History of Plymouth Mariners
Baseball has been played in Plymouth since WW2 at Pennycross Playing Fields by American serviceman. An adult team was formed in the early 90’s, the Plymouth Pirates, with youths starting to play in 1997 at Stonehouse.
Seeing the potential of these young players they were entered into the 1st National Youth Championships which was the Playball World Series in 1999 and they came away eventual winners with Angie & Tug Wilson managing the team
After a year of unsettled management by their predecessor, Angie & Tug Wilson took over the running of the club in December 2000 and the club was renamed as the Plymouth Mariners, there followed a sustained period of healthy growth within the club with a movement of field location from St Levan Road to Central Park. The club is run solely by volunteers who dedicate their time to the club. In 2001 and 2002 the youths won a further 2 trophies in the Playball World Series Championships.
In 2003 Plymouth had its own baseball diamond built for them by Plymouth City Council, which was opened by the Lord Mayor of Plymouth throwing the 1st pitch of the game. Continuous growth saw the start of the Plymouth Youth League which involved four teams, 2 of which were Bronco players’ 9-12yr olds and two Pony teams’ 13-16yr olds playing regular games every Saturday.
In 2005 the players, coaches & committee decided to change the name of the field from Knollys Terrace Field to Wilson Field in recognition of all the hard work put in by Angie & Tug Wilson.
After the success of the Plymouth Mariners playing in the Playball World Series the club decided to hold its own tournaments, the Plymouth Primary Schools World Series. The tournament was a huge success, seeing over 400 children taking part in the four years it ran.
Between 2002 & 2007 the Plymouth Mariners have seen thirteen boys and girls achieve international recognition by playing for Great Britain in various age groups in Europe and the USA. Head Coach Tug Wilson has been picked as the head coach for the European tours and coaches Angie Wilson & Dodger Long as managers.
From 2008 the club saw a slow decline in youth participation but an increase of older youths/adult players and several friendly games were organised between Plymouth, Cheddar & Bristol.
2012 saw the inaugural season of the newly formed South West Baseball League, with the Bats from Bristol and the Barons from Torbay joining the Mariners to play. For 2013 the SWBL was expanded with the addition of the Exeter Spitfires. The Plymouth Mariners once again had a winning season regaining the championship won in 2012. The 2016 season starts in April with 7 teams in total.
