The Wenatchee AppleSox is a collegiate summer baseball team playing in the West Coast League's North Division. The team is based in Wenatchee, Washington. The team was established in 2000 by owner Jim Corcoran and has played its home games at Paul Thomas Sr. Field on the campus of Wenatchee Valley College. Asst. GM Ken Osborne became a stockholder in 2008. Corcoran and Osborne sold the team to retired Microsoft executive Jose Oglesby in 2018, with Osborne being appointed COO/GM.
Team history
2000–2013
The AppleSox began play in 2000 and joined the Pacific International League. The AppleSox marked the return of baseball to the Wenatchee Valleyfor the first time since the Wenatchee Chiefs suspended operations after the 1965 season. The AppleSox were a member of the PIL until 2004, when the team left the league to become a charter member of the West Coast League. The team won the PIL Championship in 2003 and has won five WCL Championships in the league's history, including back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010.
2014
The 2014 season marked the first year that the AppleSox did not make the WCL Playoffs. The team was 30–24 in regular-season play. As the season concluded, Sox head coach, Ed Knaggs stepped down and AJ Proszek was selected to replace him, making Proszek the 3rd head coach all-time for the AppleSox. Proszek was a pitching coach for Wenatchee in 2013 and 2014. The changing of the coaching reins put an end to a 14-year run for Knaggs as the head coach in Wenatchee. He also had previously coached 22 seasons at Wenatchee High School.
2015–2016
The AppleSox went 43–65 over the next two WCL seasons, and were unable to reach the WCL postseason. The AppleSox did feature two of the more prolific hitters in WCL history in each of the 2015 season and 2016 seasons. Keston Hiura, an outfielder from UC Irvine, set WCL records with 33 extra-base hits, 119 total bases, and 6 triples. Michael Toglia became the third AppleSox player to win league MVP, joining Mitchell Gunsolus and Steve Marquardt. He hit.306 and led the WCL with 7 home runs. At the end of the 2016 season, A J Proszek announced that he would not return for a third season as the team's head coach. The AppleSox hired Kyle Krustangel just over a month later, on September 14, 2016. The current head coach of Yakima Valley Community College is the fourth all-time head coach of the AppleSox.
Ballpark traditions
Kid's choir
AppleSox games feature a special seventh-inning stretch. Local kids are invited out to the mound with the team's mascot, "Coyote", to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame".
Strikeout socks
The AppleSox hang embroidered socks from a clothesline on the press box, each time their pitcher strikes out an opposing batter. Various prizes have been given away to fans when the AppleSox strike out a specified number of opposing hitters.
Race the Coyote
Long-time AppleSox mascot Coyote rounds the bases each night in a race against an AppleSox youngster. He still hasn't beaten any kids in the daily race, but has accumulated a few wins on various "Mascot" nights over the years, when he races other local mascots instead of children.
Section 'A'
The fans at Paul Thomas Sr. Field take a special liking each year to the AppleSox first base-coach, giving him a loud ovation each time he jogs to the coaches box. The tradition began with the fans in section A along the first baseline in 2006 and has spread across the entire stadium.
