It’s probably not fair to the West Coast League’s founding members to call the league’s beginnings humble … but, in retrospect? Yes, it would have been difficult, 20 years ago, to imagine what the West Coast League has become since four men met in an ancient Columbia River Gorge hotel to sketch the beginnings of what is now, indisputably, the biggest, most important collegiate summer baseball league in the western half of North America.

The four men? Wenatchee AppleSox owner Jim Corcoran, Bellingham Bells owner Tony Larson, Bend Elks owner Jim Richards, and Aloha (Gresham, Oregon) Knights general manager Dan Segel.

Those four, driven by a shared vision and urgent sense of purpose, gathered in Hood River, Oregon for what was, we now know, a pivotal meeting in the history of collegiate summer baseball.

The place? The Hood River Hotel, which has existed in one form or another since 1888, when Hood River was famous for its timber and its fruit trees (today it’s still famous for its pears and apples, but now timber has been replaced by beer, windsurfing, and Tofurky).

The time? Well, the memories are a little hazy. But all involved agree that the four (soon to be ex-) P.I.L. mavens convened in fall 2004, with visions of a new player- and fan-friendly league dancing in their collective head.

That summer, the AppleSox, Bells, Elks, and Knights had played in the Pacific International League, which was comprised mostly of college players but also mixed in some older players; the league was informally described as “semi-pro,” with a focus toward playing in the annual National Baseball Congress tournament in Wichita, Kansas.

For a significant number of P.I.L. teams, that model increasingly seemed problematic (even though the Knights, at great expense to themselves, would actually win the NBC World Series in ’04).

“The P.I.L. was operating as a semi-professional league,” Corcoran recalls. “It was difficult to approach college coaches who were looking for a summer league program tailored for player development.”

“Corcoran and I entered the P.I.L. at the same time, in 2000,” Richards says. “But as time went on, we were getting concerned about how the P.I.L. was operating, with everything geared toward the NBC in Wichita, Kansas. That required our season to be over in late July. And after a few short seasons, we wanted to play into August.

“Also,” Richards says, “we heard from college coaches who did not want to send their players to any league paying players. We were forced to fit a mold that just didn’t work for us anymore.”

Back in spring 2004 at the P.I.L.’s preseason meeting in Kelowna, British Columbia, Segel gave a presentation making the case for change. “I wanted to show everyone where summer baseball was heading,” Segel says, “since we were not heading in that direction. That ruffled a whole bunch of feathers among the old guard.”

Segel had convinced the new guard, though. As discussions continued, it was clear that the sentiment among that group was practically universal; they wanted to break free from the various constraints of the P.I.L. and create a new model that embraced both player development and entertainment, rather than focusing on a high-stakes tournament in a distant city.

“We imagined a league like the Northwest League, but with the fan experience tailored for our smaller communities,” Corcoran says. “Places where families could come out, enjoy the game, grab some popcorn and hot dogs, and make lasting memories.

“Segel and Richards had a good idea of what they wanted to achieve,” Corcoran added. “It was about harnessing the energy of our towns and communities. The NBC format never made sense for us. We wanted to stretch our season into August, to give our fans and players more.”

“Hood River was sort of an emergency meeting,” Segel says. “We four were the leadership in this effort. We also thought we had Spokane and Kelowna, and had to convince Kitsap to not join the P.I.L. But we needed to formalize things, and then let the P.I.L what we wanted to do.”

By the time the meeting concluded, the framework of the new West Coast Collegiate Baseball League was taking shape and the focus was clear — to create an environment that fostered young baseball talent and fan engagement across the Pacific Northwest.

From their discussions, a mission statement emerged: “The WCCBL is dedicated to player development, player exposure, and to providing affordable summer entertainment to its member communities.”

Over the ensuing months, players were recruited, a league commissioner was hired, and the 2005 schedule was locked in.

Over the ensuing years, the name has changed: in 2008, the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League became the West Coast League.

The scope has changed: from seven teams playing 36-game schedules in 2005, the League has now grown to 17 teams playing 54-game schedules.

Of those original seven teams, only four – Wenatchee, Bend, Bellingham, and Kelowna – remain in their original form; the Aloha Knights would become the (eventually dynastic) Corvallis Knights, the Kitsap BlueJackets the Port Angeles Lefties, and the Spokane Riverhawks disappeared. A few other teams have come and gone, but the running theme over these last 20 years has been growth, and today the WCL thrives in markets both small and large, from Port Angeles and Walla Walla to Edmonton and Portland.

The League’s mission statement has changed a bit over the years, too. But at its heart, the West Coast League remains what Messrs Corcoran, Larson, Richards, and Segel created 20 years ago in that old hotel: an association of professionally managed member teams devoted to player development, community engagement, and grass-roots baseball.

And yes, with plenty of popcorn and hot dogs along the way.

“It was fun again,” Corcoran says, “the way we thought things should have been all along.”

“I don’t think any of us,” Segel says, “could have imagined what this would turn into.”

Together, those four teams – and soon to be seven teams – didn’t just break away from their old league. They laid the foundation for a new era in collegiate summer baseball, with a new league that still, 20 years later, has even better days ahead.