[cochrane]

Jake's Vision: The Beginning of the Golden State Baseball League

One of the luckier people in 1986 was a man named Jacob Lewis "Jake" Westphalen. A retired Air Force colonel, his lifelong passion was baseball, having ignited it when his older brother took him to see the San Francisco Seals in the old Pacific Coast League as a child. He watched brothers Joe and Dominic DiMaggio swing the bat before Joe's contract was purchased by the New York Yankees and he entered into baseball history. His distinguished military career included serving in the Korean conflict and the Vietnam War before being retired at the mandatory age of 65 in 1984.

To pass the time during his retirement, Jake would venture to university ballparks and watch the collegiate players play through their season. Following one game, he noticed a group of two teams waiting for the San Jose State Spartans to finish and got into a lengthy conversation with the manager of the South Side Sharks, a man named Henry Holbeck. Holbeck and Westphalen became fast friends and often discussed the lack of a professional-amateur league in the bay area that lasted beyond a single season. They both wished they had the financial backing to build such a league and as fortune would have it, Jake won the September 17th drawing of the California State Lottery in 1986. He was worth nearly 150 million dollars.

Upon receipt of his first annuity, Jake and Henry began scouting cities for the possibility of opening a four-team pro-am league. Chico jumped on board almost immediately, having been devoid of a baseball team in quite some time. They would eventually be named for the tradition held every year by the university, known as 'Pioneer Days.' Sacramento's city council showed interest, but the city had no desire to own the team outright, instead opting to provide a ballpark for games. San Jose initially wanted no part in it; the city was strapped for cash and the folding of the San Jose Bees (the former Royals affiliate) proved it. Stadium upgrades were nowhere within sight of the city's priorities, and a fly-by-night league could not help to resolve it. Henry's impassioned speech before the city council allowed them use of Municipal Stadium, if Jake would donate funds to renovate it to hold a capacity of ten thousand people. The agreement was made and in honor of Jake's service in the Air Force, the San Jose team would be called the Bombers.

The search for the fourth city was exhausting for the elder gentlemen. They had traveled to Eureka, Santa Rosa, Vallejo, Salinas, Stockton, Modesto, Bakersfield, Riverside, Long Beach, Visalia, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz. None of them were remotely interested in participating or allowing use of city facilities without some sort of guarantee of financial viability over time. When they arrived at Fresno, they were greeted with open arms. The recent demise of the Fresno Giants left a large hole in the baseball community and the possibility of a team without the interference of Major League Baseball intrigued the city to purchase the franchise and promise a new ballpark to be constructed. The team's name was selected in a contest run by the Fresno Bee: the Suns.

With four cities involved and a fifty-four game schedule to determine, Jake and Henry returned to San Jose to set up the league office and began business as baseball men. The Golden State Baseball League was open for business.