Western Baseball League
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The Western Baseball League was an independent minor league in the United States, whose member teams were not associated with any Major League Baseball teams. It operated from 1995 to 2002.
The league was founded in 1994 by Portland businessman Bruce L. Engel. It began play in 1995, with the following teams:
- Bend Bandits (Bend, Oregon)
- Grays Harbor Gulls (Hoquiam, Washington)
- Surrey Glaciers (Surrey, British Columbia)
- Tri-City Posse (Kennewick, Pasco and Richland)
- Long Beach Barracuda (Long Beach, California)
- Palm Springs Suns (Palm Springs, California)
- Salinas Peppers (Salinas, California)
- Sonoma County Crushers (Rohnert Park, Sonoma County, California).
Long Beach won the initial league championship.
In 1996, Surrey left the league, and the Reno, Nevada Chukars were added. Long Beach won its second consecutive title. The WBL added two teams for the late 1990's in the Pacific Northwest: the Coos Bay Seals in western Oregon, and the Western Warriors of Olympia, Washington, but both folded in 2000.
In 1997, the Palm Springs team decided to move to Oxnard, California, but sat out the year while they made their move. The team added the Chico, California Heat. Chico won the league championship in their first season in the league. The WBL granted a team to Sacramento as the Steelheads, later went to Solano County, California.
In 1998, the Salinas team disbanded, and the Oxnard team rejoined the league, but the Suns folded before the 1999 season. The Sonoma County team won the league championship. The Grays Harbor team had suspended operations halfway through the season, and the league took over management of the team, which went on an extended 68-game road trip with no home stadium.
In 1999, the team disbanded the former Grays Harbor team, and operated six teams for the season. Tri-City won the league championship for the year. A new team, the Zion Pioneerzz took the field in St. George. The WBL added a team, the Feather River Mudcats in Marysville, California (a city in the Yuba-Sutter Area north of Sacramento) but folded in two years.
In 2000, the league expanded to include Yuma, Arizona and Scottsdale, Arizona, which called itself the Valley Vipers. The Zion Pioneerzz won the league championship. The WBL placed a team in Mission Viejo, but attempted with no success to field teams in Oceanside and Chula Vista in the San Diego area.
In 2001, half the WBL's 12 teams folded in season's end, due to financial problems experienced by the league. The Reno team folded in 2001, to make the WBL limited to California (except for Yuma, Arizona). Long Beach won that year's league championship, but the city's second WBL team was the Long Beach Breakers.
In its final year of 2002, the Western Baseball League operated six teams. In the Northern Division were the Chico Heat, Sonoma County Crushers, and the Yuba-Sutter Gold Sox. In the Southern Division were the Long Beach Breakers, Solano Steelheads and Yuma Bullfrogs. The Chico Heat won the league championship in the league's final season.
