Tag Archives: new independent baseball teams

Western Association Announces First Team For Inaugural Season

In July, Indy Ball Island did a Q & A with the Western Association of Professional Baseball. 

At the time of the interview, the league wasn’t ready to announce any information about locations or teams.  That changed today.

The Western Association of Professional Baseball announced their first team, the Henderson Hoo, today.

THE WESTERN ASSOCIATION WELCOMES THE HENDERSON HOO

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by Western Association

The Western Association Welcomes The Henderson Hoo

Newport Beach, CA, September 26, 2019 – The Western Association of Professional Baseball Clubs (“WAPB”) is proud to announce that it has accepted an application for membership to place a charter franchise in Henderson, Nevada.

The franchise will be known as the Henderson Hoo, which will begin play in 2020 as part of the planned inaugural season. The Hoo will play their home games at Morse Field on the campus of the College of Southern Nevada where it has come to terms on a multi-year lease agreement. The franchise has been awarded to Minneapolis based business owner, Nick Sperides who is a widely respected Architect and Founding Partner of Sperides Reiners Architects, Inc., a full-service architectural design firm.

“it’s an honor to welcome the inaugural franchise to the Western Association”, said Peter Young, Vice President of Business Operations for the league. “Henderson is a vibrant area of Nevada and this level of professional baseball will definitively appeal to families, especially those with young children.”

Principal owner, Nick Sperides established his architecture business in 1998 and it is headquartered in the heart of the Twin Cities. They maintain a dedicated staff of professional, architectural, interior design and administrative support team members as a full-service design firm. Seen throughout the industry as experts in creating innovative, and high-quality healthcare and wellness centers along with corporate, retail, professional and amateur sports venues and mixed-use housing environments. Over the years Sperides Reiners Architects (“SRA”) has developed a leading name within the industry.

“We are excited to be a part of the WAPB and for the opportunity to establish the first franchise of the league in Henderson. We are eager to create a “hometown team” for the City and to engage in the community to create a baseball team for Henderson to truly call their own.” Said Team Owner, Nick Sperides. “In the formation of the Western Association we have been impressed with the mission of the league and the integrity of the group of owners and operators that will be involved. This announcement of the Henderson baseball club is the culmination of several years of hard work and research to design a business that will represent and serve the community, the players, and most important the great game of baseball well”.

The Henderson franchise is the first of several forthcoming announcements for the Western Association leading up to the New Year and in preparation of Opening Day 2020. To learn more about the team and to follow the development of the Henderson Hoo, please visit us at www.hoobaseball.com. A formal press conference is being planned by the organization and details about the event will be made public in the near future.

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New Southwest Baseball League(s)

Two new independent baseball leagues are popping up and getting some involved in indy ball talking…

And both just so happen to have basically the same name.

Here’s a quick rundown of what they’re all about…

The Southwest Professional Baseball League is located in Yuma, AZ. Players pay $750 for a training camp (March 11-13th) where they will be evaluated and then placed onto four teams that will play from March 15th to April 15th… all to “chase their dreams in the desert.”

Let me stop you there for a second. If it sounds familiar, that’s because it is. It’s basically a copycat of the folded Desert League. The listed owner of this Southwest Professional Baseball League, John Guy, was also a partner in the Desert League and had ties to the failed National Urban Pro Baseball League. The majority of the staff have also been around the lower independent levels for the last few years.

You can check out their official website HERE and see all of the other information for yourself. I do not have any other further insight to provide other than what is listed and available for the public, and honestly… I don’t want to get into it any further.

The other league is the Southwest League of Professional Baseball located in Texas and Missouri. This league, which was originally slated to start in 2018 but is now supposed to run in 2019, has four teams listed (Waco, Royse City, Joplin and an unnamed Dallas team). The league had previously stated that there would be six teams, but it seems a little late in the game for two more teams to be added. The four confirmed teams are all said to have stadiums, but some of the pictures under their stadium information section are just computer generated.  But don’t worry, you can buy merchandise for the teams!

There has also been no updated information on the website since a post in July that mentioned a tryout that was taking place in Plano, Texas earlier this month.

I had many players message me asking about this league, so I contacted the owner, Mark Schuster, to ask if he would do a Q & A through email as I have done in the past with every start up. At first, he seemed very eager to answer all of my questions. That was until I sent him the email with the questions. He ignored that email and the multiple follow-up emails I have sent.

You can check out their official website HERE, but there really isn’t any more information than what I have briefly posted here.

Same stuff. Different season.

There have been enough of these exact same leagues over the last few years. You all can form your own opinions, but I’m sure my readers know mine at this point…