Western Baseball League (1997-2002)
Tombstone
Born: 1996 – Western Baseball League expansion franchise
Folded: November 20021Gascoyne, Tom. “Chico Heat calls it quits”. The Chico News & Review (Chico, CA). November 7, 2002
First Game: May 23, 1997 (W 12-5 @ Mission Viejo Vigilantes)
Last Game: September 12, 2002 (W 5-4 @ Long Beach Breakers)
Western League Champions: 1997 & 2002
Stadium
Nettleton Stadium (3,500)21997 Chico Heat Program
Opened: 1952
Dimensions (1997): Left: 330′, Center: 405′, Right: 330′31997 Chico Heat Program
Marketing
Team Colors: Red, White & Navy Blue41997 Chico Heat Program
Mascot: Heater (the Dragon)
Ownership & Affiliation
Owners: Steve Nettleton, Bob Linscheid, Jeff Kragel & Robert Harp
Western Baseball League Expansion Fee (1996): $250,0005Gascoyne, Tom. “Chico Heat calls it quits”. The Chico News & Review (Chico, CA). November 7, 2002
Major League Affiliation: Independent
Attendance
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The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (3rd ed.), Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, 2007
Background
The Chico Heat were the class of the independent Western Baseball League (WBL) during their six summers of play between 1997 and 2002.
The Heat came on the scene as an expansion club for the WBL’s third season in 1997. Founder and majority owner Steve Nettleton, a local businessman who made his fortune in the grocery business, put $2 million of his own money into the renovation of Chico State’s Bohler Field in 1996 to prepare the ballpark for minor league baseball and for the benefit of the university’s own Wildcats baseball team. In gratitude, the university renamed the 45-year old field “Nettleton Stadium” ahead of the Heat’s debut in May 1997.
Chico’s expansion season of 1997 was the only year when the Heat did not dominate the Western League’s regular season. But after finishing with a 45-45 regular season mark, Chico got hot in the playoffs. The Heat dispatched the league’s South Division champion Sonoma County Crushers in the opening round and then knocked off the North Division’s top club, the Reno Chukars, in a best-of five championship series.
In each of the next five seasons from 1998 until 2001, the Chico Heat would post the best record in the Western League and lead the circuit in attendance. The Heat club appeared in the WBL championship series five times during their six seasons, winning in 1997 and 2002.
Doused
Shortly after winning their second WBL championship in September 2002, Chico’s ownership group withdrew from the ailing Western League. Heat officials set their sites on entry into affiliated Minor League Baseball, attempting to lure the Class A Visalia Oaks of the California League to Nettleton Stadium for the 2002 season. When that effort failed, the Heat ceased operations in November 2002.
In 2005, a new independent league known as the Golden Baseball League sprung up in the former WBL territory. Unsurprisingly, Chico received a team, the Outlaws, in the new league. Former Heat minority owner and WBL President Bob Linscheid served as the Chico Outlaws president and general manager for their first several seasons. Ultimately, the Outlaws would actually outlast the Heat, surviving for seven seasons in the Golden League and the North American League from 2005 to 2011.
A few years after the Outlaws went out of business in 2012, an amateur revival of the Heat began play in the summer collegiate Great West League in 2016. Original Heat founder Steve Nettleton returned as the team’s owner. The collegiate Heat played three seasons between 2016 and 2018. The Great West League ceased operations in October 2018 and Steve Nettleton passed away at age 80 three months later.
Chico Heat Shop
In Memoriam
Heat founder/owner Steve Nettleton passed away at age 80 on January 11th, 2019 of complications from Parkinson’s Disease. Chico Enterprise-Record remembrance.
Downloads
1997 Chico Heat Roster
1997 Chico Heat Roster
Links
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