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Part Four: The First Offseason

The Sacramento Grizzlies upset a heavily-favored Chico Pioneers team all but set to claim the inaugural league championship of the Golden State Baseball League. When the five-game series opened up at Nettleton Field in Chico, no one could have ever predicted that the Grizzlies would take that first game with a score of 11-2. But the Pioneers' bats were silenced save for five hits, as starter Orlando Cordero absolutely mastered the Chico lineup for eight innings, giving up no runs off four hits, and striking out three. It wasn't until George Gallardo took over that they finally managed to bring two runners around to score before the end of that first game.

And it was that first game that really set the tone for the series, as the Grizzlies continued to steamroll twice more to sweep Chico for the Governor's Cup.

Honored to have the hometown team win his cup, the Governor of California, C. George Deukmejian, presented the trophy to Grizzlies' general manager, Tze-meng Gai, in a highly publicized ceremony outside of the Governor's Mansion in Sacramento, on August 11, 1988. The unfortunate aspect of the win was the next day, the Grizzlies fired Gai quietly. Chico fired their GM, Brad Beauregard, and Fresno fired their GM, Mario Orr. Beauregard ended up working for Sacramento, while Gai got hired by Chico. It was musical GMs between those two teams, and the reasoning behind the firings was simple: Gai's family lived in Chico. Beauregard had a fight with the lawyers over his performance in the first year. Only Orr would be standing in the unemployment line that year, though he would eventually sign on with a Major League club's front office in Seattle. Fresno hired Javier Rea as their new GM. He was the former assistant GM for the Kansas City Royals, and was looking for a challenge... and no one could say Fresno certainly was not a challenge.

The first trade of the first offseason came in September, shortly before the first fall meeting of the owners. San Jose traded their second baseman, Paul Butler (.296, 1 HR, 25 RBI, 125 AB), and rookie right-hander Julia Melendez to the Grizzlies in exchange for reliever Cody Meyer (2.41 ERA, 16 K, 18.2 IP) and their second round draft pick in the 1989 amateur draft. The very next day, Sacramento traded veteran third baseman, Masahiro Sasaki (.333, 0 HR, 5 RBI, 56 AB), and rookie reliever, Tommy Bernard, for Chico's MR, Cole Tidwell (2.31 ERA, 9 K, 11.1 IP), and unproven shortstop Bill Banks.

September's owner meetings began with a note of good news; the success in generating publicity for the league resulted in prospective franchise owners coming to the home office and looking to purchase an expansion team. One was the city of Santa Cruz, a city that had never before had a baseball team... minor or otherwise. In anticipation of being awarded an expansion, the city promised funds to build a twelve thousand seat ballpark near the Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk. The city-owned land near the amusement park was initially going to be sold to a developer, but they decided to invest in a ballclub. The other expansion-seeker was a husband-and-wife team of real estate agents, who had hit it big buying and selling land on the east coast. They were looking to bring an expansion team to Modesto. The third was an owner of a car dealership in Orange County, looking to bring a club to Anaheim or nearby.

The idea of competing in the same market as the major league brought some concern to the owners. One of the spoken agreements they made early on was to avoid awarding franchises to cities that had major league clubs. Anaheim had the California Angels, and it was by virtue of that club that the idea was then considered by the owners to look to the south. Long Beach had hosted minor league clubs before, and already had a ballpark that could support six thousand seats; the league minimum. Although they had no intention, at that time, to expand three teams, the idea was planted and grew.

Expansions were awarded in October, to Santa Cruz and Modesto. The Orange County car dealership owner would have to exercise patience.

NEXT: The 1989 Season Begins!