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| BASEBALL RUMBLINGS - RUMORS AND FACTS |
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| September 1, 2009 CAN HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF IN DOUGLAS? DOUGLAS, ARIZONA - For some people what happened here 51 years ago has never been heard of. For others, the memory is like that of a fairy tale. In 1958, The Douglas Copper Kings accomplished what no other team in Major League or Minor League baseball ever has. All nine starters hit homeruns. Yes, you read that correctly. All nine starters for the Copper Kings sent the horsehide deep over the fence at a game in Chihuahua, Mexico. No team has ever gotten close to having all nine starters hit home runs. Read More... |
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November 1, 2009 "BARNSTORMING" WHEN? PERHAPS in 2010 If all planning goes well, a group of partners will bring “barnstorming” baseball to communities along and near historic U.S. Route 66 next year. “Hey, baseball? That’s great,” I hear you exclaim. “But what’s with this ‘barnstorming’ business?” Well, folks, barnstorming in baseball dates back more than a century, to the early 1900s. To “barnstorm” in baseball involves a traveling team playing exhibition games in small towns and cities. Historically, those were communities that either did not have their own baseball teams or perhaps had only a local youth team or town team. Those traveling teams – usually professional or semipro, and usually not affiliated with any organized league – would travel around playing local teams of one sort or another. Frequently, they would rent local baseball fields, sell tickets and, in effect, bring a certain level of baseball to the boonies, the burgs and the boomtowns across the nation. Read More... |
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December 17, 2009 LUKE POWELL ON BOARD FOR 2011 SAN DIEGO - Throughout ones life, we often meet someone whom we say not only “walks the walk, but talks the talk”. Others are pretenders in a world based on what have you done and what are you going to do for me. Then every once in awhile, we run across a person whom not only “walks the walk and talks the talk”, but one who has lived the life and followed their dreams. Well, this is one of those times. Read More... |
| January 8, 2010
AMBRIZ STILL HAS GAME "A lot of people may come and go in this game, but as long as you get to put on that jersey everyday, you still have a chance" DOUGLAS, ARIZONA - There are people all over the world who have played the game of baseball. Whether it be in an open field, on a make shift sandlot, or on a plush green manicured infield. Few however, can say they are still in love with the game, no matter the field of play. Albert Ambriz, is one of those people. Read More... |
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| Tecate Baja California |
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| Douglas, Arizona |
| Bisbee, Arizona |
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| Ted Tow Contributing Writer |
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| Doug Bender Contributing Writer |
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| INDEPENDENT LEAGUE LINKS |
| May 12, 2010 SWL ON HOLD With the immigration issues and the violence in Mexico, the Southwestern League has voted to delay the official formation of the SWL. However, the league has made application to an existing professional league for a team in 2011. Each SWL team owner will have a stake in the 2011 that will be known as the Southwestern Travelers. |
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| Bob Lipp Contributing Writer |
| June 10, 2010 CAN THE HAVASU HEAT, NOW HAYSVILLE HEAT CONTINUE ITS DOMINATION? It will be interesting to see if the Heat can play a .900 clip during the regular season. The Heat, founding team in the Pacific Southwest Baseball League has had a winning percentage of over .900 during its existance playing in the PSWBL. Except for Casa Grande and Mesa, there has been no real competition in the PSWBL. The Heat are off to a 1-1 start in the Jayhawk. Click the league logos to stay up on the progress. Our bet is the Heat will finish .550 to .600, very respectable but a far cry from the domination of the past. |
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| June 10, 2010 MUSICAL CHAIRS IN THE MEXICAN NORTHERN LEAGUE The Liga Norte de Mexico did some spur of the moment team relocating right before the start of the season. The Magdalena club moved to Tecate and Mexicali Blues moved to Tijuana. Tecate has never had a good showing at the turnstile and the Golden League announced that Tijuana would officially enter the GBL and call Cerro Colorado Stadium, the biggest in TJ, its home. So, why the LNM would announce a second team for TJ is a mystery. Magdalena has been a staple city within the league for years and my guess is that baseball will return there for the 2011 season. |
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| June 9, 2010 TROUBLE BREWING IN BISBEE? Bisbee, Arizona, home to Warren Ball Park, the oldest ballpark in America is getting off to a rough start, kinda. The team is off the an 8-0 start, but the wins are over three Tucson men's teams, all new entries into the 2010 Pacific Southwest Baseball League. The season starting league tournament in Bisbee was to showcase all eight league teams, however, the current longest running tenure league team, the Casa Grande Cotton Kings, along with the Tucson Nationals, didn't arrive. One team official explains that the teams in the league are tired of not playing a balanced schedule with Bisbee not playing any road games. Opening Night attendance was a mere 100 with following games seeing less than 50 each. Bisbee's first game of the 2003 professional Arizona-Mexico League saw 1,800 while the opening game of the semi-pro 2006 Border League recorded 623 fans. A team official states that there is not a shortage of sponsorship money to the team. A call placed by us to the El Paso Sun Kings, which has been part of the annual July 4th Bisbee Tournament for several years, went unaswered. The Sun Kings are scheduled to be part of this years tournament. The attendance woes could be the border issues. The Douglas rancher that was killed by an illegal, happened on the ranchers ranch about 30 miles from the ballpark. The park sits 6 miles from the border. Our hope is that we will see an increase in the attendance and baseball will survive in Bisbee. |
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| July 9, 2010 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE TO FOLD This article is posted on http://ballparkbiz.com Sources tell us that the struggling four-team (only two with permanent homes) Continental Baseball League is done. This appears to be supported by the news that the CBL is ending its season early, and that the inaugural Las Cruces (NM) Vaqueros have accepted an offer to join another league. Read more here. The immediate assumption would be that the Vaqueros’ new league is the Southwestern League, which was expected to launch next year. Nope. The SWL announced back in May that their 2011 plans were put on hold because of “immigration issues and violence in Mexico.” Interestingly, the Vaqueros’ new league is the Pecos League, which looks eerily familar to the CBL. |
| July 10, 2010 LEAGUE GROUP INVITED TO NEW PRO LEAGUE With the Continental League folding, arises the Pecos League. The new league has invited the members of the proposed Southwestern League to play ball in 2011. With the SWL placed on hold due to economic, immigration and border issues, each team owner that was to have a team in the 2011 SWL had planned on joining up forces and creating the Southwestern Travelers. A new prospective has been created with the Pecos League inviting the group to play baseball in their league. The SWL group has chosen to call Nogales, Arizona their 2011 home base and be known as the Nogales Nomads. Click here for Nomads website! |
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| July 20, 2010 NOMADS BASEBALL CLUB WILL NOT JOIN PECOS LEAGUE With extensive conversation between Andrew Dunn, president of the proposed Pecos League, and the Nomads Baseball Club, it has been determined that the Nomads and the league are not a good fit. The major concern on the league's part is that the league area will be too big with the proposed Pueblo team to the north and a Del Rio, Texas team to the south. Travel from southern Arizona to either point is close to 800 miles. The three major partners of the Nomads, T.K. Karabatsos, Bob Lipp and Luke Powell, together agreed on the travel issue. Concerning the 2011 schedule, the Nomads have been in touch with a number of semi-pro and professional teams from Mexico and a few teams from Arizona and California. Scheduling will begin in November. Interested players please contact T.K. Karabatsos at tkk95120@yahoo.com |
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