Victoria HarbourCats
We head to Royal Athletic Park — dating to the early 1900s and once host to a Yankees Minor League affiliate — to see the WCL Victoria HarbourCats take on the visiting Wenatchee AppleSox.
Dad and I made the short drive from our hotel to Wilson’s Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park, located in a residential neighborhood several blocks east of downtown Victoria. The park first opened for lacrosse in the early 1900s, and the first recorded baseball game was played there in 1908. The current facility was built in 1967 as part of a renovation project following a fire that burned down the grandstands three years earlier. The stadium officially seats 2,867, but it is expandable to 5,200, with stands and grass beyond right field that can transform the field from a baseball diamond to a rectangular playing surface for football, soccer, and lacrosse. The park also hosts non-sporting events, including the annual Great Canadian Beer Festival.
Victoria’s professional baseball history traces back to the 19th century, and in 1920, the Victoria Capitals — playing in a brand-new ballpark behind the landmark Empress Hotel — won the city’s first professional baseball title.
The action moved to Royal Athletic Park in 1946 with the Victoria Athletics, who were a Class B affiliate of the Yankees. The team changed its name to the Tyees in 1952 and won the Western International League pennant in their final year in 1954. The Victoria Mussels (1978-79) and the Victoria Blues (1980) played here briefly in the Minor League-affiliated Northwest League. The Capitals returned in 2003 but lasted just half a season before the independent Canadian Baseball League folded. The Victoria Seals played in 2009 and 2010 in the independent Golden Baseball League, but that league also collapsed.
The HarbourCats arrived in 2013 as an expansion team in the collegiate West Coast League after a public naming contest. The club enjoys excellent support from the community, averaging 1,918 fans per game in 2022, third best in the 16-team league. (Victoria’s general manager, Jim Swanson, who also runs the Nanaimo NightOwls, has thoughts on how attendance is counted in the league and might argue for a higher placement.) The HarbourCats would reach the playoffs for a fourth time in 2022, but they have yet to win a championship.
I passed a huge inflated version of the team’s mascot, Harvey the HarbourCat, before reaching our seats, where I found the “real” thing.
I headed down the right-field line, where HarbourCats players in their sweet all-aqua uniforms were playing catch with local Little Leaguers. Victoria was preparing to face the Wenatchee AppleSox of central Washington. Both teams were several games behind the division-leading Bellingham Bells.
Shane Jamison
Levi Abbott took the mound for the HarbourCats to begin the game. The 6-foot-3 right-handed sophomore from Canisius College enticed two groundouts and a strikeout for a 1-2-3 inning.
AppleSox starter Quincy Vasser (University of Washington) had a much tougher first frame, giving up four singles but just one run. HarbourCats designated hitter Shane Jamison (Seattle University) particularly worked the lefty, fouling off seven consecutive pitches before driving in the one run. It took Vasser 37 pitches to get out of the inning.
Royal Athletic Park has a small concessions stand, but it is more than made up for by the numerous food trucks that appear for HarbourCats games. I had a wide selection of dinner options available to me, including the regionally appropriate poutine with slices of hot dog. But I went with a giant gyro, and it was one of the best things I ate at any ballpark in the Pacific Northwest.
Abbott cruised through his five-inning start, giving up just two hits and no runs. Over the next three innings, two relievers continued to stymie Wenatchee, putting down potential rallies at every turn.
Meanwhile, Victoria tacked on three additional runs, powered by homers from catcher Jessada Brown (UC Santa Barbara) and Jamison. The HarbourCats now led 4-0.
The HarbourCats crew ran a good batch of fan games between innings, including trivia, a race against Harvey, and Bumper Ball. But the most entertaining one was Dizzy Bat. The two participants didn’t slack off in the process of getting themselves good and dizzy, and when they were sent to high-five Harvey, one could not get within six yards of him, while the other fell down immediately.
I made my way over to the merch tent and spotted a number of good hat options but felt paralyzed by indecision. I texted my lovely wife for her vote and came away with a beauty.
Right-hander Lee Souza (Yakima Valley College) came in to pitch for the AppleSox in the eighth and had by far his worst appearance of a solid summer season. It began with a single by HarbourCats third baseman Roberto Gonzalez, who then stole both second and third base. A rattled Souza then gave up four straight walks, another stolen base, and a run-scoring wild pitch. Souza was lifted for left-hander Connor Wilson (Ottawa University), who allowed a single, a walk, and a double before settling down and finally retiring the side.
The eight-run inning had felt like a deliriously endless baseball party for the home team. The HarbourCats led the game 12-0.
Wenatchee managed to put two runs on the board in the top of the ninth, but the contest had effectively ended in the eighth. Victoria won it 12-2, just as the sun finished setting behind the third-base side at Royal Athletic Park.