It was only for a day, but the Peninsula Oilers were able to return to the field at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai during the summer of 2025.
The Alaska Baseball League team, run by a nonprofit board, is taking this summer off to regroup financially.
The squad, which celebrated its 50th season of baseball in 2024, hosted the Oilers All-Star Family Field Day on Saturday.
“We obviously need to raise money,” said Linzey White, the board vice president and also the fundraising committee chair. “And so the hope was to get some money in.
“But at the end of the day, we wanted people at the field. We wanted to have our baseball family back for a day and just celebrate the Oilers together.”
White said the flow of people playing games stationed throughout the park was slower than she hoped. She also realizes the event came during a busy holiday weekend.
The main source of revenue the Oilers are looking to is the sale of their building, which is listed for $750,000.
“As much as we love bingo, having that big old building, it’s just not sustainable anymore,” White said.
She said the revenue from the building would change the focus of the club from surviving to thriving.
White said raising funds with no team on the field is tough.
“We have some of our past sponsors and businesses that won’t help until we have a season,” she said.
The Oilers are not charging businesses for the outfield signs this summer. White said the all-star field day, in addition to the Division II state baseball tournament and American Legion Post 20 Twins baseball, is still giving those sponsors some exposure.
White said the team is definitely not forgotten.
“That’s what I hear all over town,” she said. “They miss baseball. They miss having an affordable family night that they can come to.”
Another benefit of the field day is that it brought together Oilers fans, so they all know they’re not alone.
That included the three in the windows of a real life slot machine — Jessica Small, Dan Aaronson and Sharon Tyone.
Small is a board member and housing coordinator. This is her third year on the board, while she has been housing two or three players since 2017.
She said she knew the summer would be tough when the time came for her to make phone calls to find families to host players. She didn’t have to make those calls.
“It’s hard not to have baseball,” she said. “I come to every game.”
Her husband, Robert Small, and brother, Jordin Berzanske, take turns playing the Oilers mascot Scoop.
What exactly is Scoop?
“That’s the million dollar question,” said Aaronson, who has been going to Oilers games since the 1970s and has been on the board for 25 years.
Aaronson’s son, Cole, played Scoop for three years growing up and Cole is in his 30s now.
Small said that tradition doesn’t fade, and that was apparent when Scoop walked at the Fourth of July parade in Kenai on Friday.
“It always warms my heart when Scoop gives a kid a high-five during the parade,” Small said.
Tyone is not a board member, but she’s a member of the Soldotna Elks and as a member of the Kenai Elks, Aaronson put out the call for volunteers.
“There’s not a lot to do in the Kenai-Soldotna area,” Tyone said. “I like coming to games in the afternoon and I look forward to them being here.”
Heather Perry also thought it was important to volunteer Saturday. She talked as her son, Connor, played with Scoop in the outfield.
“As a community, it’s one of the few things we have here,” Perry said. “I miss having something to do in the summer.
“It’s left a hole in the spirit of Kenai.”
Perry’s grandfather used to take Perry to games. Her grandfather also hosted players as Perry’s mother was growing up.
“That’s four generations that got to participate in the Oilers,” she said.
White said for those who can’t support the Oilers with money, there is the option of becoming a board member.
She pointed to how many volunteers it took to make the field day happen. She said things like that could easily also happen once players are in town.
White said there are about six core board members who do most of the work, while others chip in when they can.
“It’s hard because what you see here today is basically the board,” White said. “So we need more.”
Sharon Tyone, Dan Aaronson and Jessica Small make the “real life slot machine” work at the Oilers All-Star Family Field Day on Saturday, July 5, 2025, at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
