Mat-Su Miners

From BR Bullpen

Location: Palmer, AK
League: Alaska Baseball League
Stadium: Hermon Brothers Field

1 Team Bio
2 Championships and Honors
3 Notable Miners Alumni
4 Related Links

[edit] Team Bio

The Mat-Su Miners were founded 1976 as the Valley Green Giants. The Giants were originally owned and operated by the Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks as an expansion team to the Alaska Baseball League. The team kept the Valley Green Giants moniker until 1980 when the team severed ties with the Goldpanners. As a visible effort to make a clean break, the people of Palmer, AK chose the Mat-Su Miners name. "Mat-Su" is the local vernacular for the Matanuska-Susitna River valley, in which the city of Palmer and the nearby communities of Wasilla, Butte, Willow, Houston, and Talkeetna are located.

The success of the 1987 season took it's toll on the Miners. Having won the Alaska Baseball League Championship, the Miners went on the road and traveled to the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kansas. Despite winning the tournament and proving themselves as the best non-professional baseball team in the country, the Miners had to use almost their entire budget for the following season to make trip. As a result, the Miners were not able to bring any players up from the lower 48 states of the continental United States. The Miners sat out the 1988 season, but resumed thier place in Palmer, AK beneath the beautiful backdrop Pioneer Peak for the 1989 season.

As a Summer Collegiate Baseball team, the Mat-Su Miners are a non-profit organization which has hosted some of the most talented collegiate athletes from throughout the United States and Canada. The Miners are dedicated and designed to provide minor league level competition for NCAA players that wish to continue on into professional baseball. The Miners operate in a similar manner to a Minor League team: playing nightly in stadiums before fans, using wood bats and minor league specification equipment, and experiencing road trips between games. Like all other summer collegiate players, they are unpaid in order to maintain their NCAA eligibility, and live with host families in the same manner as Single A and Independent League players.