Rockford to Golden League; League Expands

[ca]

fans dont want the fl ? the city best be careful on this one

[hawksfan29]

[quote=""ca""]fans dont want the fl ? the city best be careful on this one[/quote]

jackhammers fans will not care what league it is. north american, frontier, aa. only 5% care about the baseball it self (mostly those fans can be found on these boards like me and you), 95% just want fun and afforable family entertainment. they could care less about who wins or loses, 1st place or 6th, frontier or northern. that is the truth about indy ball.

[knucks]

I don't understand why anyone would bother reading 95% of the stuff posted here. I come to this board for possible links to news articles, and I am thankful for those who collect them and post them.

I have been a player for a few years and, as an independent minor leaguer, I am rooting for more roster spots and, perhaps, a more national league to join in order to see more of the country. More roster spots means more job security; more job security means more of an opportunity to become affiliated; I am dead set on my ability to crack the MLB, even for a day.

I am excited for this proposed North American League.

I don't understand all the negativity and bickering here. When I read anonymous crying online I wonder to myself the motivations.

The more I read the more it seems like the members of this board are rooting for the collapse of baseball businesses around the country. In this down economic time the fortune, and turn around, of these businesses will signal the end of the great recession.

The NAL is a bold, perhaps desperate step toward national affiliations. Necessity, even desperate necessity, is the mother of invention. If it works who knows what we will see in the future. It seems to be an exciting time.

[smallballfan]

The are adding Tijuana, which makes 15 teams, the same number as with Joliet and not Tijuana. Then they'll add either Omaha or Yuma

The annual "we welcome Tijuana to the league" announcement from the GL already? Kind of early, isn't it?

And didn't Omaha already fall through?

//www.oursportscentral.com/service ... id=4110212

Didn't Yuma end up the season playing on little league fields or something? Did their players ever get paid, the ones they traded away halfway through the season?

I wonder if all this 'super league' stuff is really happening. Playing 80 or so games against 3 other teams in a division, then making a road trip you can't afford to pay for, doesn't make a lot of sense. Maybe that's why there hasn't been any sort of announcement on it.

[smallballfan]

The more I read the more it seems like the members of this board are rooting for the collapse of baseball businesses around the country.

Knucks, I can only speak for myself, and in my case nothing could be further from the truth. As someone who spent a significant amount of time working in the game, I truly hope this thing succeeds. Baseball is a great game to be around and those of us who are or have been in it know this. I'm not in it anymore but I follow the business of it pretty closely, as many of my long-term friends are still in the game. Some of these friends include ballplayers who are still owed salary from teams this year, who played on promises and the goodness of others while trying to do something they love.

If someone has the vision, financial wherewithal and endurance to make this apparent north american league work, great for them and great for baseball. The problem is that it appears to be the same people who screwed up so many teams and markets in the first place.

Myself, the negativity comes from leagues like the GL, Southeastern, Western (long ago) and some other leagues what have come and gone, who have done absolutely nothing but take from those communities and investors who would like to grow baseball as a business. Their exploits have been thoroughly documented, no need to go through them here.

The point is, having people like them, who screw over players, sponsors, fans, vendors, city governments and staff, gives those of us with a sense of ethics a bad name. They burn markets, creating bad feelings and an atmosphere of distrust when an ethical investor or staff comes in to try to make things right. They make the business sleazy when it shouldn't be. In doing so they also limit the ability of people who work in the business, including some of my friends, to earn a living.

I cite the GL only because I know more than one person who has been through that league. As you know, baseball is a very small world. If one person says someone is sleazy, you take that with a grain of salt. If 10 people you know and trust say it, you tend to believe it.

So when many of us see the same people trying the same things over and over, it's fairly obvious what they're after. The few who actually want to do the right thing get buried under the pile of people like the ones we read about on here.

For the most part, when people say something about someone here, it's backed up by documented facts. Obviously, the occasional "that guy is a scumbag" will pop up, but that's the nature of these kinds of boards. But to say that the Joliet franchise was mismanaged and run into the ground isn't libelous, it's a very well documented piece of fact. To say that the GL trots out a Tijuana franchise, with no financial chance of success, every year isn't an opinion, it's a documented fact with years of history behind it. To say Chico isn't wanted by the city they play in is not slamming anyone, it's quoting the Chico city manager.

Sorry for rambling on, but the bottom line is that reading about the same people who give indy ball a bad name, trying again to line their pockets at the expense of others, is pretty offensive to those of us with any sort of ethics. Those of us who DO want to see indy ball succeed.

[babaseball]

[quote=""knucks""]I don't understand all the negativity and bickering here. When I read anonymous crying online I wonder to myself the motivations. [/quote]

As a former GBL employee, I have seen first had what a poorly run league does to the communities they play in. Sponsors, vendors, local municipalities, season ticket holders, employees, fans, etc. all end up paying the price for the greed of the people at the top. It has been my experience in the business that 90% of players do not fully grasp the scope of the stakeholders that make up a minor league baseball team. You may want more teams so there are more roster spots, but is it really worth it at the expense of all of the people listed above?

I bit my tongue for many years while working for the GBL and it is somewhat refreshing (or disturbing, depending on how you look at it) to read this board and discover that I am not the only person who has seen what has gone on with the GBL over the years. There is a reason that communities like Chico, Yuma, and Long Beach have stopped supporting their teams over the years. The negativity you see on here is result of years of a poorly run league taking advantage of many, many people. The thought of a "super league" being run by many of the same people, throws up a lot of red flags to me.

That being said, I would love nothing more than to see a "super league" succeed. I still have some friends in the business and I would like to get back into the business one day myself. Minor league baseball can be a great asset to many communities around the country, but I just don't think this particular "super league" has the best intentions of the communities it will play in as it's top priority.

[JFeld127]

[quote=""babaseball""]There is a reason that communities like Chico, Yuma, and Long Beach have stopped supporting their teams over the years.[/quote]

As someone who spent a couple of years in Long Beach, I'll just say that things were on the upswing at Blair Field in 2009, and there was solid 2010 campaign if not for the City of LB wanting to get Blair Field off its books, resulting in the long-term leasing of the facility to Cal State Long Beach.

When the handwriting was on the wall that the Armada wouldn't be back for 2010, that's when other obligations went unfulfilled. It sucks seeing how it ended, and I know there is a bad taste in some people's mouths from the Armada's last days in Long Beach, but there was certainly potential for success there with the fan base we had.

Here is how things ended up between the GBL and City of LB, or at least, that's where I stopped keeping track. It's too bad, because that was a great market with a pretty cool small-town feel despite being part of the big Los Angeles market.

As for Chico and Yuma, I know that fans have soured on those teams for different reasons, but both of those franchises have had success in the past. It was a lot of fun working in this league, and the opportunities it provides for players and people who want to work in baseball are great. I hope it can somehow stay afloat in the future so other folks can have the same opportunities.... but hope isn't exactly a savvy business strategy.

[FlyerFan]

Be watching... there is an announcement to be made any time now about the new North American League....

[preeths]

Here's the release:
//www.oursportscentral.com/service ... id=4117594

No teams listed yet.

[AZdev]

smallballfan;145645]The annual "we welcome Tijuana to the league" announcement from the GL already? Kind of early, isn't it?

This was too good!! Thanks!
A soon as I saw Tijuana mentioned again, I could not take the press release for this new league seriously. What a joke!!
I do like the idea that these Teams/Leagues will continue to operate under their current banners, while basically playing inter-league games.That way if one league screws up, ie..GBL, the others possibly could still move on in 2012 without being directly affected. I don't like the idea that the GBL seems to be the driving force though.
Unless Hawaii gets another team, Maui has got to go!!! That was ridiculous last season. Changing other team's schedules to accomodate them.
So this new league could help for now, until each league gets back on their feet.