Minor Sports Leagues Update

By Dan Krieger
Our Sports Central

(Local teams in parenthesis)

Golden Baseball League (Orange County & Long Beach):
The GBL announced its 2008 regular-season schedule that will feature eight teams in two divisions. All six teams from last season will return, plus the league has added Calgary and Edmonton from the Northern League. The GBL North will feature the Calgary Vipers, Chico Outlaws, Edmonton Cracker-Cats and Reno Silver Sox, while the GBL South will include the Long Beach Armada, Orange County Flyers, St. George Roadrunners and Yuma Scorpions. In addition to looking at markets in British Columbia, the GBL is looking at the Alberta cities of Medicine Hat and Lethbridge, which had previous Rookie-level teams in the Pioneer League. The GBL wants to add at least two more Canadian teams by 2009. With the Pacific Coast League losing the Tucson Sidewinders to Reno in 2009, there was talk of a GBL franchise, possibly under the Tucson Toros name, being placed in the city.

National Basketball Association Development League (Anaheim & LA):
The NBA D-League wants to place a franchise in Harlem (NY) that could become an affiliate of the New York Knicks. A basketball team called the Harlem Renaissance Big Five, or Rens, became famous in the 1920s and 1930s.
American Basketball Association (San Diego, Orange County, LA): The Beijing Aoshen Olympian ABA franchise will play its 36-game schedule in Singapore this season. Other ABA teams are expected to travel to Singapore during the season. The ABA has authorized the Aoshen franchise to be the only ABA club to host, operate and conduct ABA games in Mainland China, including Macao, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Dan Krieger is the creator of "Leagues, Teams & Nicknames", which tracks the changes in league alignments, franchise movements and team nicknames in today's sports world. The latest version can be found at http://www.lulu.com/content/1375144.