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Vail Valley Baseball League getting ready for next summer

How to help

For information about the Vail Valley Baseball League or housing players, call Karl Holden at 307-633-5583, 307-214-6249, or email ihref="mailto:nfieldwy@aol.com" nfieldwy@aol.comtarget="_blank">nfieldwy@aol.com.

Some local baseball fans want to bring a collegiate summer baseball league to the valley and are asking for help housing players.

The Vail Valley Baseball League is a six-team league scheduled to begin play next summer, if they can find places for the players to stay.

“We can build the league and excitement but not without some assistance,” said Karl Holden, commissioner of the Vail Valley Baseball League.



Holden said the league is working with WECMRD and Rene Haynes, an associate scout with the Milwaukee Brewers.

“Almost every player in major league baseball has played in a collegiate baseball summer program at some point in their career. Our type of league is important to the development of college-level players. Several players who will play in our league will be drafted by MLB teams,” Holden said.

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Holden is the former commissioner of the Mountain Collegiate Baseball League.

A similar league has been active on Cape Cod, Mass., since 1885. The Cape Cod Baseball League has 10 teams that play a 44-game regular-season schedule, a best-of-three quarterfinal, semifinal and championship series.

Holden likes the Vail Valley for the new league, both for geography and as a recruiting tool.

“The Rocky Mountain location is absolutely beautiful and is an ideal area to draw some of the top players from across the nation,” Holden said.

Games would be played at Battle Mountain High School, WECMRD Sports Complex and Eagle Valley High School, Holden said. Games would be free for spectators. The season would last six weeks, June 1 through the third week of July.

Along with the league, they’ll offer baseball camps for area youth and an annual Memorial weekend youth baseball tournament. The tournament would attract teams from across the country, Holden said.

“We want to build not only a league but a long-term relationship with the Vail Valley community,” Holden said.

Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 and rwyrick@vail daily.com.


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