Professional–or semi-professional or want-to-be professional baseball–has a long history in the City of Long Beach and it looks possible that pro baseball will be making another “splash” by next year. But in order to better understand how America’s pasttime fits into summers at Blair Field, a short historical tour might be useful.

Way back in 1910, an outfit (pun intended) called the Long Beach Clothiers played in the independent Southern California Trolley League. Fast forward to the times of the Long Beach Barracudas (1995) and the Long Beach Riptide (1996) both of whom lived and died in the also-independent Western League.

Low finances and fan counts erased both of those franchises before the City took on another summer-baseball tenant in 2001–The Long Beach Breakers, who are not to be confused with an aborted pro basketball team. The Breakers won the league championship in their inaugural season, played for two years, but then like all others before it, folded (along with the league) after the 2002 season. The loss of the Breakers occured despite some colorful players and even former Dodger Steve Yeager as the skipper.

Long Beach’s latest attempt at a hometown baseball team began in 2005 with The Long Beach Armada, an independent professional baseball team in the North Division of the now-defunct Golden Baseball League. The team fired up their new franchise, but could never get any box office traction and was met with disappointment by investors, sponsors, suppliers and their landlord, The City of Long Beach.

The Armada was the most successful team with 13 different players who played at the major league level. In addition, 21 Long Beach Armada players had their contracts purchased by Major League Baseball and then there was brief appearances by former MLB names such as José Canseco, ex-Yankee Hideki Irabu, outfielder Josh Womack (who became a web sensation in June 2009 with the video of his “spinning bat trick”) and former Dodger Jose Lima, who was on the Armada roster at the time of his death in May 2010.

So what about the new guys, DC Sports and Entertainment, who come in with an O.C.-based media consultant, another new league and a new team for Long Beach called the Long Beach Splash?

While they are carefully visiting with the City of Long Beach, sources say the Splash is currently in the process of negotiating a lease for Blair Field and in the process of hiring a team manager. The league (AWBL) hopes to have five founding members up and running next summer, Fullerton, Long Beach, San Diego, and two teams in Arizona, Yuma and Mesa.

THE MYSTERY OF HISTORY–Blair Field, located in Recreation Park, is one of the few semi-professional baseball facilities in California and has borne witness to some interesting baseball history since opening day in March of 1924. According to the City of Long Beach’s website, Recreation Park was acquired in March 1923 and a baseball field with a grandstand seating for 1,000 was built shortly after. Opening day was March 14, 1924, with a game between the Pacific Coast League, Los Angeles Angels and Chicago Cubs, the latter two both owned by William Wrigley. In the fall of 1925, The Salt Lake City Bees became the first minor league club to train at Recreation Park and in 1926, Seattle of the Pacific Coast League, trained here and Denver of the Western League moved here in 1927. Bob Feller and Satchel Paige brought their barnstorming teams to play in the 1930s and Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics played an exhibition game there in 1940. The biggest stars of late, other than Dirtbags in the show, would include movie folk who rent the field for motion pictures and television.

That leaves an important question for your hot stove league musings, “Is just this just another doomed venture for LB pro sports or does the Splash actually have a chance?” –DR. DAN