fbpx

Whitefish’s Glacier Outlaws Fold After Independent League Collapses

League made it just two weeks before calling it quits

By Justin Franz

The Glacier Outlaws are no more.

Just two weeks into its inaugural season, Whitefish’s new professional baseball team has folded following the collapse of the Mount Rainier Professional Baseball League. The team made the announcement on Facebook on June 6.

“With a lot of sadness we have to announce that the Glacier Outlaws baseball season has come to an end,” the team wrote. “We did everything we could to make it work during very difficult times and want you all to know we had the best intentions here in Whitefish.”

The league had six teams, including four in Washington, one in Oregon and the Outlaws in Whitefish.

Problems for the team and the league began even before the first pitch the season was thrown. The day before the team’s first game, the Outlaws’ opponent could not find a bus driver to get them from Washington to Whitefish. When they did the following day, the bus broke down on the way and the first game was delayed more than an hour. When both teams took the field, none of the players had uniforms and they had to borrow balls from the Glacier Twins, the local American legion team.

Financial problems for the league persisted and in late May, Commissioner Mike Greene announced he was in over his head.

“I will take the blame for this whole thing. I ran it. I didn’t get stuff in time, didn’t delegate enough and was relying too much on passion and drive rather than the reality that it takes money to make money,” Greene wrote in a press release on May 30.

The Glacier Outlaws ended their season 6 – 4, tied for first in the league.