Baseball America Player of the Year Darryl Brinkley helped introduce a new era of baseball in Alberta today. “Mr. 400” joined Calgary Vipers owner Jeff Gidney and Vipers president Peter Young in announcing the Vipers plans for 2008 to join the California-based Golden League of Professional Baseball. Golden League Commissioner Kevin Outcalt, league president Amit Patel and league CEO Dave Kaval were in Calgary for the media conference and will be in Edmonton for a similar gathering on Wednesday.
Brinkley became the first player in Northern League history to bat .400 in a season that saw the Vipers come within one victory of the league championship series in Gary, Indiana last month. He will lead a lineup laden with players from the 2008 Vipers, including All-Stars Carlos Duncan and Nelson Castro, into the 2008 Golden League season.
The Vipers and Edmonton Cracker-Cats were informed two weeks ago they would not be included in the 2008 Northern League Schedule because they failed to produce $1,000,000 in bonds to the Northern League.
“The Golden League has emerged as an incredible alternative for fans in Alberta”, said Vipers president Peter Young. “After being excluded from the 2008 Northern League schedule we accomplished our due diligence within two weeks and determine the Golden League was the best fit for our fans and players. Our travel schedule will be reduced to four trips next season to the south instead of the nine trips needed to compete this past season. Our travel budget will be approximately one-third of the 2007 season when we were forced to make eight trips to play only one team. The air fares are virtually the same if you play three, four, five or eight games when you travel. Our forty-four game road season in 2008 will mean two trips per half to the southwestern states and six games against our provincial rivals. In addition, fans in Calgary will now be seeing teams from the same geographical area they saw when the Cannons played in the Pacific Coast League.”
The Vipers will now compete against the Long Beach Armada, Orange County Flyers, Chico Outlaws, St. George Roadrunners, Reno Silver Sox and Yuma Scorpions. These teams will boast the same AA calibre lineups as those who have provided the opposition for the Vipers the past three seasons. In fact, the Golden League graduated far more players, fifteen in total, to major league organizations in 2007 than any independent league. In addition, three of the top six selections in the Baseball America Prospects team, including the number one choice came from the Golden League.
The Vipers will be allowed to grandfather all player contracts to perpetuity, meaning all players who have worn a Vipers jersey will be exempt from salary cap restrictions.
“The assurance to our fans is that the same players they cheered in 2007 can be in our lineup in 2008 and beyond”, said Vipers owner Jeff Gidney. “Our fans identify with Brinkley, Duncan, Castro and others and it’s our goal to keep them with the Vipers for the rest of their careers. At our Dallas meetings in the spring of 2006 we heard a presentation by Mr. Kaval about the Golden League. I was the first person to congratulate them on their baseball vision and was impressed by their education, enthusiasm and dedication to the sport. These people simply get it.”.
Kaval pointed out that the Golden League vision is for two to four more Canadian franchises in the next two years. Victoria, Surrey, Kelowna and Kamloops, British Columbia and Saskatoon and Regina, Saskatchewan are the cities being targeted by the league.
