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Na Koa Ikaika Maui Has Entered Into Preliminary Agreement with Ishikawa Million Stars for Inter-Leag

July 18, 2012 - North American League (NAmL)
Strong Warriors of Maui News Release


Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii, July 14, 2012 - The Valley Isle's only professional sports team, Na Koa Ikaika Maui, is honored to announce that at the conclusion of their historic exhibition series last week, they entered into a Letter of Intent with the Ishikawa Million Stars of Japan to begin inter-league play with the Japanese Baseball Challenge League and the North American Baseball League, beginning with the 2013 season. Other teams in their respective leagues would be participating as well with the games counting in the standings of both the NAL and the BCL. That would then lead to a "World Independent Baseball Championship."

While working towards the planning and scheduling of inter-league play, both teams will work together to plan, develop and create the establishment of a "World Independent Baseball League". The teams involved in the "WIBL" from not only Japan and North America, but wherever independent professional baseball is played, will be members in a co-operative joint effort so that each team (and the League) will benefit equally by its participation, in all business and revenues associated and derived by and from the WIBL. Bob Young and Hatoshi Tambo, owners of Na Koa Ikaika Maui and the Ishikawa Million Stars respectively, met to hash out the term of the Agreement over the four days the Japanese team visited Maui and split two exciting and evenly matched games before big crowds at Iron Maehara Stadium in Kahului, HI. The Agreement was executed at the offices of Hawaii Baseball and Na Koa Ikaika Maui on July 12, 2012.

Bob Young stated "Independent Professional Baseball is exploding throughout the world as more and more talented players seek to make it to the major leagues, in many countries. Hatoshi Tambo and I share the same vision: We offer affordable family-friendly professional baseball to fans from Beijing to New York! Fans around the world are being priced out of all professional sports as their target market shifted from people to corporations. We are proposing an international alternative! Let's bring the fans around the world back into ballparks! Starting with Japan's Baseball Challenge League and our North American League, the Ishikawa Million Stars and Na Koa Ikaika Maui have just shown us the way with our historic exhibition series. The future of our association is off to a terrific start!"

The Ishikawa Million Stars is a Japanese semi-professional baseball team, established in 2007. They compete in the Baseball Challenge League (BCL), an independent professional league in Japan. The BCL is comprised of six (6) teams between two (2) divisions; the Hokuriku Division, which consists of teams from Ishikawa, Fukui and Toyama and the Shinetsu Division, consisting of teams from Niigata, Gunma and Nagano.

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