From Reports By GoldenBaseball.com
The Golden Baseball League (GBL) announced their official 2009 Championship Season schedule today. The league has expanded for the second straight season and will feature 10 teams, in three countries, each playing 88 regular season games between May 21st and August 31st followed by two rounds of playoffs. Dubbed the “NAFTA League” by witty journalists, this is the first professional baseball league to ever have teams in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico and is the first time since the 1954 – 1960 International League, that included Canada, U.S., and Cuba teams, that a league has operated in three countries.
“We’re pleased to announce the schedule and excited about the evolution of the Golden Baseball League for 2009,” said GBL Commissioner Kevin Outcalt. “Adding the Victoria Seals, Tucson Toros, and Tijuana Potros along with a change in ownership in Edmonton resulted in more scheduling challenges than we’ve had in the past. This schedule brings these exciting new teams to our existing markets and will provide our fans another great season of first class independent professional baseball.”
For the 2009 season, each team will play 44 home and 44 away games and will be split into two divisions playing a first half/second half split season. The first round of playoffs will be a Division Championship between the winners of the first and second half in each Division, or if one team wins both halves they will face the team in their division with the best overall record for the entire season. The GBL Championship Series will then have the two Division Champions playing for the league title.