The Golden Baseball League, based in San Ramon, California, was an independent baseball league. It later merged with the Northern League and the United Baseball League to form the North American League in the western United States, western Canada and Mexico.
The GBL was not affiliated with Major League Baseball or the organized Minor League Baseball system, but has featured players with MLB experience (Rickey Henderson, Jose Canseco, Alex Arias, Bud Smith, Desi Wilson, Jose Lima, Hideki Irabu, Junior Spivey, Mark Prior). It was formed in 2004 and began play on May 26, 2005. The GBL had a drug-testing policy that has the same standards as the Olympics, becoming the first baseball league to do so in North America.
Officials in the baseball industry have stated the GBL level of play to be at the Double-A level. Over 100 players had been sold to MLB organizations since it began play, with six players already making it to a major league uniform – Adam Pettyjohn, Scott Richmond, Chris Jakubauskas, Sergio Romo, Bobby Cramer, and Daniel Nava.
The GBL's presenting partner was Safeway Inc. Other investors in the GBL included Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak, former National Football League players Mike Sherrard and Christian Okoye, and executives from Cisco Systems, Taleo and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
The Golden Baseball League combined with United League Baseball and the Northern League into a new North American League for the 2011 season to form the first nationwide independent professional baseball league.
Read more about Golden Baseball League: History, Drug Testing, Current Franchises, Television
Famous quotes containing the words golden, baseball and/or league:
“For lust of knowing what should not be known,
We take the Golden Road to Samarkand.”
—James Elroy Flecker (1884–1915)
“When Dad can’t get the diaper on straight, we laugh at him as though he were trying to walk around in high-heel shoes. Do we ever assist him by pointing out that all you have to do is lay out the diaper like a baseball diamond, put the kid’s butt on the pitcher’s mound, bring home plate up, then fasten the tapes at first and third base?”
—Michael K. Meyerhoff (20th century)
“I am not impressed by the Ivy League establishments. Of course they graduate the best—it’s all they’ll take, leaving to others the problem of educating the country. They will give you an education the way the banks will give you money—provided you can prove to their satisfaction that you don’t need it.”
—Peter De Vries (b. 1910)