White Center Now: The blog about White Center

Back in June, we reported on the White Center-based (former) Highline Bears‘s plan to pursue a new name. Now it’s down to the final two, and they’re inviting you to help choose. From today’s announcement:

Today the Highline Bears summer collegiate baseball team announced the final two possible new team names. The final names are the DubSea Seal Slingers and the DubSea Fish Sticks. The team will now let the community vote online for which name they want to see on the field next summer. Fans can vote online at RenameOurTeam.com, and they can also vote by pre-ordering merchandise of the logo and team name they like best. Voting will remain open for four weeks and the final team name will be announced on November 15th.

Back in June the team announced they would be renaming the team and ran a “Name the Team” contest for 2 weeks. After receiving more than 200 entries, they flew in the baseball-branding company Brandiose. The branding company has helped name dozens of teams in minor league baseball over the past fifteen years, including the Rocket City Trash Pandas and Armadillo Sod Poodles. While in town in July they canvassed the area, ran community focus groups, and brainstormed with the team about what direction they should go. Over the course of the past three months the team has been working on narrowing down all the fan entries, checking trademark statuses on potential names and developing the final two brands,

The team plays more than two dozen games during regular summers (not the past two years, though) with a 40-player roster of college players from around the country, who stay with host families during the season. Their home field is Mel Olson Stadium at Steve Cox Memorial Park.

The Highline Bears, the White Center-based summer collegiate baseball team, are looking for a new name and inviting you to suggest one (or more!).

This all began with the recent news that the team’s mascot Buntly the Bear was retiring.
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“Buntly has been the heart and soul of this team since day one. Replacing him with just another bear didn’t seem like the right thing to do,” general manager Justin Moser explained in a video released this morning.

So the Bears have launched a naming contest. You can suggest a name and send it with an explanation of “why the name embodies the community and greater Pacific Northwest.” Submit your idea via RenameOurTeam.com. The team will narrow the list and then ask fans to vote for a winner.

Moser says the team is looking for “a name that’s original, that’s fun, crazy, and embodies our community and the great Pacific Northwest.”

Backstory from the team’s announcement:

The Highline Bears launched the team in 2015 and have steadily grown a following in the greater West Seattle/White Center area. The team is a summer collegiate team where players from colleges around the country come to hone their skills during the summer months. Players stay with host families or bunk with local players that are on the team, while playing a rigorous game schedule.

While the baseball is always competitive, the Bears games are beloved for their affordability for families, fun promotions and intimate atmosphere.

The contest runs through 9 am July 4th. Prize: Lifetime tickets for Bears – or whatever the new name is – games!
For more information on the Highline Bears visit www.HighlineBears.com

You knew this was coming, but still … The Highline Bears have sent their final word on
2020:

The local summer collegiate baseball team, the Highline Bears, announced to their players this past Monday evening that they will be canceling their entire 2020 season, due to the lack of potential fields being available in a reasonable amount of time.

The Bears would have been starting their season on Friday, May 30th, but the opening night and all home events had been canceled due to Covid-19. In the letter to fans in May the Bears had stated they were planning on having the team play on the road with no fans, if permitted in phase 3. “The likelihood of Pierce and Snohomish county going to phase 3 by our deadline of July 6th and fields being available for us to play at in phase 3 was just too uncertain for us to continue to move forward,” said the General Manager, Justin Moser.

The Bears said that they lost most of their partners and sponsors when the stay at home order went in place in March. The Bears did say even though local businesses were unable to purchase advertising this summer that they will continue to offer advertising to all businesses at no cost for the next year, even though they aren’t playing.

“We were hoping to be able to have some sort of season for our players this summer but the uncertainty is just too big right now. Making our players and coaches wait even longer with the odds of playing dwindling, just didn’t seem right. It’s sad and unfortunate for a ton of reasons, I feel for our players and coaching staff. Ben Harley did an amazing job putting this team together. On paper this is the best team we’ve ever had, including 9 Division 1 players,” Moser said.

The Pacific International League that the Bears play in, are hoping they can play sometime later in July but that will be dependent on certain counties moving into phase 3 and fields being available. The league continues to meet every week to plan and discuss if playing this summer will be possible.

The Highline Bears said that they are planning to come back in 2021 “stronger, bigger and better” bringing the community the “best show in town”. Moser also said that Covid-19 has affected this like so many other businesses: “I’m not going to lie to you, this has been a huge hit to our club financially and we can use all of the support we can get from our community.”. If you would like to support the Highline Bears during this difficult time, you can purchase new 2020 merchandise on their website at shop.highlinebears.com

The 12-3 final score was only part of the story as the Highline Bears opened the 2019 season at Mel Olson Stadium in White Center’s Steve Cox Memorial Park on Saturday night. So many other fun touches were part of the night – like home-team players high-fiving fans in the stands as they were introduced (above, catcher Owen Napieralski). Then there were the Shorewood Elementary students who sang the national anthem:

The “unofficial mayor of White Center,” Christine Spencer, threw out the first pitch:

And there was the guest base runner:

Hudson Borg had his own cheering section at home plate:

Mascot Buntly the Bear roamed the stadium:

Other sightings ranged from his between-innings Macarena to a moment where he sat down and checked out our laptop (hard to type with paws, so he moved on). All that and we haven’t even gotten around to the baseball yet. Yes, there was a full nine-inning game between the Bears and the visiting Laces:

That’s #12 Cody Chavis. You can see the full Bears roster here. They all had a lot to high-five about:

The night also included facepainting, live games, the youth league West Seattle Baseball running a 50-50 raffle, and … chair-throwing. See for yourself next home game, which is Friday night (June 7th):

It’ll be National Donut Night on Friday; can’t miss that. Here’s the schedule; here’s where to get tickets. (Kids 8 and under are free!)

Play ball! Tonight at Steve Cox Memorial Park’s Mel Olson Stadium, the Highline Bears open their 2019 season – pregame festivities at 6:45 pm, first pitch scheduled for 7:10 pm. The Bears (see the roster here) are collegiate players with a two-month schedule of home and road games. Ticket prices are low (get your tickets in advance here) and the games are full of fun. Here’s the promotion schedule, including fridge magnets for the first 350 tonight. See you at the ballpark!