OC Baseball Club officials host introductory session for new pro team at Great Park

Jamie Rosenberg, one of the founders of the Orange County Baseball Club, Thursday at the Great Park Stadium. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Baseball fans and city officials turned out Thursday at the Great Park Stadium for a meet and greet of the new Orange County Baseball Club.

In July, the City of Irvine and Innovation Baseball Partners announced the launch of the new professional baseball franchise set to begin play in the summer of 2027 at the Great Park Stadium.

The team will operate in the Pioneer Baseball League. The agreement is for five years.

To see additional photos, click on the first picture:

The team’s season will run from May through September.

Team officials, including Jamie Rosenberg, one of the team’s three founders, welcomed about 200 people on a hot day at the Great Day. Refreshments were served.

In a brief talk, Rosenberg thanked city of Irvine officials and those who have supported the yet to be named team so far. He also praised the effort of team officials, including Yugina Yun, director of baseball operations for Innovation Baseball Partners who also spoke.

“We’re so excited about the opportunity, both because this is a community that clearly loves sports and supports the development of athletes in a unique way and has the beautiful facilities to help make that happen,” Rosenberg said in an exclusive interview with OC Sports Zone.

“So for us, it’s a perfect combination. It’s also personal for me as someone who grew up in Southern California to help work on bringing a professional baseball team to this community, we couldn’t be more excited about it. It’s been an amazing reception, we’ve had such a warm welcome, so much support from so many different aspects of the community, from city government to city leaders and businesses and we’re just getting started and getting to know people, but every interaction has been positive so far.”

One of the immediate goals of the team is to select a nickname.

“We’re actively working on it now,” Rosenberg said. “We want to land on something that feels right so we will take our time to do our research and get the input and test what we can and hopefully come out with something that people are really excited about.”

The responsibility of getting players will be with former Seattle Mariners Manager Dan Wakamatsu, the team’s senior vice president of baseball operations for Innovation Baseball Partners.

“He’s actively talking to potential candidates now and he’s hired great coaching staffs for us in our other markets and he’s so well connected in the baseball community that we’re looking forward to seeing what he recommends,” Rosenberg said.

The team will be playing in the Pioneer League, the same league in which the Long Beach Coast, which plays home games at Blair Field, plays in. The same ownership group also owns the Coast, which made the post-season playoffs in its first year.

The team has playoff games Thursday and Friday at 6 p.m. at Blair Field.

The OC Baseball Club and the Long Beach Coast do not currently have have an affiliation with an MLB team but do have a relationship with MLB.

“It’s a partner league of Major League Baseball and the Pioneer League is the official rules and innovation partner for Major League Baseball, so in the Pioneer League we try out rule changes that MLB is considering for the future, so for example ABS challenges, we’ve been using in the Pioneer League for years so as a league, we have a close relationship with Major League Baseball,” Rosenberg said.

“We’re one of four independent baseball leagues in the U.S. that have this partner relationship with MLB.”

Roseberg said that team officials will be coming up with a ticket plan to help the team succeed in the competitive Southern California sports market, which includes three Major League teams and several minor league squads. The team is in the process of hiring a marketing director.

Ticket prices are not set yet.

“We’re working on that, we hope to see a very vibrant crowd that’s representative of the community,” he said. “And have lively event and have what feel like parties here 48 times next summer, one more if we make the playoffs.”

Officials are also exploring the possibility of adding more seats to the Great Park Stadium, which holds about 1,600.

The lease with Irvine and the Great Park is for five years, Rosenberg confirmed.

The Orange County Riptide will continue to call the stadium home and the Orange County All-Star Baseball game along with other high school baseball games will continue to be held there,

Among those attending the welcoming party was Guy Lemmon, President of the Ryan Lemmon Foundation and a big supporter of baseball in Orange County.

Lemmon said the addition of the new team is a boost for the baseball community in Orange County.

“I think it just expands the awareness of the Great Park to a different level of community,” Lemmon said in an interview. “And it enhances this facility, and some of the images that are shown here are things they want to do to decorate it and make it better. The state junior college championships are here, there is collegiate baseball that is here all summer long. CIF is going to start coming.

“And I think this is kind of the cornerstone of that, because I think they have the financial capability to make further improvements to the facility. These guys are going to do it as part of their long-range lease arrangement. There’s a possibility of adding capacity, adding batting eyes and screening and other things to make it better for the fans and make it better for the players.”

Lemmon said he believes added seating capacity would be beyond the outfield fences, where there is plenty of room. There is plenty of parking adjacent to the stadium, a full message and scoreboard, clubhouses and a press box.

Also attending was Dick Owens of the Ryan Lemmon Foundation. Owens is also the tournament director for the Orange County All-Star Baseball Game and the Ryan Lemmon Invitatonal.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com