GBL announces full slate of playoff teams

August 29, 2005 - Golden Baseball League (GBL) News Release


Pleasanton, CA. August 27, 2005: The Golden Baseball League announced today that all four teams to participate in the League Championship Series are now set. Six teams in the league finished with .500 or better records, but based on their home field victories on the final day of the season yesterday, the Long Beach Armada and the Chico Outlaws have qualified in the wild card positions. They join the Mesa Miners and San Diego Surf Dawgs for the inaugural championships to be held in Long Beach at Blair Field beginning Friday, September 2nd.

Long Beach qualified with a dramatic come from behind win in extra innings as they prevailed over the Japan Samurai Bears 5-4 on Adonis Harrison's RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning. In Chico, the Outlaws struck for five runs in the first inning and rode another Grant Gregg pitching gem to win 8-1 over the Fullerton Flyers. Both wildcard teams finished with identical records of 49 wins and 41 losses. Long Beach qualifies in the top wildcard slot as they won their season series with Chico seven games to six.

"We couldn't have scripted a better pennant race with only 3 games separating the top four teams at the conclusion of the season" said GBL Commissioner Kevin Outcalt "Six teams were in the running with three games to go and five teams on the final day. Besides the playoff teams, congratulations are in order for the Yuma Scorpions who will finish with at least 47, and the Surprise Fightin' Falcons who had the best record in the league over the last month to finish at .500 (45-45). In addition, after a slow start the Japan Samurai Bears will finish with at least 32 wins which is one of the most successful records or any traveling team in independent baseball history."

The first round of the GBL Championship Series is now set: The California Division champion San Diego Surf Dawgs (52-38) will face the Chico Outlaws (49-41) in the first game at 3:00 P.M. on Friday, while the Arizona Division champion Mesa Miners (51-39) will face the Long Beach Armada (49-41) one hour after the conclusion of the first game which will be at approximately 7:00 P.M. Winners and losers will then face-off on Saturday in the double-elimination tournament with the two teams with one loss then advancing to the semi-final game on Sunday. The undefeated team through Saturday will get a bye directly to the single-elimination Championship Game Sunday night.

"Our goal is to create a weekend experience for the whole family packed with fun, food and baseball." said Dave Kaval, CEO of the Golden Baseball League. "We wanted to do something a little different and bring together all of our fans from across the league to celebrate our first season. There will be activities for the kids, fireworks shows, player autograph sessions and all of our team mascots will be on hand to entertain. Family entertainment and baseball, it will be a great way to spend Labor Day weekend."

Playoff teams will hold public workout sessions on Thursday September 1, 2005. Fans are invited to come down to the stadium and watch as the teams prepare for the Championship Tournament. Tournament tickets and day passes are available on-line at www.goldenbaseball.com, through all of the GBL Team sites, and through the Long Beach ticket office at 562-597-9787. Tickets range from $8-$15 per seat per day or you can purchase a tournament pass and save 15%.

About the Golden Baseball League The Golden Baseball League, Presented by Safeway Inc. /VONS, is a professional baseball league operating under a single-entity ownership model, with the League owning all the individual teams. Charter Golden Baseball League teams include the Chico Outlaws in Chico, CA; the Fullerton Flyers in Fullerton, CA; the Long Beach Armada in Long Beach, CA; the San Diego Surf Dawgs in San Diego, CA; the Mesa Miners in Mesa, AZ; the Surprise Fightin' Falcons in Surprise, AZ; the Yuma Scorpions in Yuma, AZ and the Japan Samurai Bears which will be the traveling team. The season consists of 90 games per team and began in late May and will end in early September. Each team has a 24-player roster.

For general information, please visit our League web site at www.goldenbaseball.com.

About Safeway Safeway Inc. is a Fortune 50 company and one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America based on sales. The company operates more than 1,800 stores in the United States and Canada and had annual sales of $35.6 billion in 2003. The company's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SWY.



Golden Baseball League Stories from August 29, 2005


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