Canberra Cavalry want to show 'there is a future' for ABL club

"There's no multi-million dollar television rights deal sitting at the back of the ABL," Mastoris said.

That's why Cavalry officials and players refused to consign the summer to the shadows of history after the Australian Baseball League announced it would postpone the entire season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

That's why the Cavalry will return to Narrabundah Ballpark this week. They will face the Sydney Blue Sox for the newly-minted Kent-Oxspring Cup with games on Friday and Saturday. A fortnight later the Cavalry are back on the mound on February 11-12.

Four games of baseball will not recoup the losses brought on by a global pandemic or hazardous bushfire smoke that have derailed the past two summers.

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But Mastoris says they will go some way towards showing fans "there is a future for baseball in Canberra and there is a future for the Cavalry in Canberra".

"For us it's important to keep the Cavalry brand relevant in Canberra. Obviously not being able to have a season this summer has a bit of an impact commercially," Mastoris said.

"It's about keeping sponsors interested, keeping fans interested, trying to keep people engaged and introduce the game to new people. It's critical we have some activity down at the ballpark this year and stay in people's hearts and minds.

"We've always been trying to get some sort of content going. COVID, we thought we'd broken the back of it for a while and thought maybe the idea to cancel the season may have been too early. Omicron hit and validated the decision behind not going ahead with the season.

"For us, it's been building a lot of relationships back up. The players have been keen to help out in any way they can and stay connected with the local baseball community and the community at large. We got on board with ACT Kids in Care and showed we're trying to give back to the community.

"We're trying to restructure the way we do things, so going forward we can be as efficient as we can and hopefully viable as long as we can be."

The Cavalry mark their return against arch-rivals Sydney on Friday from 6.30pm, with the Hume Highway Cup renamed in honour of Steve Kent and Chris Oxspring.

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