Pacific Southwest Baseball League

The Pacific Southwest Baseball League is a collegiate summer league made up of six teams consisting of semi-professional players.

Teams (2008 season)

*Bisbee Copper Kings - based in Sierra Vista, Arizona
*Casa Grande Cotton Kings - oldest PSBL team.
*Garden Gears - based in Green Valley, Arizona and also plays in Goodyear, Arizona
*Imperial Valley Bulls - based in El Centro, California
*Lake Havasu Heat - also plays in Blythe, California
*Phoenix Blazers - based in Prescott, Arizona
*San Luis Bandidos - based in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico
*Tucson Nationals formerly Arizona Clash - based in Tucson, Arizona and also plays in Green Valley, Arizona

Two teams in the 2006 season: Las Vegas Team Famous and Palm Springs Power announced switching leagues, but not finalized until early 2007. The league has invitational seasonal tournaments with other regional teams not in the league format.

Folded PSBL teams: Imperial Valley Bulls of Brawley, California, Las Vegas Lightning, Nevada Neon of Henderson, Orange County Fire (baseball) of Santa Ana, Orange County Outlaws of Irvine and Tucson Turtles/Tucson Aztecs, now the headquarters of the Garden Gears road team.

PSBL officials looked at two new teams, likely in Riverside, California but the Riverside team backed out of the plan, and the PSBL received two teams from Arizona, with the PSBL returned to Tucson, to play in the 2007 season. Two Las Vegas, Nevada teams, the Desert Devils and Sand Vipers folded operations in 2008.

Most recent seasons (2006/2007)

Arguably the most successful PSBL team, Lake Havasu won the league in 2006, defeating Casa Grande, the team with the league's highest seasonal fan attendance. For the 2006 season, the league also had teams in Palm Springs, California, Phoenix, Arizona and two in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The PSBL teams also play games against opponents from the California Collegiate League, the Sacramento Rural League and the Western Baseball Association, such as the Inland Empire Rockets of Moreno Valley, California, North (San Diego) County Waves of Oceanside, California and Solano Thunderbirds of Vacaville, California.

In 2008, a new collegiate baseball league, the Southern California Collegiate Baseball Association started their first year by added many former PSBL teams like the Palm Springs Power, and other teams from a few folded leagues.

History

The descendant of two separate collegiate leagues, the Pacific and the Southwest leagues of the 1990s (both folded in 1999) and team owners decided to restart their fortunes in a new league. The PSBL premiered in 2000 also to restore baseball in cities across the Southwest without minor league teams.

The league added the Palm Springs Power in 2004 in a city with a history of baseball, and their home field, Palm Springs Stadium served as a spring training facility of the California Angels 1961 to 1993. Now there's talk of a 4-team winter league in this region (the Coachella Valley), since the popularity of collegiate play is high enough to get teams in the winter.

In 2005, the Las Vegas Blues adopted a new name, the Las Vegas Team Famous named for a 1950's-era amateur team originally composed of all-black players, also had games in the Negro Leagues. Crosstown rivals the Las Vegas Devils were renamed "Desert Devils" and the Team Famous were renamed the Sand Vipers for the 2006 season. Las Vegas has four all-Latino teams in the now defunct Las Vegas Latin League.

The Phoenix Blazers managed to attract a fan base in a city surrounded by a big league team: the Arizona Diamondbacks and minor league teams in the Arizona League and Arizona Fall League. Two Arizona franchises, the Cotton Kings and the Havasu Heat are the PSBL's remaining original members.

External links

* [http://www.pswbl.com/ Official site]
* [http://www.cgcottonkings.com/ Casa Grande Cotton Kings site]
* [http://www.havasuheat.com/ 2006 champs: Havasu Heat site]
* [http://www.ballcharts.com/phoenixblazers Phoenix Blazers site]