The Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks officially canceled its 2020 amateur summer baseball season on Wednesday night, joining a growing list of amateur baseball teams and leagues which are cancelling seasons due to the concerns and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Goldpannerrs have played summer baseball every season since its inception in 1960, most of those seasons as part of the Alaska Baseball League. The Goldpanners left the Alaska League in 2016 to play as an independent team.
In a release from the Alaska Goldpanners…
The Alaska Goldpanners have been closely monitoring COVID-19 updates from the state and local authorities and are today announcing the unfortunate, but necessary decision to cancel out 2020 baseball season and Midnight Sun Game. The safety of our fans, players and staff are of the utmost importance, and we take the impacts and the potential impacts of COVID-19 on sporting events very seriously. To the end, we have determined that it will be impossible for us to comply with medical recommendations and government policies while conducting our regular season.
This was not a decision made lightly and has the unanimous support of the Goldpanners Board of Directors.
Alaska Goldpanners General Manager John Lorke stated, “The decision was pretty much made for us. We can’t gather crowds at the ballpark; we couldn’t have a Midnight Sun Game. At this point everyone, players, coaches, umpires, would all have to quarantine for two weeks once they hit town. It’s just tough. We know at some point these restrictions will be lifted, but we don’t know for sure when, so it is hard for us to plan a season on that basis”.
Lorke also commented on the Midnight Sun Game, which has been a staple of Fairbanks since 1906 and was planning for the 115 annual contest.
“The organization is going to put together a committee to explore all the options of what we want to do. We surely wouldn’t want to see the streak broken, but we know it wouldn’t be a game that involved the Goldpanners, We would love to be able to facilitate some type of game to keep the tradition alive, but what would we be allowed to, whether or not that would have any fans associated with it, is something we are going to explore and see what we are able to accomplish, if at all.”
The Peninsula Oilers Baeball Club removed itself from the 2020 ABL season in mid-March listing concerns for the health and well-being of fans, customers, host families, team and community; and concerns on the financial impact on the community.
The Alaska Baseball League has scheduled league meetings for Friday, May 1st and Friday, May 15th to discuss future of the 2020 Alaska Baseball League summer baseball season. The Alaska Baseball League consists of five, independent teams which are collectively joined, but exist as autonomous organizations.
