Local Long Beach baseball talent try out for the Long Beach Baseball Club on Thursday, Dec. 4 at the St. Anthony High School Athletic Complex. Dante Estrada | Long Beach Current
Long Beach’s new minor league baseball team, currently dubbed the Long Beach Baseball Club, hosted tryouts looking for star local talent on Thursday, Dec. 4 at the St. Anthony High School Athletic Complex.
As part of the Pioneer Baseball League, one of four Major League Baseball partner leagues, the LBCC’s inaugural season will begin in May of 2026.
Leading the search for new talent as the team’s inaugural manager is a face familiar to many Long Beach locals in former Anaheim Angels pitcher and 2002 World Series champion Troy Percival.
“It doesn’t take much with our experience and our eyes to see real talent and we’re just looking for diamonds in the rough that can compete on this level,” Percival said.
Joining Percival on the coaching staff is his former teammate and four-time MLB All-Star and World Series MVP Troy Glaus, along with Jerome Williams, a former MLB pitcher.
“I obviously played with [Glaus] for a long time, and he’s going to be really good for these guys’ approach at the plate,” Percival said. “I think we’ve been given the tools to go out and compete.”
Percival joins the LBCC after leading another PBL team, the Idaho Falls Chukars, to the PBL Championship Series last season, before losing to the Oakland Ballers.
Paul Freedman, the co-founder and CEO of the Ballers, is also a member of the LBBC’s ownership group.
Freedman emphasized that a major leg-up for the LBBC is that in the world of minor league baseball, where everyone is a free agent and players typically choose to play close to home, the team will benefit from the strong baseball community in Long Beach.
“That pipeline of amazing talent means that over time, this team is going to be really good,” Freedman said.
Former NCAA baseball player at Loyola Marymount University and New Mexico State, Jake Baer tries out for the Long Beach Baseball Club on Thursday, Dec. 4. Dante Estrada | Long Beach Current
As the team prepares for its first season, local players with NCAA experience like Jake Baer look to the LBBC as the big break they have been waiting for.
A 2016 graduate of El Camino Real High School, Baer played college ball at Loyola Marymount University and New Mexico State, and is the founder of TORQ Sports, a start-up app that helps connect athletes directly to coaches and scouts.
“A couple years ago, they cut down the minor leagues and took away a lot of opportunities,” Baer said. “So it’s a good thing for the community to be involved, especially in an area where baseball is so prevalent, it’s just great for baseball.”
A senior at CSULB, Timothy Hessen serves as the Sports Editor of the Long Beach Current. First joining the Current as a copy assistant editor as a junior, Timothy has written about sports in several different publications, including the Long Beach Current, the Coast Report and the Laguna Beach Independent. After graduation, Timothy hopes to pursue a career in journalism or public relations, with the long-term goal of either covering or working for an NFL or NBA team.