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MLBDL Major League Baseball Draft League

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
April 4, 2022 - Major League Baseball Draft League (MLBDL)


BASEBALL

Major League Baseball Draft League: The Mahoning Valley Scrappers (Niles, OH) will play one game of the 2022 season as the "Peppers in Oil" after an iconic appetizer popular in the local Youngstown (OH) and Trumbull County area. The MLB Draft League will return for its second season in 2022 with the same six teams as last season playing an extended 80-game schedule. The first part of the 2022 season will feature amateur, draft-eligible players similar to last season, while the second part will feature professional players who have lost their amateur eligibility and want to start their professional careers.

Western League: The independent professional fall-winter Western League, which is affiliated with the independent Pecos League, has merged with the fall-season Desert League ahead of a 2022 Western League season that will start in September. The Desert League reported the new merged league will have four to six teams to include the California Bombers (Inland Empire) and Imperial County (CA) Ghost Riders from the Desert League. The Western League currently lists four teams: the California Bombers, Bakersfield Blues, Salina Stockade and Hollywood Stars. The Western League started in 2019 with its first two seasons played in February and a 2021 season played in November. All games were played at Sam Lynn Park in Bakersfield (CA).

Western Association of Professional Baseball: The proposed independent Western Association, which plans to have eight teams based in the western United States and each playing a 78-game schedule starting in June 2022, is still trying to get off the ground. The league is supposed to hold an inaugural 2022 Winter Warrmup this month followed by a player draft.. The league still lists only one team member called the Henderson (NV) Hoo.

BASKETBALL

Circuito de Baloncesto de la Costa del Pacifico (CIBACOPA): Mexico's semi-pro CIBACOPA, or Pacific Coast Basketball League, started its 2022 season this week with eight teams aligned in one table. This is the league's first action since it played with nine teams for about one week of its 2020 season before suspending play and eventually cancelling the 2020 and 2021 seasons due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Eight of the nine teams from 2020 have returned with the Mantarrayas de La Paz (Baja California) sitting out the 2022 season. The league's Gigantes de Jalisco team was recently taken over by the Astros de Jalisco team of the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional (LNBP) and it was renamed the Astros de Jalisco for the 2022 CIBACOPA season, which ends on June 4. Maritime Women's Basketball Association: The proposed new amateur MWBA, which will include three New Brunswick-based teams and three Nova Scotia-based teams, announced its inaugural 2022 season schedule will feature each team playing ten games from May 14 to June 18, 2022. The season will include three weekend tournament events along with home-and-home games within each province.

Midwest Professional Basketball Association: The semi-pro MPBA is still trying make a comeback and recently held a MPBA Showcase in Fort Wayne (IN) featuring the Fort Wayne Express and the Memphis Blues.

National Basketball Association: As the NBA considers Las Vegas for a potential future expansion team, a new privately financed Las Vegas development that will feature a 20,000-seat NBA-style arena was announced this week with construction to start in 2023 and completion set for 2026.

FOOTBALL

Arena Professional Football League: Just about a week ahead of the APFL's inaugural 2022 season, the league's Reading (PA) Raptors announced the team will shut down operations for the 2022 season with plans to start play again in 2023. Early last month, the APFL announced a 2022 schedule that included the Raptors and three other teams called the Jersey Ballaz (Trenton), Charlotte Thunder and West Michigan Ironmen (Muskegon).

Canadian Football League: Although stadium plans have stalled in Halifax (Nova Scotia) for a proposed CFL Atlantic Canada expansion team to be called the Atlantic Schooners, the CFL plans to hold a 2022 regular season game at Acadia University (Wolfville, Nova Scotia) as part of its Touchdown Atlantic series. The two CFL participants, the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Toronto Argonauts, will host the event along with the ownership of the Atlantic Schooners.

HOCKEY

United States Premier Hockey League: The Tier-III USPHL announced a yet-to-be-named expansion team based in Idaho Falls (ID) will join the USPHL Premier's Mountain Division for the 2022-23 season. The USPHL's Philadelphia Hockey Club announced the organization will not be part of the 2022-23 season and will not operate teams at the USPHL's Tier-II National Collegiate Development Conference or the USPHL's Tier-III Premier and Elite divisions.

SOCCER

MLS NEXT Pro (Major League Soccer): Major League Soccer's 2022 expansion team called the Charlotte FC confirmed it will operate a team in the 2023 season of the MLS Next Pro league, which started its inaugural 2022 season last month with 20 of 21 teams affiliated with MLS teams. Several other MLS teams are planning to place teams in the MLS NEXT Pro league for the 2023 season.

USL W-League (United Soccer League): The Greenville (SC) team in the new 2022 pre-professional USL W-League will be called the Greenville Liberty when its starts play next month. The Liberty is a sister team to the Greenville Triumph SC in the men's Division-III professional USL League One.

USL League One (United Soccer League): The Division-III professional USL League One started its 2022 season this week with 11 teams each playing a 30-game schedule until mid-October 2022. The league operated with 12 teams in 2021, but four teams (North Texas SC, Toronto FC II, Fort Lauderdale CF and New England Revolution II) affiliated with Major League Soccer teams left to join the new Division-III MLS NEXT Pro league that recently started play. The USL League One added the Charlotte Independence from the 2021 Division-II USL Championship, along with expansion teams called the Central Valley Fuego (Fresno) and Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC (Windsor) for the 2022 season.

OTHER

Premier Ultimate League: The women's professional ultimate frisbee PUL started its 2022 season this weekend with 12 teams aligned in 3 regional divisions and playing through June 5, 2022. The South Division has the Atlanta Soul, Austin Torch, Nashville Nightshade and Raleigh Radiance; the East Division has the D.C. Shadow, Medellin Revolution Pro (Colombia), New York Gridlock and Portland (ME) Rising; and the Midwest has the Columbus (OH) Pride, Indy Red, Milwaukee Monarchs and Minnesota Strike.

Dan Krieger is the creator of the Weekly Sports League & Franchise Report, which has been tracking changes in the sports world's leagues, teams and nicknames since April 2007.

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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.


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