If you couldn’t be at Game 6 for the Barrie Baycats' championship-clinching win in Kitchener, you can see the team tonight at the celebration at Coates Stadium in Midhurst.
The Barrie Baycats will be on hand Monday night from 7-8 p.m. with smiles, trophies and players all around following their win over the Panthers to clinch their five straight Intercounty Baseball league title and their sixth in franchise history.
Baycats president David Mills spoke to BarrieToday and explained why a celebration with the fans is so important to the organization.
“The Baycats organization has some of the best fans in the Intercounty Baseball League,” Mills said. “This is evident from the numbers that travel to other parks especially playoff games. For the last two games in Kitchener this playoff, there were over 100 local fans attending each game.
"Unfortunately, many of the home crowd have been unable to celebrate a clinching final game at home," he added. "In the last five championships, only one has been won at home and that was in 2015 against Kitchener. To have the fans come out on Monday to meet and greet the champions is something that the organization really supports.”
The Barrie-Kitchener series was a close and competitive IBL final that had many Baycats fans worried that the championship winning streak was in danger.
Mills knows it would have been special to win in front of the hometown fans, but was just glad to get it over with and be able to plan tonight.
“There is always a desire to win at home, but to take a win for a championship anyway you can is important,” Mills said. “With over 1,000 fans yelling their support that would be awesome for the players and of course, financially a Game 7 at home would have be fine as well.”
While the Baycats hope the stadium at the Barrie Community Sports Complex is packed tonight with as many Barrie baseball fans as possible.
The City of Barrie is also set to honour the team next month at the Oct. 1 council meeting.
Mills would love to see the Baycats play their games within the city limits, instead of in Springwater Township.
“It is unfortunate that we cannot bring more fans to the park,” Mills said. “For this level of baseball, we should be able to draw 3,000 to 4,000 fans for a playoff game. Given that there is no walk-up availability for fans at the current location and no bus service, our hope is that the City of Barrie will be able to secure a park location within the City of Barrie boundaries in the next couple years.”
While the idea of building a stadium along Kempenfelt Bay has been floated to council, the proposal is currently being discussed by a city committee.
Until stadium locations and the politics can be sorted out, the Baycats will continue entering each season with one thing in mind: winning championships.
The organization has won six titles in franchise history, with the first in 2005 and the last five happening consecutively (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018).
The record for consecutive championship wins is held by the Brantford Red Sox, who won six straight from 2008 to 2013 before being stopped in 2014 by this current dynasty Baycats squad.
Many players in the Baycats organization coined 2017 as the year of the 'FourPeat' and this season as the 'Drive For Five'.
Mills said that after tonight’s fun night of being with the players, volunteers and fans, the organization will take some time to let it all sink in on what’s been accomplished and begin planning for 2019 and adding to the trophy case.
While the management and players begin a quest to tie the IBL record of consecutive IBL titles, Mills is leaving it to the fans to decide what 2019’s slogan will be.
“Preparations will begin in October to field another championship team in 2019, but as for a fun name for the season, I don’t know,” said Mills. “'Six in the Mix' or 'A Sixth For Kicks' both sound fun, but maybe the fans have some ideas and can send them to our social-media platforms. It's all in fun and we just want everyone to have a great time.”
Tonight’s festivities start at 7p.m. at Coates Stadium and are free to attend.
For more information on the Baycats, visit www.barriebaycats.com.
