Golden Baseball League coming to Kamloops

From The Daily News of Wedneday, Dec. 19, 2007 . . .

The Golden Baseball League is coming to Kamloops in 2008, even if for only one game.
The league, which hopes to have a team here for the 2009 season, tentatively has scheduled a May 28 regular-season game for NorBrock Stadium.
That game would be the opener of a five-game set between the Calgary Vipers and Edmonton Cracker-Cats. After playing here, the series is to resume in Calgary on May 29.
“We’re working with the City to finalize an agreement on that game and to get a full-scale lease for the following season,” David Kaval, the league’s chief executive officer and co-founder, said Tuesday. “Negotiations are underway and we’ve made some good progress. We hope to have something finalized sometime in January.
“We’re really excited.”
Asked on the odds of there being a GBL team playing out of Kamloops in 2009, Kaval said: “I feel confident that we can work out an agreement with the city . . . so I think it’s quite high. But until it’s finalized and signed you just don’t know so we have to be cautious at this time.”
Kaval visited Kamloops on Oct. 25, along with commissioner Kevin Outcalt and Vipers president Peter Young. They met with city officials, including Mayor Terry Lake, and went away most impressed with the potential of NorBrock Stadium.
Kaval said the GBL has since spoken with “a couple of groups” but that nothing is imminent in terms of ownership.
“Right now we’re focused on making sure we get a good agreement in place with the City,” Kaval said. “One possibility would be that the league would own the team; we own half the teams in the league anyway.
“We’re really at the front end of that process.”
In 2008, the GBL will comprise eight teams in two divisions.
The Vipers and Cracker-Cats, both of whom played last season in the Northern League but left after a dispute with the league, are in the GBL North, along with the Chico, Calif., Outlaws and Reno, Nev., Silver Sox.
The GBL South comprises the Long Beach Armada, Orange County Flyers, St. George Roadrunners and Yuma Scorpions. The Armada and Flyers are based in California, the Roadrunners in Utah and the Scorpions in Arizona.
The Flyers have announced that Baseball Hall of Famer Gary Carter will be their manager this season. The Flyers play out of Carter’s hometown of Fullerton, Calif.
“That’s pretty exciting, don’t you think?” Kaval said of having Carter involved. “It’s going to work great when he’s in Calgary and Edmonton and when we get (Kamloops) in the league. That’s going to be a great draw, for sure.”
The GBL also will use a split schedule — each team will play 44 games in each half. Four teams will qualify for the playoffs — the first- and second-half winners and two wild-card teams.
The schedule opens May 22.
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca