Where would the league play?
What cities?
The rivalry is important and a major attraction for fans. The northeast is a hotbed for women's baseball. And the Midwest is another. Then we have California.
These are my suggestions of 2 divisions in a league. Please keep in mind - if this was to be a league with a payroll, players from large baseball communities will shuffle around to fill in on other teams. For the sake of the argument and for explaining purposes only we will call these divisions American and National:
New York - 2 teams - 1 in each division
Boston - 2 teams - 1 in each division
New Hampshire/Rhode Island - 1 team (American)
Philadelphia - 1 team (National)
Washington DC - 1 team (National)
Baltimore - 1 team (American)
There's your Northeast hotbed... 8 teams in all. (and there's probably 20 teams playing today in all cities put together - a good source of training, rehab, and calling someone else up)
The Midwest is tricker. You got a bunch of players grouped together in one spot, and the others quite a distance away.
Chicago - 2 teams - 1 in each division
Detroit - 2 team - 1 in each division
South Bend - 2 teams - 1 in each division
There's an opportunity to add a team from Canada to compete a rivarly with Detroit, and if so... Detroit will have 1 team (American) and Canada will have 1 team (American) into this section of the league. The midwest will have 6 teams, and will be mostly an American League. So that leaves a couple of current teams leftover as filler, rehab, training, and call ups.... but not as much as the northeast.
And we're off to the Pacific... California is another hotbed.
Northern California:
San Jose - 2 teams - 1 in each division
San Francisco - 2 teams - 1 in each division
Southern California:
Los Angeles - 2 teams - 1 in each division
San Diego - 2 teams - 1 in each division
Currently there are 2 California Leagues in these representing cities. While not as large as the northeast for extra players, there's a a team in Seattle who could join the "farm". Seattle, in my opinion, is not strong enough to have it's own team in the league. Would be an excellent opportunity to become a expansion team as the league grows and money comes in.
The problem is the bottom half of the nation is bare. I think a team in the southern cities such as Phoenix, Dallas, New Orleans, Birmingham, Atlanta, Charlotte, Tampa, Orlando, Miami are all worthwhile cities to consider for expansion teams. Then you have mid country cities of Denver, Kansas City, St Louis and Pittsburgh.
All in all, thats 22 teams I believe would work right out of the starting gate with plenty of additional players in waiting. That alone is a minimum of 220 players. At last count I did, I counted 367 players in America last year. This year, there's a new team forming (the northeast of course) and I have no doubt that the boston/new hampshire/rhode island area has more players then they know what to do with this year. And who knows how many people from Canada... and I hear the CanAm tourney last year was a large success.
The players are there... their cities to be represented.... willing, able and ready.
What cities?
The rivalry is important and a major attraction for fans. The northeast is a hotbed for women's baseball. And the Midwest is another. Then we have California.
These are my suggestions of 2 divisions in a league. Please keep in mind - if this was to be a league with a payroll, players from large baseball communities will shuffle around to fill in on other teams. For the sake of the argument and for explaining purposes only we will call these divisions American and National:
New York - 2 teams - 1 in each division
Boston - 2 teams - 1 in each division
New Hampshire/Rhode Island - 1 team (American)
Philadelphia - 1 team (National)
Washington DC - 1 team (National)
Baltimore - 1 team (American)
There's your Northeast hotbed... 8 teams in all. (and there's probably 20 teams playing today in all cities put together - a good source of training, rehab, and calling someone else up)
The Midwest is tricker. You got a bunch of players grouped together in one spot, and the others quite a distance away.
Chicago - 2 teams - 1 in each division
Detroit - 2 team - 1 in each division
South Bend - 2 teams - 1 in each division
There's an opportunity to add a team from Canada to compete a rivarly with Detroit, and if so... Detroit will have 1 team (American) and Canada will have 1 team (American) into this section of the league. The midwest will have 6 teams, and will be mostly an American League. So that leaves a couple of current teams leftover as filler, rehab, training, and call ups.... but not as much as the northeast.
And we're off to the Pacific... California is another hotbed.
Northern California:
San Jose - 2 teams - 1 in each division
San Francisco - 2 teams - 1 in each division
Southern California:
Los Angeles - 2 teams - 1 in each division
San Diego - 2 teams - 1 in each division
Currently there are 2 California Leagues in these representing cities. While not as large as the northeast for extra players, there's a a team in Seattle who could join the "farm". Seattle, in my opinion, is not strong enough to have it's own team in the league. Would be an excellent opportunity to become a expansion team as the league grows and money comes in.
The problem is the bottom half of the nation is bare. I think a team in the southern cities such as Phoenix, Dallas, New Orleans, Birmingham, Atlanta, Charlotte, Tampa, Orlando, Miami are all worthwhile cities to consider for expansion teams. Then you have mid country cities of Denver, Kansas City, St Louis and Pittsburgh.
All in all, thats 22 teams I believe would work right out of the starting gate with plenty of additional players in waiting. That alone is a minimum of 220 players. At last count I did, I counted 367 players in America last year. This year, there's a new team forming (the northeast of course) and I have no doubt that the boston/new hampshire/rhode island area has more players then they know what to do with this year. And who knows how many people from Canada... and I hear the CanAm tourney last year was a large success.
The players are there... their cities to be represented.... willing, able and ready.
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