Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News Taylor Adams of the Kitsap Bluejackets dives back to first as West Coast Guns first baseman Joe Siegel tries to catch him off base during their exhibition game on June 1 at Port Angeles Civic Field.

Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News Taylor Adams of the Kitsap Bluejackets dives back to first as West Coast Guns first baseman Joe Siegel tries to catch him off base during their exhibition game on June 1 at Port Angeles Civic Field.

Port Angeles baseball franchise prepping for launch

Team name selected

PORT ANGELES — Sorry baseball fans, the new West Coast League franchise set to debut in Port Angeles next June won’t take the Civic Field diamond representing the most chipper of Hurricane Ridge residents — Marmota olympus — better known as the Olympic marmot.

Paying licensing fees to the Marmot outdoor clothing company wasn’t financially feasible.

But the team fielding a yet-to-be determined marmot mascot just might be.

Franchise co-owner Matt Acker wouldn’t divulge what name the Port Angeles team will officially adopt, but did confirm a team name has been selected.

“It will be announced soon, no later than Sept. 8, but probably before that,” Acker said while in town to coach a Lacey 12U team at the 19th annual Dick Brown Memorial Baseball Tournament.

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Acker will visit with business leaders during an event hosted by the Clallam County Economic Development Corp. and the Port Angeles Downtown Association at the Red Lion Hotel, 221 N. Lincoln St., at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8.

“There will be a story behind it,” Acker said of the name.

“It will allow us to have a mascot like the Mariners have the moose and to use another name that maybe we couldn’t use otherwise.”

Acker said his group has bought “every possible [Internet] domain name” associated with the new team name they could think of.

“I’m surprised there’s no other team with this name,” Acker said.

“We went through a legal process with regard to it, we’ve gone through that and now we are mocking up what the logo looks like and we will be going through the legal process with it as well.”

The team’s co-owner, Port Ludlow’s Dean Reynolds, owns Visual Research Inc., a marketing services firm that has extensive experience in graphic design and visual production.

“We want to tie the team to the community and create a story behind it, and that’s what Dean does. That’s his profession,” Acker said.

Acker did provide more specifics on the team’s colors which were previously announced as blue, orange and silver.

“The colors will be a surf blue, literally the color of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, sunset orange and silver,” Acker said.

The silver will be a bright, metallic shade and not a charcoal or grey.

Inspiration for the colors came from the vivid sunsets on the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

“Dean and Jake Oppeldt [owner of Next Door Gastropub] worked on this,” Acker said.

“Dean shot some pictures and matched them to the pantones and now we are getting swatches sent to us [from athletic apparel suppliers].”

Matching pantones to fabrics can be a difficult process.

Washington State University struggled for years to match its crimson and gray color scheme across its athletic teams’ uniforms and fan apparel before partnering with Nike in 2011.

“So what we call surf blue may be cyan or zephyr blue, and the sunset orange may be flame or Pacific orange,” Acker said.

Acker also announced the likely location of the team’s party deck (beer garden), where beer and wine will be served.

“A party deck would be located where the current batting cages are in foul territory off left field,” Acker said.

“Then the batting cages would go behind the temporary fence in left field, but out of the way for football and soccer.”

Acker said he’s hoping for some small renovations to be made to Civic Field’s dugouts, as well as the installation of a new temporary outfield fence.

“Some city [of Port Angeles] staffers and the mayor [Pat Downie] went to Victoria and saw some examples of what they were looking for,” Acker said of a trip to the Victoria HarbourCats home field, Royal Athletic Park.

“Right now it takes quite a while to take down and put up the fence,” Acker said. In Victoria it takes hours not days to set up and tear down, so we are looking into those type of options.”

Acker also spoke of a myriad of contests to come such as a public address announcer tryout and national anthem auditions.

“We will be visiting in the offseason here to connect with businesses and find locations for these events,” Acker said.

“We may do the PA announcer contest at a local restaurant during a game, where we have contestants do an inning of a live game with the TV muted and fans can eat dinner, listen to them and vote. I’ve been to one of those and it was a blast.

“We may do more of an auditorium-style event for anthem singers. We just want to make sure we are attracting people to area businesses and supporting them.”

Acker also will start looking for players from major NCAA conferences.

“We are going to target players from the Pac-12, the Big West Conference, West Coast Conference and the Big 12 Conference,” Acker said.

“That’s the level of ability we will draw to Port Angeles.”

The Port Angeles franchise will need all the talent it can handle. It will likely face a stiff test next season against across-the-water rival Victoria.

The HarbourCats (40-14) set WCL records for most regular season wins (40) and most consecutive wins (19) this season. Victoria begins the WCL playoffs on the road today in a three-game series against the Bellingham Bells. The HarbourCats host game two at 6:35 p.m. Wednesday.

Acker’s current team, the Kitsap BlueJackets, will play in the Pacific International League next season. He also operates the West Coast Guns and the Thurston County Senators and intends on using the teams as a feeder system for the big club (Port Angeles).

“This would be Major League Baseball, Kitsap would be Triple A and on down,” Acker said.

Potential volunteers, potential host families and those looking to help out can email Acker at matt@bluejacketbaseball.com.

________

Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @mikecarmanpdn

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