oakland ballers

The California League might be ending its long run in Modesto, but professional baseball appears poised to remain.

The independent Pioneer League is in talks to place a team at John Thurman Field, the current home of the Modesto Nuts.

In a closed session Tuesday, the Modesto City Council discussed the potential terms of a lease under negotiation between the city manager and Pioneer League President Michael Shapiro. The council took no action Tuesday, and neither Shapiro nor a city spokesperson immediately returned messages seeking comment.

Modesto’s California League history dates to 1946 — John Thurman Field opened in 1955 — but the Nuts are down to their final three homestands.

After negotiations for a renovated stadium and a new lease collapsed, the team was sold last December and will move to San Bernardino next season, part of a California League shuffle that includes the Dodgers’ affiliate moving into a new ballpark in Ontario.

A Modesto team would give the league two new teams next year and 14 in all; leagues prefer an even number of teams for scheduling purposes.

The other new team would play in Long Beach, in what would be the city’s first entry in an independent league since 2009.

On Tuesday, the Long Beach City Council unanimously approved pursuing an agreement with an expansion Pioneer League team that would share historic Blair Field with the Long Beach State baseball program.

“A team in Long Beach is a chance to show what makes Long Beach great: our diversity, our passion and our community spirit,” Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said in a statement.

Paul Freedman, the co-founder of the Pioneer League’s Oakland Ballers, would be one of the owners of the Long Beach team. In a Times story last year about the Ballers and how they were filling the baseball void created in Oakland by the departure of the Athletics, Freedman already had his eye on Long Beach.

“I think Long Beach should have a Pioneer League team,” Freedman said then. “Long Beach has its own unique identity. If I’m from Long Beach, I don’t want to be told I have to be a Dodger or Angel fan.”

Could the fourth time be the charm for minor league baseball in Long Beach?

On Tuesday, the Long Beach City Council is scheduled to consider whether to order city staff to work toward an agreement with the ownership group for a “new professional baseball team” that would play at Blair Field, the city’s storied ballpark.

The ownership group includes Paul Freedman, one of the co-founders of the Oakland Ballers, a successful independent league team launched last year amid the departure of the Oakland Athletics.

The new team would open play next season and participate as an expansion team in the Pioneer League, the same league in which the Ballers play. The league includes teams in California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming.

“I got into this industry because of love for baseball and the community, and love for Oakland,” Freedman said. “I see a tremendous amount of parallels between the city of Oakland and the city of Long Beach, and I think the kind of community-oriented baseball that is working in Oakland can work in Long Beach as well.”

In minor leagues affiliated with major league organizations, those organizations sign and pay players, then assign them to a minor league team. In an independent league, the teams sign and pay players, most of whom hope to play well enough to earn a contract from a major league organization.

Independent leagues also serve as labs for the major leagues: The “swing-off” that decided this week’s All-Star Game has been a rule in the Pioneer League since 2021.

Three independent minor league teams have come and gone in Long Beach over the last 30 years: the Barracuda (renamed the Riptide) in 1995-96, the Breakers (2001-02) and the Armada (2005-09).

Freedman said he believed the struggles reflected instability in the various leagues in which the teams played more than an inability of Long Beach to support a team.

“It’s a city with a huge baseball tradition,” Freedman said. “It’s a diverse city on the rise. It’s hosting the Olympics. I think now it’s time to have a team to represent the town.

“I think baseball has worked in Long Beach, and I think Long Beach is in an even better condition now to embrace a new kind of baseball.”

The Long Beach State baseball team, proudly known as the Dirtbags, attracted more fans last season than any of the other nine Big West Conference teams based in California. The Dirtbags are the primary tenant of Blair Field, and the motion before the city council would require city staff to work with Long Beach State on a “collaborative partnership agreement.”

A city spokesman did not return a call seeking comment.