- North American League
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North American League 
North American League logoSport Baseball Founded 2010 No. of teams 10 Country(ies) 
United States
CanadaMost recent champion(s) Edmonton Capitals Official website northamericanleague.com The North American League (officially known as the North American Baseball League) is an independent baseball league that began play in the 2011 season.[1] The league consists of a merger of three independent leagues, the Northern League of Illinois, United League Baseball of Texas, and the Golden Baseball League based in the Western United States and Western Canada.
Contents
Travel issues and division alignment
To keep travel costs from being a financial issue for the teams, the league plays in a division structure where teams play 75% of their 96-game schedule within their division and make just one lengthy roadtrip of 12 games outside their division. The league concludes the season with divisional playoffs followed by a North American Championship Series. [2]
Level of play
The roster rules eliminate the LS classification system and allow all teams to keep their existing players from 2010. The three predecessor leagues had contracts of 35 players purchased by Major League organizations in 2010. In addition, these three leagues placed half of the prospects on the Baseball America Top Indy Prospects List and six of the 14 players on the 2010 Baseball America All-Indy First Team.[3]
Teams
North American League Division Team Founded City Stadium Capacity Northern Calgary Vipers 2005 Calgary, Alberta Foothills Stadium 6,000 Edmonton Capitals 2005 Edmonton, Alberta Telus Field 10,000 Na Koa Ikaika Maui 2010 Wailuku, Hawaii Maehara Stadium 2,500 Division Team Founded City Stadium Capacity Southern Edinburg Roadrunners 2001 Edinburg, Texas Edinburg Stadium 4,000 McAllen Thunder 2011 McAllen, Texas Edinburg Stadium 4,000 Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings 1994 Harlingen, Texas Harlingen Field 4,500 San Angelo Colts 2000 San Angelo, Texas Foster Field 4,200 Yuma Scorpions 2005 Yuma, Arizona Desert Sun Stadium 6,590 Expansion teams
Team Founded City Stadium Capacity Joining League Fort McMurray Team[4] 2011 Fort McMurray, Alberta Unknown Unknown 2012 Henderson RoadRunners [5] (on hiatus) 2007 Henderson, Nevada College of Southern Nevada N/A 2012 Long Beach Armada (on hiatus) 2005 Long Beach, California Blair Field 3,283 2012 Omaha Flame 2011 Omaha, Nebraska TD Ameritrade Park Omaha 24,000 2012 Orange County Flyers (on hiatus) 2005 Fullerton, California Amerige Park[6] [7](proposed) 4,500 2012 San Rafael Pacifics[8] 2011 San Rafael, California Albert Park 800 2012 Former Teams
Team Founded Defunct City Stadium Lake County Fielders 2009 2011 Zion, Illinois Fielders Stadium Chico Outlaws 2005 2011 Chico, California Nettleton Stadium Notes and references
- ^ North American League Unveiled
- ^ Calgary Sun on the North American League
- ^ Lake County Journals - North American League info
- ^ http://ballparkdigest.com/201110144263/independent-baseball/news/north-american-league-expands-to-fort-mcmurray
- ^ North American League Finalizes 2011 Schedule, NABL website, April 8, 2011
- ^ More on Fullerton ballpark proposal
- ^ City of Fullerton and OC Flyers Agree, Orange County Flyers website, January 2011
- ^ http://www.ballparkdigest.com/201111024312/independent-baseball/news/new-for-2012-san-rafael-pacifics
See also
External links
North American League Northern Division Southern Division Lake County FieldersEdinburg RoadrunnersRio Grande Valley WhiteWingsCategories:- North American League
- Professional sports leagues
- Baseball leagues in Canada
- Independent baseball leagues in the United States
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