Rockford to Golden League; League Expands

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wasteland
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Rockford to Golden League; League Expands

Post by wasteland » Sat Nov 13, 2010 4:31 am

WREX TV reports Rockford (along with Lake County and Schamburg of the Northern League) will be joining the newly expanded Golden League. It will be comprised of four divisions, West, Canada, Texas, and Midwest. I'm sure more will be released soon on this breaking news.

wasteland
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Post by wasteland » Sat Nov 13, 2010 4:54 am

ROCKFORD (WREX) - After one season in the Northern League, the Rockford RiverHawks leave for the Golden League.

An official announcement is expected next week, but team owner Dave Ciarrachi told the 13 Sports Authority Friday night that the ‘Hawks are Golden League bound and the league itself will expand.

Ciarrachi said the league's new format will feature four divisions, one on the west coast, one in Canada, one in Texas, and one in the Midwest.

The RiverHawks will play in the Midwest division along with former Northern League teams from Schaumburg, Joliet, and Lake County. A potential fifth member of the division could come from Omaha.

Ciarrachi said the Golden League rules will allow the RiverHawks to keep the players they have, no matter their age.

The league will feature 16 or 17 teams and the name of the league along with the divisions will be discussed at the owners meetings later this month.

http://www.wrex.com/Global/story.asp?S=13495797

nksports
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Post by nksports » Sat Nov 13, 2010 5:06 am

What kind of drugs are these people on? I know the Golden League is pretty desperate at this point, but this makes no sense whatsoever. If these owners couldn't get into the AA or Frontier League, maybe that was a sign to hang it up.
This could turn into the ABA or NIFL of indy pro baseball.

J.J. Smith
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Post by J.J. Smith » Sat Nov 13, 2010 12:39 pm

If this were April 1st, that story would make sense, but on any other day :eek:

Well, this should be interesting- in a sad, desperate sort of way.

indyproball
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Huh?

Post by indyproball » Sat Nov 13, 2010 10:19 pm

There are 4-5 teams mentioned above......why not form a midwest league and not get involved with an old league ridden with problems?

GL teams out are:

Tucson
Hawaii
St. George
Chico
Victoria
Tijuana
Yuma too?


HERE'S THE SCENERIO!

Edmonton
Calgary
Rockford
Schaumburg
Lake County
Joliet

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WallysWorld
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Post by WallysWorld » Sun Nov 14, 2010 12:42 am

Well admittedly from a selfish point of view, I just want any type of baseball to help keep the Vipers and the Capitals around.

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LaVidaLoca
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Name the New League contest

Post by LaVidaLoca » Sun Nov 14, 2010 3:10 am

Hot Stove report...Wow...Can we all be fantasizing that there will be a 4 division league made up of a bunch of misfits (16)? I can see the old UL, some defects from AA, what is left of the GBL, and NL defects who else...I wish we could all go to this meeting...that would be a blast!
I say we have some fun naming the new league, and naming the new divisions. Why not, we have nothing else to do. Maybe in a few weeks we can vote on the winner and give them the trophy which needs to be designed by a genius on this blog. I'll take the 1st shot at naming names:

League Name - Star Trek League sponsored by Travelosity.Com

Divisions -Western Vacationers, Texas TimeWarp, Canadian Frequent Flyers, Midwestern Travelers

League President: Leonard Nimoy
Travel Consultant: William Shatner
League Doctor: "Bones McCoy"
Administrative Consultant: George Takai "Sulu"
Operations Mgr: "Scotty"
Financial Officer: "Chekov"

Who else would put together a "trial by fire" once in a lifetime league of miracles?? Oh I know...The Klingon Federation and the Romulan Council

That was fun!! Beam me up Scotty

smallballfan
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Post by smallballfan » Sun Nov 14, 2010 5:25 am

Off of one unconfirmed report from Rockford, everything is fine and dandy? Think this through - of all the teams that could possibly be in this thing, how many are actually viable franchises?

Schaumburg, Joliet, Victoria, all the GL franchises but Edmonton and Calgary, all the UL franchises - are any of them surviving as a business? Haven't Schaumburg and Joliet both been evicted from their stadiums and have bankrupt operations? Omaha has already given up on putting an indy team in Rosenblatt. Lake County's stadium and economic problems are well-documented. Rockford seems to be solid, so there's one.

The GL franchises - Victoria has already called it quits (though again, it could be a ploy to get a new lease) and not a word has been heard from any of the other GL franchises in the USA. Well, except for Tucson folding up shop and the Chico mayor saying they didn't want the team back. Anyone even know if OC or Yuma are in business, here in mid-November?

The UL franchises - seriously, who are they, is anyone running them, are they operating?

Most of these teams, especially the GL teams, are broke already, they couldn't handle travel within their own leagues last year - all of a sudden these bankrupt, evicted owners have the money to travel from Chicago to Maui? The guy who can't pay rent in Orange County suddenly has enough money to fly 30 people to Rockford?

Or are they going to run basically four separate, four team leagues? At some point someone's going to have to pay for a plane, and that's where the fun starts. Long bus ride from Joliet to Chico.

Where else are they pulling from - the AA, the Pecos League? The Chicago Over-35 16" Softball League?

All of that goes away because of someone flapping their gums in Rockford?

As they say on ESPN... 'come on, man.'

With that said, it really would be something if, now that Kaval is gone, some integrity came to the GL and they had some sort of plan. If it actually happens, they might be smart to not call it the GL and not tie anyone to that reputation.

It'll be interesting to see what happens. Those of us who do this for a living hate to see any baseball go away. Like someone said earlier, things change all the time in indy ball. Maybe something can be pulled out of all this and a good change comes along for once.

A lot of commotion from one rumor.

Shootmaster_44
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Post by Shootmaster_44 » Sun Nov 14, 2010 5:40 am

So to form a Canadian division they will need to expand. I guess this means Kamloops and Saskatoon will get the teams the GBL has attempted to place in those cities.

I wonder if Victoria will relocate instead of simply folding? With the team being owned by the Parkers, who also own the Regina Pats, I wonder if they might just move the team to Regina?

So with the four teams jumping from the Northern League, I guess the league is dead. That surprises me since for many, many years it was the strongest and most viable league going. It was king of the mountain as far as indy baseball was concerned. I remember that Saskatoon tried to get a Northern League team many times and was rebuked by the league for not being good enough for them.

I guess one of two things will happen for the Golden League. Either the league will thrive because of the expansion and stronger teams brought in (the Northern League 4 for instance) or the league will collapse under the weight of being too spread out.

smallballfan
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Post by smallballfan » Sun Nov 14, 2010 5:43 pm

stronger teams brought in (the Northern League 4 for instance)
Shoot,

I'm curious as to which of the four NL teams are considered strong? I really only see what I read in the papers and on here, so I'm not that familiar with the inner workings. Of the four, it appears only Rockford has not been reported as bankrupt, being evicted or trying to find new ownership.

Not sniping, just trying to learn - what makes Joliet, Schaumburg, Lake County strong?

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