The Saratoga Revolution Inc., a newly created New York Collegiate Baseball League (NYCBL) team, is coming to Saratoga County starting in the 2017 summer season.
The Saratoga Revolution is owned by Tom and Kim Coons and will be made up of collegiate baseball players from across the country.
The Saratoga Revolution will be playing their home games at Gavin Park in Wilton.
“We are very excited to have this opportunity to bring a team like this back to the Saratoga community. It will be a great opportunity for people of all ages to see and be involved with college athletes who could potentially be in the major leagues someday,” said Tom Coons, co-owner and president of the team.
NYCBL, founded in 1978, is a summer wooden-bat development league for professional baseball. Major League Baseball funds a small portion of the league’s annual budget. The league gives college players who have not yet signed a professional contract the opportunity to develop their skills at a higher level of play, gain experience with wooden bats and be evaluated by scouts.
The NYCBL is located in scenic Upstate New York. Teams play a 46-game regular season schedule with games beginning on May 30 and ending in late July. All games are nine innings, with doubleheaders scheduled as two nine-inning games. The All-Star game is played in mid-July and the League Championship Series concludes in early August.
“We welcome the Saratoga Revolution to Gavin Park and wish them a very successful season,” said Art Johnson, Wilton supervisor.
The Saratoga Revolution Inc. is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization with community members serving on its board.
“We are very fortunate to live in an area where sports are important to the community. By bringing Revolution baseball to Saratoga County, we hope to expose and promote this region to thousands of baseball fans, family and friends from around the country,” said Kim Coons, co-owner and vice president of the team. “We have had people asking to help with this venture as soon as they heard about it and we hope that local businesses and individuals will be able to step up and support this economic and community opportunity.”
The team has hired C.J. Baker, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania assistant coach, as its first head coach. Baker was a graduate assistant coach at Seattle University for the 2016 season and was an assistant coach at Shoreline Community College in the state of Washington for the 2015 season.
While at Seattle, he assisted with all facets of running a collegiate baseball program and oversaw development of infielders, outfielders, catchers and hitters. At Shoreline, he worked primarily with the catchers and hitters, and helped lead Shoreline to its first playoff appearance since the 1970s.
Baker graduated from Simpson University in Redding, Calif., in 2014 and earned his Master of Arts in education from the University of Washington in 2016.
For more information,visit www.saratogarevolution.com. For information on sponsorship, internship and volunteer opportunities email the Revolution at saratogarevolution@gmail.com.
For information on hosting a player and being a host family, email Jessica Munson, host family coordinator, at hostfamily@saratogarevolution.com.