 Golden Baseball League logo | |
| Sport | Baseball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2004 |
| First season | 2005 |
| Ceased | 2010 (merged with ULB and NoL) |
| No. of teams | 6 (as of November 2010) |
| Countries | USA Canada Mexico |
| Last champion(s) | Chico Outlaws |
| Most titles | Chico Outlaws (2) |
The Golden Baseball League was an independent baseball league based in San Ramon, California, with teams located in the Western United States, Western Canada and northwest Mexico.
The GBL was not affiliated with Major League Baseball or the organized Minor League Baseball system, but has featured players with MLB experience (Rickey Henderson, Jose Canseco, Alex Arias, Bud Smith, Desi Wilson, José Lima, Hideki Irabu, Junior Spivey, Mark Prior). It was formed in 2004 and began play on May 26, 2005.
The GBL's presenting partner was Safeway Inc. Other investors in the GBL included Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak,[1] former National Football League players Mike Sherrard and Christian Okoye, and executives from Cisco Systems, Taleo and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.[2]
Over 100 players were sold to MLB organizations after it began play, with seven players already making it to a major league uniform – Dane De La Rosa, Adam Pettyjohn, Scott Richmond, Chris Jakubauskas, Sergio Romo, Bobby Cramer, and Daniel Nava.
The Golden Baseball League combined with United League Baseball and the Northern League into a new North American League for the 2011 season to form the first nationwide independent professional baseball league.[3] However, the North American League folded after two seasons.
- ^ Pat Sajak's GBL page Archived 2009-12-14 at the Wayback Machine at PatSajak.com
- ^ "Golden Baseball League Ownership Group". Archived from the original on 2008-08-03. Retrieved 2008-03-19.
- ^ "New Professional North American League Formed". OurSports Central. 18 November 2010.