The Quakertown Blazers, a mainstay of the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League for nearly 40 years, have chosen not to field a team in 2023.
Scheduled renovations to Quakertown’s classic Memorial Park won’t be complete until the spring of 2024. “We weren’t able to lock down a suitable field to our standards,” GM Chris Ray texted the Herald. “So we chose to take the season off with the hopes and plans to return in 2024.
The 2022 Blazers assembled one of the best seasons in their history, going 29-8-1 and finishing as league runners-up. It was the best record in the ACBL and the second best winning percentage in franchise history. Misericordia’s Joe Valenti set new ACBL records in ERA (0.19) and shutouts (four) while CB South’s and Delaware’s Owen Petrich thumped 15 homers, the third best in the nearly 60-year history of the league.
Yet the on the field success was marred by the June passing of longtime owner Tom Bonekemper, the man who helped to move the Allentown Wings to Quakertown in 1984. “We don’t want to do things in ways that he wouldn’t have done,” Ray continued, “and without our stadium, we didn’t feel that was possible.”
Quakertown has won or shared seven ACBL crowns, and has sent 10 alumni to the major leagues.
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