Border Baseball Series

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help improve this article or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since July 2006. (help, talk)

The Border Baseball Series is a semi-professional baseball series in the southwestern United States. The Series is a member of the International Baseball Foundation and was founded by Bob Lipp. In 1985 Lipp was co-owner of the Wichita Broncos, a top NBC team, and also founded the NBC Dodge City Desperados in 2005 and the Bisbee Kings in 2006, which play in the Border Series. Lipp has attempted to create different independent baseball leagues, one, the Arizona-Mexico League, played a short season in 2003 and others, the Piedmont League and Southwestern League, never played a game.

[edit] 2006 Teams

Bisbee Kings
El Paso Cowboys
Cananea Mineros
Arizona Indians
Arizona Diamondjaxx
Naco Aguilas
Nogales Tigres

2007 Teams

Bisbee Kings
Cananea Mineros
Arizona Diamondjaxx
Nogales Diablos
Arizona Clash
Tucson Stars

The Arizona Diamondjaxx and Arizona Indians were not original members of the 2006 series, but were invited to play after two teams, the West Valley White Wings and San Luis Banditos were unable to compete in the inaugural season. Team directors from the Cananea Mineros and Naco Aguilas attended the first game in Bisbee and asked to be invited and were accepted into the 2006 series.

The Bisbee Kings were the best team in the 2006 series, compiling a 15-4 record for the 2006 season. All but one of the losses have been to non-series teams, the Tucson Stars and the Amarillo Ace. The Stars beat them 22-1 in one game. The other loss was to the Arizona Diamondjaxx. The Kings are the only team with a website, and the only team whose scores are reported regularly. The Mineros and Cowboys have been soundly beaten in all games against Bisbee. On July 29, Bob Lipp said that the series had been a success, and will return for another year. He also said the series will attempt to become a member tournament of the National Baseball Congress. A meeting is scheduled for September 9, 2006, and 14 teams have been invited to attend, including all teams that participated in the 2006 series. Five teams have already given verbal commitment to the league. The Arizona Clash, Arizona Diamondjaxx, Bisbee Kings, Tucson Stars, and Nogales Diablos. The league said that it feels the best setup for next season would a six team series.

Patrick Hill has been named Tournament Director for the 2007 season. Hill has been the commissioner of the West Valley NABA for four years.