I’ll admit that when the Golden Baseball League came to fruition, I laughed my ass off at what I was sure would follow.

‘There’s no way this thing is going to work,’ I said. After all, the single-ownership model has just never worked out well, historically.

And the embarrassingly short-lived Canadian Baseball League would be a great example of why it doesn’t; centralized ownership just can’t react to on-the-ground situations fast enough, whereas local owners can see the problems and opportunities much clearer, and react to them sooner. The last thing you want is a guy in Toronto telling a GM in Kamloops where he should be buying his hamburger buns. You don’t want a marketing guy in Ottawa telling a groundskeeper in Calgary that he doesn’t have a budget for weedkiller.

It didn’t help that they had Jose Canseco throwing pitches, and a permanent road team of Japanese players (the Samurai Bears) that lasted one season of the Motel 6 lifestyle before folding.

But the GBL, though it’s still waiting to hit profitability after four seasons and started life with all teams being owned and operated by the league itself, seems to have endured regardless.

Yes, teams have bitten the dust along the way. Yes, one of their most successful teams had to be shelved when they couldn’t get a stadium deal. Yes, there’s been far more talk about potential expansion than there has been actual expansion. And yes, their website sometimes works… and sometimes sends you to empty pages.

But the Golden Baseball League just. won’t. die.

This year they announced that the Chinese National Team will play GBL teams while in the U.S on tour. They’ve also wrapped up their Arizona Winter League which was moderately successful, and announced an expansion team in El Centro, Arizona.

And in addition to all that - two of Canada’s indie league teams, the Calgary Vipers and Edmonton Cracker Cats, have jumped ship from the established Northern League and decided to play in the GBL this season instead.

That has prompted talk of a GBL ‘northern loop’, which could include teams in Victoria, Kamloops and Saskatoon… and perhaps even Newark, N.J.

The Victoria talk, at least, is serious.

"We are investigating the market right now and have had meetings with (Langford, B.C., Mayor) Stew Young looking for a possible site of a (baseball-specific) ballpark," said Darren Parker, whose family, led by dad Russ, owned the Triple-A Calgary Cannons from 1985 to 2001. "We’re serious about it and are negotiating to purchase a club, but that’s as far as we are right now. It’s such early times, if it proves to go anywhere."

I can’t say for sure whether this will happen, or whether the Canadian teams will run screaming from the GBL after they’ve had a few series against the Chico Outlaws and Orange County Flyers, but one thing is for damn sure - the more northern teams that join the GBL, the better the game in Canada will be for it. After all, the Northern League is where High-A and AA players go for a second chance. The GBL is where former major leaguers go for a second chance.

As for why the canuck teams have shifted gears, in the end it all comes down to simple economics.

"Our travel budget is less than one-third what it was last year,” [Calgary Team President Peter] Young acknowledged. "We’ll be taking five airline trips and three buses to Edmonton. We took 11 trips last year. The scheduling was
terrible and it cost us $180,000, plus a $50,000 subsidy. We’re paying $80,000 now. It makes it easier to come up with a viable operating budget.”

Some of the less profitable teams in the Northwest League may want to take note… 

Oh, and speaking of economics, if you’re looking for baseball merchandise for as little as $2, check out the GBL’s merchandise store. T-shirts for $5 and game worn jerseys for $40, people. Stock up.