seen.
“Right now, it’s a situation where it’s wait and see,” Outlaws assistant general manager Linsday Fansler said.
“(Greene would) like to create a four-team league. He’d like new ownership groups for all of them. He’d like to see us be one of the teams that created new ownership.
“But right now it’s very difficult with the fact that there’s that much uncertainty in the league. Anybody that would be willing to take over the team and pay for future costs would have to be assured that the league itself is viable.”
Glacier is 6-2 and in first place in the league this season. The team doesn’t have plans to practice today.