MAJOR CHANGES IN THE MINORS : Strictly an Independent Venture : Baseball: Planned lower-level pro circuit would be based in Valley.

Bob Weinstein handed the waiter $20 to settle the bar tab.

The waiter didn’t move and stared blankly at the bill. Several seconds passed, making Weinstein wonder whether he’d short-changed the guy.

“If that’s not enough, there’s more where that came from,” Weinstein said.

With major league owners bleating about the paucity of cash in their wallets and the wad of bills lining players’ pockets, Weinstein may qualify as an anomaly. He wants to throw money around.

Weinstein, 51, is one of a growing band of renegades involved in the organization of independent professional minor leagues, self-funded organizations that are turning up at a remarkable pace across the national landscape.

Weinstein, an investment banker from Chatsworth, says he has lined up $50 million to bankroll the proposed Golden State League of Professional Baseball. Revolutions need a leader, and Weinstein fronts the area rebel charge.

“Conventional baseball wisdom is what we’re opposed to,” Weinstein said.

The Valley-based GSL might one day include teams as near as the Antelope Valley and as far north as Chico. Teams, which will compete at roughly the Class-A level, will battle for the same baseball buck with established major- and minor-league teams in the state.

This is hardly untrod ground. The GSL is but one of nine independent leagues that already are operational or planning to begin play next summer. Something is in the wind. Weinstein hopes it is change.

The GSL is exploring the possibility of positioning teams in Palmdale, Vista, Brawley, Merced, Indio and an unspecified site in San Luis Obispo County. If everything falls into place, and the clock is ticking, the GSL next summer will play a short-season schedule of 90 games with six teams.

Weinstein has spent the past few months pressing palms with city dignitaries throughout the state, researching other independent leagues and comparing notes with officials in the affiliated professional ranks. Last week, the league signed a letter of intent to begin formal negotiations with Palmdale.

Weinstein says he has secured the league nest egg through private investment and banking contacts he has declined to enumerate. Peter Futro, a securities attorney in Denver who has been retained to work out the details of Weinstein’s financial plan, said the league must first sign letters of intent with advertisers and cities before investment banking firms will jump on board.

Futro said it’s “premature to say that Weinstein has commitments” for $50 million, but indicated that matters could move swiftly toward that end in light of developments in Palmdale.

“Assuming it all falls together, which it should, the numbers make sense,” Futro said. “But you can’t really crunch the numbers until the cities and ad revenue are there.”

Weinstein may need each thin dime--the league is footing the bill for darn near everything.

“I’m covering all bets,” he said. “It’s gonna happen. I’m a doer and I’m also a realist.”

A sobering dose of reality for area fans: Over the past 40 years, the region has had a minor-league team for precisely one season. The Ventura Gulls played in 1986, then relocated. Channel Cities, a team in Northern Ventura County, completed a two-year run at the Class C level in 1955.

Weinstein has studied the numbers, made his projections and done his homework.

“It’s taken on a mind, body and life of its own,” he said.

Players, of course, are the body and soul of any league. The league plans to fill its ranks with a draft, tryout camps and through references from scouts and college coaches.

Gary Wiencek, formerly a player, scout and minor-league general manager, will serve as the GSL’s director of player personnel.

“I don’t subscribe to the theory that there are tons of (high-caliber) unsigned players, but there are players out there,” Wiencek said.

The league will seek players between the ages of 18-25. Teams will have a 25-man roster and a salary cap of $30,000 a month.

More than anything, Weinstein would love to duplicate the success of the Minnesota-based Northern League, which began play last summer. Attendance averaged approximately 3,300 per game in its inaugural season. Weinstein called to solicit advice.

“They said, ‘Run it with an iron fist and do it right,’ ” Weinstein said.

He’d like to begin doing so right now . But in such a far-flung venture, there are always a few zillion details to firm up.

According to the sweeping GSL plans, six stadiums will be built and financed by the league at $5 million apiece, including the proposed facility in the Antelope Valley. Weinstein said stadiums will have seating for a minimum of 4,500 fans.

Steven Boyd of Tampa-based Lescher & Mahoney Sports Architects, the firm contracted to design the stadiums, said construction can be completed in six months, providing the weather cooperates.

Weinstein will own and operate the Antelope Valley franchise and already has selected a logo and nickname, the Ravens. He will hire officials to run the remaining teams, also to be operated at league expense.

If the GSL franchises do well, Weinstein said he plans to eventually sell off teams at the prevailing market price while retaining stadium ownership.

In short, the GSL plans to fund the teams, draft the players, build the stadiums. . . So what’s the hang-up for potential host cities?

Cities must donate 25 acres of land as a stadium site, expedite the building permit process and provide infrastructure such as electrical and sewer hookups. Even Palmdale, which last month acquired a 117-acre parcel of land--part of which has been tentatively designated for the Ravens’ stadium--can hardly believe the GSL sales pitch.

“We’d really like to have a team here,” Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford said. “(The GSL proposal is) almost too good to be true.”

With success seemingly close at hand in Palmdale, the league is close to gaining a foothold. According to the terms of the letter of intent signed last Friday with Palmdale, Weinstein has 90 days to prove that his financial house is in order.

Essentially: Put up or shut up.

It has taken months for the GSL to reach this point. There have been innumerable setbacks and complications. Several cities have been involved in negotiations, yet progress has been slow and time is ticking away. Said Weinstein, eight long months ago: “The next move is to start turning dirt and taking pictures.”

It’s easy to see why Weinstein covets the Antelope Valley as a potential site. According to Steve Dukett, Lancaster’s director of economic development, the results of a feasibility study conducted by an independent firm four years ago indicated that a minor-league team in the region would enjoy “enormous support.”

“I don’t think there’s any doubt we’d support (a team),” said Al McCord, Palmdale’s director of economic development.

They’d better. Joe Gagliardi, president of the Class-A California League, says that without the infusion of capital from organizational agreements, independent franchises could struggle financially. Eight of 10 teams in the Cal League, founded in 1941, have player-development contracts.

“I’d have a very difficult time if I had all independents,” Gagliardi said. “If it’s tough for us with working agreements to make it work. . . .”

The independents’ reasoning must have some merit, though, because leagues are sprouting everywhere. They are a stripped-down version of their affiliated counterparts and might be the future of lower-level baseball.

Independents could save big-league owners a fortune. Instead of paying an estimated $500,000 in developmental agreements annually for a full-season Class-A team, owners fork out a few thousand dollars and pay a scout to pluck top prospects from the independent ranks.

There could be plenty of players to eyeball. Other independent leagues that have begun play or are on tap for 1995 are the Northern, Frontier, Texas-Louisiana, Northeast, Western, Great Central, Mid-South and North Central.

But what thrives in Corpus Christi (Texas-Louisiana League) might not play as well elsewhere.

“This is California, we’re different,” Gagliardi said. “Just in expenses and overhead, we’re different. Plus, there are more things to do here, like going to the beach, the mountains. . . .”

The Cal League averaged 2,200 fans per game in ‘93, led by Rancho Cucamonga, which averaged a 4,900 at its new ballpark. San Bernardino, a Cal League independent, averaged 1,300.

Will the Golden State League become Weinstein’s golden goose?

“I’m not altruistic,” Weinstein said. “I’m out to make money. But I also love baseball, and fortunately, I’m in a position where I can make this work.

“It’s gonna happen, and probably bigger and better than I ever envisioned.”

Independents Day

FRI.: The Golden State League, the brainchild of Chatsworth investment banker Bob Weinstein, is exploring the possibility of positioning teams in Palmdale, Vista, Brawley, Merced, Indio and an unspecified site in San Luis Obispo County. If everything falls into place, the leagues might begin a six-team, 90-game schedule as soon as next summer.

SAT.: Miles Wolff, who formerly published Baseball America magazine, last summer founded the first independent league--the highly successful Northern League. Attendance boomed and others took notice. Next summer, as many as nine independent leagues could be in operation.

SUN.: Independent leagues serve as a last chance for career minor leaguers and major league castoffs. One of the top hitters for the Sioux Falls (S.D.) Canaries of the Northern League is former Dodger Pedro Guerrero. Life at this rung in professional baseball is often unpredictable and humbling. Players are actually traded for bats and balls.