PAGE A14, KEIZERTIMES, MAY 7, 2021
LIFE
UNITED
at the shores
A look at
the model
for modern
independent
baseball
BY MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
V
olcanoes Stadium will offi cially begin
a new chapter next week as the host
of the Mavericks League — a four-team,
independent, amateur baseball league
where all contests will be played at one
site from May to September.
“It seemed like a setup that could work
for us, especially with COVID-19 compli-
cations. If we keep everything centralized
here at Volcanoes Stadium, we eliminate
travel and we can make accommodations
for players better,” Mavericks League
CEO Mickey Walker said. “Ultimately we
decided that this was the best path. Once
we started to get the pieces in place, we
realized that this could be really special.”
The idea of an independent base-
ball league playing every game at one
site might be a new one to Northwest
The four teams in the USPBL play all of their games at Jimmy John's Stadium in Utica, Mich. The Mavericks League will be creating a similar
model to the USPBL this spring.
Submitted photo
baseball fans, but according to Walker, the
Mavericks League is attempting to model
their product after the United Shores
Professional Baseball League (USPBL),
which is located in Utica, Mich., just out-
side of Detroit.
The USPBL was founded in 2016
by Andy Appleby, who is the league's
CEO and former senior vice president
of the Detroit Pistons. The four teams
(Birmingham-Bloomfi eld
Beavers,
Eastside Diamond Hoppers, Utica
Unicorns, Westside Woolly Mammoths)
play all of their games at Jimmy John's
Stadium, a $12 million, 4,500-seat venue
Families are our
main demographic
and our goal is to
bring a Disney-like
atmosphere into
the stadium.
— KATIE PAGE
Director of Public Relations, USPBL
Photo courtesy USPBL
that was built specifi cally for the league.
It didn't take long for the league to
become a hit in the local community. In
2019, the season before the COVID-19 pan-
demic hit, 62 of the league's 75 games were
sellouts, including a record attendance of
4,926 people who attended the champion-
ship game.
Katie Page, director of public
relations with the USPBL, believes that
the exponential growth the league has
experienced in their fi rst fi ve seasons is
due to not only the play on the fi eld, but the
emphasis on promotional events — such as
nights that featured the ZOOperstars and
the Budweiser Clydesdales.
“We have a diff erent promotional
event every single game night,
whether it be fi reworks, concerts or
other special events. We are an enter-
tainment venue as much as we are a
sports venue,” Page said.
While there are open tryouts for
the league before the season, the
USPBL also has people on staff that
are in charge of recruiting players. A
majority of the players are between
18 and 25 years old and are either
undrafted or recently released from
playing Minor League Baseball.
Since the league was founded, 36
players have gone on to sign profes-
sional contracts with Major League
Baseball (MLB) affi liated organiza-
tions, including Randy Dobnak, a
right-handed pitcher who became the
fi rst alum to reach the MLB when he made
his debut with the Minnesota Twins on
Aug. 9, 2019.
“We consider ourselves a developmen-
tal league. Our goal is to get them to the
next level,” Page said.
One of the keys of getting their play-
ers looks from MLB organizations is that
the USPBL streams all of their games on
YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and a num-
ber of their games get picked up by ESPN3.
com — the Twins never scouted Dobnak in
person but signed him based on seeing at
his performances on YouTube.
When the pandemic rocked the country
last spring, the vast majority of the sports
world stood still. But the USPBL still found
a way to play a modifi ed season in 2020.
After the league put together a 172-page
return-to-play guidebook with health and
safety measures, the USPBL was able to
begin their season on July 4 weekend, mak-
ing them the fi rst pro baseball organization
to return to play during the pandemic.
While the league was limited to hav-
ing just 100 fans in attendance, Appleby
elected to upgrade the broadcast for the
fans watching at home, going from one
camera to four cameras and using estab-
lished on-air talent to call the games —
which resulted in an average of more that
10,000 views per game.
The USPBL ended up completing their
three-month season without having to lay-
off many full-time employees.
“Players did a great job of taking
