Parker Coddou knew almost nothing about Marysville and the Yuba-Sutter region when he found himself here for the start of the Yuba-Sutter High Wheelers’ inaugural professional baseball season in Yuba County.

“I had no idea what I was getting myself into here,” Coddou said.

Coddou, in his first season with the High Wheelers of the Pioneer Baseball League – defined as a player development league according to President Michael Shapiro – came here fresh out of Louisiana from a small town known as Paintcourtville, which five years ago had a population of under 1,000. He never left the east coast until he arrived in Marysville for professional baseball. Coddou was a career .270 hitter in college at Nicholls State before heading north to Pennsylvania for a season in 2024. He is now in Marysville playing six days a week for a MLB partner league trying to win its second consecutive PBL championship.

The High Wheelers relocated from Yolo County due to field issues in Davis. The city of Marysville, long known as a baseball region with historical faces who have played all across Yuba County, jumped on the latest tenant to come to Bryant Field.

The High Wheelers, owned in part by local face Lon S. Hatamiya, followed in the footsteps of the Marysville Drakes, a team with a similar model of bringing in players from across the country for a few months to help further their baseball skills.

There are 10 states in total represented on the High Wheelers roster – Louisiana, Texas, Florida and of course California. Coddou is one of four from Louisiana, joining statemates Kirkland Banks; Cooper Hext; and Cole Cressend from the southeast.

Coddou says he sees his hometown as very similar to Marysville.

“Small communities that like to come out and have a good time,” Coddou said. 

Monday is typically an off-day for the PBL so folks like Coddou and others try to spend 24 hours venturing somewhere on the west coast to get a feel for life on the other side.

“We went to Sacramento one day caught an (Athletics) game,” Coddou said. “We test the food out; food is not bad here.”

The High Wheelers play teams all over the Western Region of the country. Take Grand Junction for instance: the Jackalopes were here the second week of July for a week and were put up by the team at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sacramento at Fire Mountain where the players could experience good food and a casino.

“This is my first time ever being in California; they have been very welcoming here,” Kendall Foster said. “I think it is a great place to play; the ball does not fly as much.” 

Foster, a center fielder who is hitting .250 with four homers and 27 RBI in Grand Junction, says travel can be difficult at times coming from the mountain west, but he relishes the experience to play ball with the utmost aspiration to make it to the big leagues someday.

Shapiro said each team arranges its own travel logistics and generally it is by bus except when coming to and from California.

It’s a commercial flight, as Shapiro noted.

Foster said travel is not perfect each time.

“We ran into a few bumps in the road with layovers and getting held up on airplanes,” he said.

Despite the travel complications, the overall endgame remains status quo for many of the athletes competing out of the PBL.

“Overall it’s a great experience with good fans here,” Foster said.

Said Mike Campagna: “The weather was new to me but other than that I’m just enjoying being here; enjoying the fans and the people that call Yuba-Sutter their home.” 

You might have seen Monday’s all-star game home run derby, and if you had you would have likely spotted Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., who made his pro debut in 2016 in Missoula of the PBL. 

Chisholm was in the World Series a year ago with New York, and has continued his success in 2025 with 17 homers in 65 games for a team that sits in second in the AL East when play resumes today in Atlanta.

The Pioneer Baseball League, as noted by Shapiro, focused on player development on the field. Each team and player is not affiliated with any MLB franchise and “therefore isn’t classified at any level.”