Nanaimo NightOwls
It’s a big night for us at Serauxmen Stadium in Nanaimo for a game between the Nanaimo NightOwls and the visiting Kamloops NorthPaws — both new West Coast League teams. We meet the coaches and GM, get named Fans of the Game, and lead the crowd in singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
The light rain of the morning receded, though plenty of threatening clouds remained. I pulled Dad’s mini-SUV into the dirt parking lot beyond the left-field fence at Serauxmen Stadium, home of the Nanaimo NightOwls, a brand new team in the collegiate West Coast League. I spent a few moments weighing the right location to park to minimize both walking distance and the possibility of a broken windshield.
We presented our tickets at a table beyond center field, then walked around toward home plate. I anticipated a big night.
Serauxmen Stadium was built on the site of a former coal-mining operation that employed about 300 miners. In 1972, the Nanaimo Minor Baseball Association signed a deal with the school district to build a field on the property — once the coal slag had been cleared. The Serauxmen Service Club led the volunteer effort to build the facility. (“Serauxmen” is not an indigenous peoples word but rather a portmanteau for “Service Auxilary Men.”) The ballpark opened in 1976 in a ceremony that included Mickey Mantle, Bob Uecker, Jimmy Piersall, and a number of other sports stars, many from Canada.
In July 2020, the WCL awarded the ownership group behind the Victoria HarbourCats a second spot for a team in Nanaimo. They lost the 2021 season to COVID-19, but with the help of the city and other local organizations, the NightOwls used the time to revamp Serauxmen Stadium with new lighting, fencing, seating, a scoreboard, and more. It is now able to accommodate about 2,000 fans. In this, their inaugural season, the NightOwls would draw just over 1,000 fans per game — right in the middle of the pack of the WCL and a good result for a first-year collegiate summer league team.
I had been chatting about our trip over Twitter with NightOwls General Manager Jim Swanson and Assistant GM Raymond Kirk, and we ran into them straight away. They were joined by Ben Hier, host of the Diamonds & Roses podcast, which covers baseball in the Pacific Northwest. During the closures of the pandemic, Hier produced a multi-part series of his podcast called “Coal Ball,” an examination of Nanaimo, its people, and its baseball history. Ben presented us with a one-of-a-kind set of baseball hats from Baseballism (a merchandise site that advertises on his show) to symbolize our father-and-son journey.
NightOwls GM Jim Swanson, Asst. GM Raymond Kirk, and Northwest baseball podcaster Ben Hier.
Kirk and the rest of the staff wore orange shirts in celebration of National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada. Swanson stressed the importance of the remembrance, recalling the story from 2021 in which the remains of 215 children were found buried on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, part of a series of revelations about the country’s residential schools that led to the discovery of more than 1,000 graves across Canada. A separate Orange Shirt Day began in 2013 to promote awareness of the issue, and we had seen people wearing orange shirts earlier in the day around Nanaimo.
We were then introduced to NightOwls pitching coach Gorman Heimueller, who pitched in 22 games for the Oakland A’s in 1983-84. The left-handed junk-baller struck out Cal Ripken, Jr. in the first inning of his first start, and later that year pitched a complete-game shutout against the California Angels, striking out Rod Carew once and Reggie Jackson twice. Heimueller later served as either pitching coach or pitching coordinator with the Twins, Dodgers, Phillies, and, just before Nanaimo, the Padres.
Dad and Heimueller fell into an easy baseball patter quickly, recalling players and events from Heimuller’s time in our original hometown of San Diego.
Dad with Gorm Heimuller
We walked through the modest clubhouse beneath the stadium, through the dugout, and onto the field, where NightOwls manager Greg Frady greeted us. Frady played four seasons at Troy State University and twice appeared in the Division II World Series, winning a title in 1986. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Columbus State in 1988 and worked his way up to the head coaching position at Georgia State University from 2007-19. During much of that time, Frady was also head coach of the German National Team, where he won more than 100 games, including a nice “W” against the United States in 2009.
In addition to that compelling resume, Frady is also a sponsored Pickleball player and won the US Open championship in his age class just a few months before we arrived.
Swanson gave us a quick tour of the ballpark, noting the many improvements that had been put in place over the previous 18 months. He pointed to where we were walking, on pavement that had been completed just three days before the season opened. A bigger area was planned to be paved before workers discovered remnants of the old coal mine with asbestos-based waterworks that needed to be removed in the offseason. It’s not exactly the first thing you would think a collegiate summer league team would need to think about as it kicks off its inaugural season.
Nanaimo was not alone as a newcomer to the league. The WCL expanded to 16 teams for the 2022 schedule, also adding the Edmonton Riverhawks, the Springfield (Oregon) Drifters, and tonight’s opponent, the Kamloops (British Columbia) NorthPaws.
Dad and I were treated like baseball royalty by everyone at the ballpark. We were given special, cushy seats next to the broadcast booth, which made Dad plenty happy. Everyone working for the team extended their appreciation for coming to their newly upgraded ballpark on Vancouver Island as part of our tour.
Kyle Rosenfeld took the mound for the NightOwls in what would be his fourth and final start of the summer. The leftie from Western Illinois University gave up three singles in the first but closed the door with a strikeout, stemming the tide at 1-0 Kamloops.
The NorthPaws started right-hander Sean Heppner, a sophomore at the University of British Columbia. He began his night with a scoreless inning.
I went back under the stands and through a narrow passageway to “Kent’s Kitchen,” with Kent himself at the helm, grilling jumbo hot dogs and onions. That worked for me. I paired it with a Honey Hop Pale Ale from Longwood Brewery. The team has a partnership with the brewery, which produces the NightOwls-themed Talon Lager, complete with a game schedule on the side.
Rosenfeld faced all nine batters in the Kamloops lineup in the second inning, which is never a good sign. Three walks and two singles produced four more runs for the NorthPaws, who led it 5-0 after two. Our four-game streak of home-team victories was in early peril.
As Nanaimo worked to get back into the game, I took a stroll around to the outfield. I found Swanson chatting with a few other men along the center-field fence in the Bathtub Bar, where concessions were being served by a vendor called “The Dogfather.” A NightOwls hitter singled, and fans at the fence pounded away at it in appreciation. Swanson — a former sports editor at the Prince George Citizen — stepped aside for a bit, and we talked about life in the WCL, the expansion of the league, and some of the recent attention it had received, particularly the press coverage generated by the Portland Pickles and some of their wilder social-media content.
Both teams scored a run in the fourth inning, leaving the score 6-1 Kamloops.
Nanaimo added two more runs in the fifth to pull within three, but Kamloops got those runs back in the sixth and seventh, capped off by a home run from NorthPaws designated hitter Nolan Austin of Northeast Oklahoma A&M.
It was time for another incredible moment on our visit to Serauxmen Stadium. Dad and I had been invited to lead the crowd in singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” a real honor. We wrestled for the right key for at least half the song, beginning far too low and then feeling our way tentatively toward zones of sound we could actually produce. Meanwhile, Dad either forgot that we had just one microphone between us, or he had decided to become a solo act. Either way, we made it through to the end with gusto. A brief sample:
As we left the field, I climbed up to the top of the double-decker sightseeing bus to the Owl’s Nest, a private seating area for groups down the left-field line. No one was quite sure why there was caution tape around the outside of the bus, but I ventured up nevertheless.
Our stirring rendition of the old baseball classic clearly sparked the NightOwls rally in the bottom of the seventh. Third baseman Cody Hendricks (Cal State Bakersfield) began things with a one-out double. NorthPaws pitcher Connor Barton (Park University in Missouri) wobbled after that, giving up a single, balk, hit batter, and another single. The NightOwls had clawed back again, trailing 8-6.
NightOwls third baseman Tim Holyk of Miles Community College (Montana) at the plate.
The storm clouds that had followed us all day in Nanaimo lifted to reveal baseball skies under the lights in Nanaimo, a picture of bucolia in a place once filled with heavy industry.
The NightOwls got two runners on base in the eighth, but the rally fell short. In the ninth, first baseman Joshua Marchese (Niagara University) reached base on an error, but he was caught trying to steal second. Manager Frady disagreed with the call, and after some lively discussion with the infield umpire, he was tossed from the game. The final out came soon after. A bitter end for the NightOwls.
After the NorthPaws left the field, the Nanaimo players went to work — raking the mound and the home plate area, laying down the tarp. This is a common sight in collegiate summer leagues, where there is no formal grounds crew: Players take care of the field before and after the game, showing respect for the ballparks that are home to their dreams.