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MLBDL Major League Baseball Draft League

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
June 5, 2023 - Major League Baseball Draft League (MLBDL)


BASEBALL

Northern League: The independent pre-professional Northern League, which operated as the summer-collegiate Midwest Collegiate League through the 2021 season, started its 2023 season this week with all six teams now based in northern Indiana. For the 2023 season, the Joliet (IL) Generals relocated to become the Griffith (IN) Generals and the Crestwood (IL) Panthers moved to Highland (IN) as the Indiana Panthers. The league's Chicago American Giants team did not return and was replaced by the new Elkhart County (IN) Miracle, based in Nappanee just southeast of South Bend (IN). The three other teams include the Southland Vikings (Hammond), Lake County Corn Dogs (Crown Point) and Northwest Indiana Oilmen (Whiting). Each team will play a 54-game schedule through August 3, 2023.

Northwoods League: The summer-collegiate Northwoods League started its 2023 season this week with 24 teams aligned in 4 regional six-team divisions (Great Lakes East, Great Lakes West, Great Plains East and Great Plains West). The league operated with 22 teams in the 2022 season and added 2 teams for 2023. These include the expansion Minot (ND) Hot Tots and the returning Thunder Bay Border Cats (Ontario, Canada), which sat out the past three seasons due to coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions. A 2022 Twin Cities-based travel-only team called the Minnesota Mud Puppies has returned in 2023 to keep the league at an even number of teams. Each team will play a 72-game schedule through August 12.

Major League Baseball Draft League: The MLB Draft League, which includes the top prospects eligible for the MLB summer draft, started its 2023 season this week with the same six teams as last season and each team playing an 80-game schedule through September 2. Teams again include the Mahoning Valley Scrappers (Niles, OH), State College (PA) Spikes, West Virginia Black Bears (Morgantown), Williamsport (PA) Crosscutters, Trenton (NJ) Thunder and Frederick (MD) Keys. The league started play in 2021.

United Shore Professional Baseball League: The independent developmental USPBL recently started its 2023 season with the same four teams from last season-the Utica Unicorns and Eastside Diamond Hoppers in the East and the Westside Woolly Mammoths and Birmingham Bloomfield Beavers in the West. All games will be played at the Jimmy John's Field in Utica (MI) through September 2, 2023.

BASKETBALL

Eastern Canadian Basketball League: The semi-pro ECBL, which started its inaugural 2023 season in late March with six teams based in the Maritimes region of Canada, cancelled the remaining games on its 2023 schedule as of May 21 due to financial difficulties. Teams had played anywhere from 11 to 16 games on a 26-game schedule that was to run through mid-June. The league announced it would hold a championship tournament event last weekend to close out the season, but that too was cancelled. The ECBL included the Truro Tide and Valley Vipers (Annapolis Valley) in Nova Scotia; the Moncton Motion, Saint John Union and Bathurst Bears in New Brunswick; and the Charlottetown Power on Prince Edward Island. The league stated it will undergo a restructuring for an attempt at a return in 2024.

Global Women's Basketball Association: The semi-pro GWBA started its 2023 season this weekend with four teams each playing an eight-game schedule through July. The Flint (MI) Monarchs, Wisconsin Glo (Oshkosh) and St. Louis Surge have returned from last season, while a new team called the Kansas City (MO) Crossover (KCrossover) has replaced the Detroit Queens. The Kansas City team was originally listed as the Kansas City Jazz on some of the 2023 team schedules, but it under new ownership and changed to the KCrossover.

FOOTBALL

American Flag Football League: The AFFL, which has been trying to organize a men's professional league with teams playing a 7-on-7 style of flag football, recently announced Nashville as its fourth market to have a team in the league's inaugural 2024 season along with teams in Boston, Dallas and Las Vegas. The AFFL is currently organizing player tryouts for each of the four teams. The AFFL also plans to start a women's professional flag football league in 2025.

HOCKEY

Federal Prospects Hockey League: The minor A-level FPHL held a player draft this week to stock its two new yet-to-be-named expansion teams in Baton Rouge (LA) and Wytheville (VA). In the current 11-team alignment, Baton Rouge has been added to the Continental Division with five other returning teams, while Wytheville has been placed in the Empire Division with four other returning teams and replaces the Delaware Thunder (Harrington). The Thunder is not returning because the team lost the use of its home arena and it is currently listed as inactive for the 2023-24 season.

Greater Metro Hockey League: The independent Canadian junior-level GMHL announced it has shut down operations for all teams in its West Division, which included six Alberta-based teams and four British Columbia-based teams during the 2022-23 season. The GMHL will continue to operate its North and South divisions, which currently includes nine teams in each division with a couple of teams in Quebec and the rest based in Ontario.

National Junior Hockey League: With Canada's junior-level Greater Metro Hockey League dropping its ten-team West Division, the new Canadian independent NJHL has been formed and currently lists eight of the ten Alberta and British Columbia teams that were part of the 2022-23 GMHL West Division. The NJHL claims to be a Tier 2 Junior-A league and plans to start play in the 2023-24 season.

SOCCER

League1 Atlantic: The proposed League1 Atlantic hopes to become another of the provincial Division-III pro-am leagues under League1 Canada in the near future with teams to be based in the Atlantic Canada provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland & Labrador. To show the viability of the proposed league, three teams called the Suburban FC (Nova Scotia), Winsloe Charlottetown FC (PEI) and Fredericton Reds (New Brunswick) have organized an exhibition series called the Maritime Super Series that started last weekend. The series includes both men's and women's teams from each club and takes place over three weekends-last weekend in Halifax; June 16-18 in Fredericton; and July 14-16 in Charlottetown. League1 Canada has already established provincial league called League1 Ontario, League1 Quebec and League1 British Columbia and is sponsoring an exhibition series this summer under the League1 Alberta banner for another possible provincial league.

Project Eight League: The Project Eight organization, which wants to develop the first Canadian women's professional soccer league and will most likely go by a different name, recently announced a Toronto-based club called AFC Toronto City has joined as a third team. Back in December 2022, the Vancouver Whitecaps FC and the Calgary Foothills Soccer Club were the first teams confirmed to be part of the new league. The league plans to start play in 2025 with eight teams aligned in two conferences.

National Women's Soccer League: The NWSL's new San Francisco Bay Area expansion team announced it will be called the Bay Football Club, or Bay FC, when it starts play in the league's 2024 season. In addition to Bay FC, the league will add the Salt Lake City-based Utah Royals FC and expand from 12 to 14 teams for the 2024 season. The NWSL has stated it wants to expand to 16 teams by the 2026 season.

OTHER

Premier Lacrosse League: The tour-based professional field lacrosse PLL started its 2023 season this weekend in Albany (NY) with the first of ten regular-season weekend events. Other regular-season tour stops include Columbus (OH), Charlotte, Minneapolis, Fairfield (CT), Dallas, Baltimore, Denver, Tacoma and Salt Lake City through August 27, including an All-Star Game in Louisville on July 22. The PLL will have the same eight teams (Atlas, Cannons, Chrome, Whipsnakes, Archers, Chaos, Redwoods and Waterdogs) as last season and each weekend event will feature all eight teams playing once per weekend. Last week, the PLL announced it will assign each of its eight league-operated teams to home cities starting with the 2024 season.

Major Series Lacrosse: The Ontario-based indoor (box lacrosse) Senior-A MSL started its 2023 season this week with five teams. All four teams called the Brooklin Redmen, Cobourg Kodiaks, Peterborough Lakers and Six Nations Chiefs (Hagersville) from last season have returned, and the league added the Brampton Excelsiors. Back in January, the MSL announced a dispute over the 2020 relocation of the Brampton Excelsiors to Owen Sound had been settled and both a Brampton Excelsiors team and an Owen Sound North Stars team would play in the 2023 season. In late February, the Owen Sound North Stars announced the team was not ready to start play in 2023, but it plans to return in 2024. After sitting out the 2022 season, another MSL team called the Oakville Rock is again sitting out the 2023 season. Each MSL team will play a 14-game schedule through July 2023. The MSL champion plays the champion of the British Columbia-based Western Lacrosse Association for the Mann Cup.

Western Lacrosse Association: The British Columbia-based indoor Senior-A WLA started its 2023 season last week with the same seven teams called the Burnaby Lakers, Coquitlam Adanacs, Langley Thunder, Maple Ridge Burrards, Nanaimo Timbermen, New Westminster Salmonbellies and Victoria Shamrocks. Each WLA team will play an 18-game schedule through July. The WLA champion plays the champion of the Ontario-based Major Series Lacrosse for the Mann Cup.

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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