The Alaska Baseball League voted unanimously last month to stop sending teams to the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kan., where Alaska teams are perennial contenders and frequent champions.
General managers said they are tired of spending time, money and effort each summer to send teams to the 46-team NBC tournament, the nation's top summer tournament for collegiate players.
Typically, the top two teams in Alaska advance to the 70-year-old tournament, where the six-team ABL has claimed 16 titles.
"Wichita is a financial killer," Mat-Su Miners general manager Pete Christopher said. "Everybody grumbles when they go."
Instead of traveling 4,000 miles to Kansas, teams might stay in Alaska for a season-ending tournament. The ABL is hoping to host a 10-team tournament that would include four Outside teams, but its proposed schedule conflicts with the American Legion state baseball tournament.
An in-state tournament carries obvious appeal to ABL teams. Four months ago, the Anchorage Bucs spent more than $40,000 to send 26 players and four coaches to the NBC. Eventually, the Bucs faced the ABL's top team, the Miners, and were eliminated.
The Miners went on to lose in the title game and both teams came home with empty wallets and without a championship.
Bucs general manager Dennis Mattingly said traveling all that way and spending all that money just to face a team it plays all summer long was the last straw. He can't stand to see teams in the ABL, one of the nation's premier summer leagues for college players, suffer financially anymore.
"We're putting an end to the silliness," Mattingly said. "Everyone knows (ABL teams) don't have money to waste."
The ABL has sent teams to the NBC tournament since 1962. In the 42 years since, ABL teams have collected 16 championships -- including an NBC-best six by the Fairbanks Goldpanners and five by the Anchorage Glacier Pilots.
The Miners won the NBC World Series in 1987 and 1997, and the Oilers have won it three times, including back-to-back titles in 1993 and '94. The Bucs have never won it.
Kansas is the only state with as many titles.
The ABL's success in Wichita is the reason why NBC general manager Eric Edelstein wasn't tickled to hear the news. Alaska teams are almost always among the tournament's top seeds and they often play in the featured evening game because of their fan appeal.
"We will be sad to host the tournament without the ABL," Edelstein said. "Some people will be excited (about the ABL's absence). Just because teams have gotten their butts kicked by the ABL."
But Edelstein said the tournament has seen many leagues and teams come and go, and it has always adapted.
The ABL might do some adapting of its own.
Instead of sending its top two teams to Wichita, league officials are planning to host a tournament at Mulcahy Stadium at the end of the league's 35-game regular season.
A 10-team, round-robin tournament with the six ABL teams and four Outside teams is proposed for Aug. 2-8, Mattingly said. Every team would be guaranteed six games as opposed to the two-game guarantee in Wichita.
"It'll be good for Anchorage, the league and the state," Christopher said. "That's if we do it right."
The only thing stopping the ABL at this point is an agreement with the city's Parks and Recreation department, which schedules events at Mulcahy. The proposed dates of the tournament conflict with the annual American Legion state baseball tournament.
Throughout most of the summer, American Legion teams use the four Kosinski Fields, located behind Mulcahy, and one field at the South Anchorage Sports Park.
But those fields don't have stadium seating, music or a public address system like Mulcahy, which can hold more than 4,000 seated fans. Playing state tournament games at Mulcahy gives Legion players a chance to perform on a bigger stage.
Rod Hill with Parks and Rec said Legion's 20-year history at Mulcahy takes precedence over new events. He and Legion president Steve Nerland both say they hope something can be worked out, especially since an ABL tournament is likely to bring pro baseball scouts to town who might get a look at some Legion players while they're here.
"We're very supportive of the idea," Nerland said. "It's an opportunity to draw in more scouts. Now it's up to the powers in ABL to make the schedule work."
But officials in the ABL and Legion see two different solutions to the scheduling conflict.
Mattingly and Christopher want Legion baseball to move its state tournament to Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer, or to other fields in Anchorage. Legion officials are willing to move the tournament to an earlier date but want to keep it at Mulcahy.
"American Legion isn't budging," Mattingly said. "They want to keep playing in Mulcahy."
Mattingly is meeting with Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich on Dec. 15 in an effort to resolve this issue. If the proposed ABL tournament schedule doesn't fly with the city, Mattingly said there's another alternative: sending just one ABL team to Wichita, with all six teams chipping in $5,000 for expenses. The league is keeping its NBC membership, which provides discounts on the purchase of bats and balls.
"The ABL is not anti-NBC," Mattingly said. "We're just not in favor of spending so much money."
The top two teams in Wichita each win $12,000, but that's not a lucrative prize for Alaska teams. The Miners won $12,000 for placing second this year, but their expenses were more than double that.
Christopher said the Miners paid approximately $25,000 for 21 players and three coaches.
"I broke even," Christopher said about the Miners' financial situation after Wichita.
Mattingly said the Bucs spent about $42,000 for this year's trip, including $1,100 for an entry fee.
Although the Bucs spent 11 days in Wichita and the Miners spent 14 this year, the Bucs paid more because of their late jump on getting airline tickets.
Players were given $15 a day for meals, but that was minor compared to other costs.
Mattingly said Wichita costs between $40-100 per day in car rental fees, $150 for every radio broadcast and $1,110 per day for hotel rooms. Other miscellaneous expenses, Mattingly said, include $40 a day for washing stinky jocks and grass-stained uniforms, and $50 just to buy time in batting cages.
Fairbanks Goldpanners general manager Don Dennis said teams can no longer pile several players into one hotel room. Wichita's fire code limits hotel occupancy to only two persons per room, which boosts hotel costs.
"Every cost has gone up," he said. "We work hard to budget for the trip. So if we don't go, that's great too."
That's why Dennis favors the idea of a tournament in Alaska.
"Our job is to make this a western version of (NBC)," he said.
But Edelstein said he's heard that several top NBC-sanctioned teams have already declined an invitation to the proposed ABL tournament or would do so if invited. He wouldn't say which teams he has heard from.
So far, Mattingly said, the ABL has received oral commitments from the Aloha Knights of Oregon, who beat the Miners to win this year's NBC title, and a team from Aichi, Japan.
Leagues in California and Washington also have agreed to send their champion to the Alaska tournament, Mattingly said. The goal is to award prize money, he said, but the size of the purse won't be known until a sponsor is secured.
Deciding not to continue going to Wichita was difficult for some ABL general managers.
"It's a prestigious thing," Christopher said.
But the NBC tournament isn't a priority for players, something Christopher said he learned by conducting exit interviews with players.
"I ask them what was more important, going to Wichita or winning the league tournament," he said. "They said, 'It's winning the league.' "
Just as important to Christopher is keeping the team financially healthy. After winning the NBC championship in 1987, the Miners were all but broke and sat out the next season to replenish their funds.
"There comes a time when you have to watch your money," said Christopher, who was not part of the organization back then. "I won't let that happen on my watch."
Daily News reporter Kevin Klott can be reached at kklott@adn.com.
