Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

New Dawg In Town

Golden Baseball League (GBL) is a new, independent, eight-team, class-A baseball league with a franchise in San Diego. The league reminds me of what a friend said when talking about her favorite restaurant. "I like to get there at opening time, 5:00 p.m., while the cooks and waiters still have hope."

Keeping in mind that this may be the moment we like the San Diego Surf Dawgs best (opening day is two weeks distant), I do note that I've liked everything I've seen so far. Golden Baseball League is the spawn of young master Dave Kaval, recent Stanford University student, and his school bud, Amit Patel. They decided on the league-owns-all-the-teams business model, which has been used, at one time or another, by Major League Soccer, WNBA, Women's United Soccer Association, American Basketball League, and the National Lacrosse League.

Being independent, GBL does not worry about affiliation with major league clubs or keeping their franchises away from major league cities, like the aforementioned San Diego Surf Dawgs. In fact, placing their teams in big-league cities may be a selling point. An outfit called Team Marketing Report has been publishing Fan Cost Index for 13 years. The index tracks what it costs a family of four to attend one Major League Baseball game. This is done by adding up the cost of the following items: two average-priced adult tickets, two averaged-priced child tickets, four small soft drinks, two small beers, four hot dogs, two programs, parking, and two adult-sized caps. The 2005 number for the San Diego Padres is $176.32. One ballgame, $200, if you decide to go for a second beer.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Or, catch a San Diego Surf Dawgs home game for eight bucks a head and bring your own necessities. Kaval may be onto something with this put-a-minor-league-team-in-the-same-city-as-a-major-league-team idea. Surf Dawgs home games will be played at Tony Gwynn Stadium on the campus of San Diego State. It's one of the best college-baseball parks in the country...built in the late '90s, seats 3000, has the usual amenities. And since it's minor-league ball, you can count on, for your eight bucks, the public worship of families, entertainment of some sort between every inning, constant promotions, and endless stadium announcements proclaiming fan appreciation. As opposed to attending a Padres game at Petco Park, where players, management, and stadium employees join together to treat patrons like an unpleasant fact of life.

Kaval has been smart. Less than two months before opening day, a planned franchise in Tijuana fell apart. Now, the league has seven teams and a hint of failure. So, Kaval put together an all-Japanese team -- the Japan Samurai Bears -- who will spend the 2005 season as a traveling club playing away games. Japanese love it, Americans love it, and GBL creates another market for their league. The league has since named Takenori Emoto vice commissioner. He is, according to a press release, "Perhaps the most famous baseball commentator on Japanese television. As a player, he won 113 games as an all-star pitcher from 1971 to 1981 before launching his career as an author, broadcaster, actor, and politician. He is a regular on many television sports shows and has published over 50 books...." Brilliant.

But the single thing the league has done that I like best is signing Rickey Henderson to play for the San Diego Surf Dawgs. That will get me out to a ballgame.

I'd love to see his contract. GBL pays its players $1100 a month. If you were working a 40-hour-a-week job, $1100 a month rounds out to about $6.87 an hour. The minimum wage in California is $6.75 an hour. Rickey is doing a little better than that; his pay is $3000 a month, $18.70 an hour, which won't cover his limo bill. League players get free meals when away from home and stay with "host families." (Read: GBL is too cheap to pay for hotels.) I want, desperately want, to be Rickey's host family when he's in town. Rickey, dear boy, if you're reading this, the beer is cold.

It's been reported that Rickey has a side deal with the league. He'll get a cut of this promotion and that endorsement. I don't know if that's true, and I don't know what kind of money that amounts to if it is.

Rickey's last good year was with the 1999 Mets. He finished the season with a .315 batting average, 37 stolen bases, and an on-base percentage of .423. That's a very fine year for anyone, an unbelievable year for a 40-year-old man.

Six years later and the question is, "Does Henderson have enough left in him, or is there enough luck out there to get him back up to the Bigs?" No one is asking whether he can play for the Surf Dawgs. I expect him to be the best athlete on the field.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Melissa Etheridge, The Imaginary Amazon

Events April 1-April 3, 2024

Golden Baseball League (GBL) is a new, independent, eight-team, class-A baseball league with a franchise in San Diego. The league reminds me of what a friend said when talking about her favorite restaurant. "I like to get there at opening time, 5:00 p.m., while the cooks and waiters still have hope."

Keeping in mind that this may be the moment we like the San Diego Surf Dawgs best (opening day is two weeks distant), I do note that I've liked everything I've seen so far. Golden Baseball League is the spawn of young master Dave Kaval, recent Stanford University student, and his school bud, Amit Patel. They decided on the league-owns-all-the-teams business model, which has been used, at one time or another, by Major League Soccer, WNBA, Women's United Soccer Association, American Basketball League, and the National Lacrosse League.

Being independent, GBL does not worry about affiliation with major league clubs or keeping their franchises away from major league cities, like the aforementioned San Diego Surf Dawgs. In fact, placing their teams in big-league cities may be a selling point. An outfit called Team Marketing Report has been publishing Fan Cost Index for 13 years. The index tracks what it costs a family of four to attend one Major League Baseball game. This is done by adding up the cost of the following items: two average-priced adult tickets, two averaged-priced child tickets, four small soft drinks, two small beers, four hot dogs, two programs, parking, and two adult-sized caps. The 2005 number for the San Diego Padres is $176.32. One ballgame, $200, if you decide to go for a second beer.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Or, catch a San Diego Surf Dawgs home game for eight bucks a head and bring your own necessities. Kaval may be onto something with this put-a-minor-league-team-in-the-same-city-as-a-major-league-team idea. Surf Dawgs home games will be played at Tony Gwynn Stadium on the campus of San Diego State. It's one of the best college-baseball parks in the country...built in the late '90s, seats 3000, has the usual amenities. And since it's minor-league ball, you can count on, for your eight bucks, the public worship of families, entertainment of some sort between every inning, constant promotions, and endless stadium announcements proclaiming fan appreciation. As opposed to attending a Padres game at Petco Park, where players, management, and stadium employees join together to treat patrons like an unpleasant fact of life.

Kaval has been smart. Less than two months before opening day, a planned franchise in Tijuana fell apart. Now, the league has seven teams and a hint of failure. So, Kaval put together an all-Japanese team -- the Japan Samurai Bears -- who will spend the 2005 season as a traveling club playing away games. Japanese love it, Americans love it, and GBL creates another market for their league. The league has since named Takenori Emoto vice commissioner. He is, according to a press release, "Perhaps the most famous baseball commentator on Japanese television. As a player, he won 113 games as an all-star pitcher from 1971 to 1981 before launching his career as an author, broadcaster, actor, and politician. He is a regular on many television sports shows and has published over 50 books...." Brilliant.

But the single thing the league has done that I like best is signing Rickey Henderson to play for the San Diego Surf Dawgs. That will get me out to a ballgame.

I'd love to see his contract. GBL pays its players $1100 a month. If you were working a 40-hour-a-week job, $1100 a month rounds out to about $6.87 an hour. The minimum wage in California is $6.75 an hour. Rickey is doing a little better than that; his pay is $3000 a month, $18.70 an hour, which won't cover his limo bill. League players get free meals when away from home and stay with "host families." (Read: GBL is too cheap to pay for hotels.) I want, desperately want, to be Rickey's host family when he's in town. Rickey, dear boy, if you're reading this, the beer is cold.

It's been reported that Rickey has a side deal with the league. He'll get a cut of this promotion and that endorsement. I don't know if that's true, and I don't know what kind of money that amounts to if it is.

Rickey's last good year was with the 1999 Mets. He finished the season with a .315 batting average, 37 stolen bases, and an on-base percentage of .423. That's a very fine year for anyone, an unbelievable year for a 40-year-old man.

Six years later and the question is, "Does Henderson have enough left in him, or is there enough luck out there to get him back up to the Bigs?" No one is asking whether he can play for the Surf Dawgs. I expect him to be the best athlete on the field.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

SDSU pres gets highest pay raise in state over last 15 years

Union-Tribune still stiffing downtown San Diego landlord?
Next Article

San Diego Reader 2024 Music & Arts Issue

Favorite fakers: Baby Bushka, Fleetwood Max, Electric Waste Band, Oceans, Geezer – plus upcoming tribute schedule
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.