Golden Opportunity

In an opening-day ceremony today in Surprise, Ariz., a falcon is scheduled to fly over the ballpark, land on the field and release a baseball from its talons into the hands of Pat Sajak.

The game-show host will throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Two F-16 Fighting Falcons from nearby Luke Air Force Base will zoom overhead while an American flag the size of a football field is unfurled in center field.

Only then will the Surprise Fightin’ Falcons play ball, against the Japan Samurai Bears -- the first all-Japanese team to play as a regular member of an American sports league.

If the experience sounds worthy of the late Bill Veeck, the promotional mastermind who once ordered his team to use a pinch-hitting midget, then Golden Baseball League executives figure they’re on the right track.

The independent minor league opens its inaugural season this week, with teams in Surprise, Long Beach, Fullerton and four other cities in California and Arizona, in addition to the nomadic Samurai Bears. The Long Beach and Fullerton teams will play their first home games in the middle of next month.

Sajak is one of a dozen investors who have sunk a combined $5 million into the venture, the latest entrant into the growing field of independent professional baseball leagues, which strive to capitalize on the resurgent popularity of pro baseball at all levels by keeping costs and prices down and fans entertained.

League co-founders Dave Kaval and Amit Patel formulated their initial business plan as part of the same Evaluating Entrepreneurial Opportunities class at Stanford that spawned EBay.

Their research told them few people exiting minor league stadiums knew the final score, much less who was on first for the home team.

“But they’ll tell you things like, ‘Oh, the mascot hugged my daughter,’ or ‘The beer was only $3.25,’ ” said Kaval, 29. “Those are the things that make you realize it’s more than just baseball.”

The Golden League will be the sixth independent league operating in the United States and the first in Southern California since the Western Baseball League dissolved in 2002.

Losers have long outnumbered winners in Southern California when it comes to independent league baseball. The Mission Viejo Vigilantes, a member of the Western League, left a trail of creditors in their wake when they disbanded in 1998 after two sorry seasons. The team was successfully sued by its host city for failure to pay $135,000 in rent and utilities.

Nonetheless, experts say the Golden League has a chance to succeed where others failed because of its solid financial backing and central ownership -- one investment group owns all eight teams. It’s a model that has worked for other leagues.

In Long Beach, Barry Stockhamer, a former marketing executive with the Dodgers, has been hired to steer the Armada toward profitability.

One drawing card will be a 35-foot-wide warship reminiscent of the one at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., that will be unveiled beyond the left-field wall at Blair Field. Cannons will fire to celebrate home runs by the home team while the Armada’s mascot, a colorful parrot, roams the deck.

Still, Stockhamer said the Armada couldn’t turn a profit merely by “coming in and hitting a light switch.” The team must reach out to schools, churches and ethnic groups. The Armada has instituted a reading program at local elementary schools in which students who read four books a month selected by their teachers receive free admission to a game.

Even if the Armada leaks money for a year or two, league executives say they can absorb losses by subsidizing teams that are not performing up to expectations with funds generated by those that are.

“It’s sort of like going into a bunch of different stocks,” said Kaval, the league co-founder, who will also serve as chief executive. “If a couple of teams don’t do as well, it’s OK because you have other teams that are offsetting them.”

Kaval said the teams need to average 1,800 fans over the 90-game schedule -- with each fan spending at least $6 on tickets and $4 on concessions -- to break even. A three-year, $3-million sponsorship deal with Safeway grocers will help defray costs, as will placing players with host families and busing to all road games.

If all else fails, the investment group that includes a mix of entertainers, high-tech executives and venture capitalists can tap into a combined net worth of more than $2 billion. Kevin Outcalt, a former Cisco Systems executive who invested $1 million, was so excited by the league’s prospects that he left his job to serve as its commissioner.

“I’m not in this to make money,” said Sajak, who made a six-figure investment. “I’m in it to be closer to a game that I like very much.”

Sajak, who is the host of a weekly show on mlb.com radio, had declined a chance to purchase a small stake in the Baltimore Orioles in 1993. He said he was enticed by the opportunity to be more actively involved in the Golden League, especially after hearing the exuberant Kaval’s sales pitch.

“By the time he was through,” Sajak said, “I was ready to give him my third-born.”

Although it might seem folly to venture into a California market that already features five major league and 12 affiliated minor league teams, the Golden League executives maintain that that’s precisely the type of environment in which new minor league teams have thrived.

Kaval points to the Class A Lake County Captains, who have carved out a profitable niche in Eastlake, Ohio, in the shadow of Cleveland’s Jacobs Field. Similar stories have played out with the St. Paul Saints and Kansas City T-Bones, both of whom belong to independent leagues.

“Statistically, those markets that were in the suburbs of major league teams drew better,” said Patel, 25. “Also, they drew better on the same nights the major league teams are in town. It’s sort of like baseball fever.”

Fullerton isn’t too far from an established Class A California League franchise in Rancho Cucamonga, but neither team seems concerned.

“There’s going to be a difference in the quality of baseball and a more significant difference in the quality of stadiums they’re using and what we have in the Cal League,” Rancho Cucamonga General Manager North Johnson said.

Independent leagues are typically considered bottom feeders when it comes to talent, featuring leftovers dropped from minor league teams who have development agreements with major league clubs.

But the Golden League has at least one future Hall of Famer in Rickey Henderson, baseball’s all-time runs and steals leader, who is trying to revive his career at age 46 with the San Diego Surf Dawgs.

Henderson, who last played in the majors with the Dodgers in 2003, will make the league-maximum salary of $3,000 a month, significantly higher than the $1,150 league average.

League executives are also trying to bolster excitement by tapping into existing rivalries in their charter markets, such as the one between Big West Conference competitors Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton, and by signing players and managers with local ties.

Outfielder Kevin Miller, a member of the Long Beach team that won Little League World Series titles in 1992 and 1993, had planned to assess opportunities in other independent leagues until his twin brother, Chris, signed with the Armada. He decided to follow suit.

“I was looking at some different options, and then my brother signed with them,” said the converted pitcher, who last season played with the Evansville Otters of the Frontier League. “I thought it would be fun to play on the same team.”

Playing close to home is not a luxury shared by members of the Japan Samurai Bears, who will spend the season living out of hotel rooms but will be treated to a taste of home when they receive a teddy bear to toss into the crowd after hitting home runs.

The Golden League will administer a drug-testing program under which first-time offenders will be expelled from the league.

“That’s definitely a good deal,” Kevin Miller said, “because you won’t have anyone getting away with anything anymore.”

League executives envision the baseball business as a launching point for a larger family entertainment company in which the stadiums are used for events such as concerts and festivals on non-game days.

“Maybe we get there in five years, maybe we get there in 15,” Patel said. “This summer, the key measure we’re looking at is that when you’re at our stadium, everyone has a smile on their face.”

That shouldn’t be a problem today in Surprise, where 2,000 bobblehead dolls in Sajak’s likeness will be distributed. After throwing out the first pitch, Sajak will serve as the first-base coach -- for the first inning. “I’ll just try to stay out of the way of line drives,” he said.

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The Golden rules

A quick look at the independent Golden Baseball League, which includes four teams in California:

* Teams: California Division -- Long Beach Armada, Fullerton Flyers, San Diego Surf Dawgs, Chico Outlaws. Arizona Division -- Mesa Miners, Surprise Fightin’ Falcons, Yuma Scorpions, Japan Samurai Bears.

* Home openers for local teams: Long Beach plays host to Japan at 7 p.m. June 13 at Blair Field; Fullerton plays host to Yuma at 7 p.m. June 14 at Goodwin Field.

* Local managers: Darrell Evans will manage Long Beach, and Garry Templeton will manage Fullerton. Both are former major league players.

* Regular season: 90 games, beginning today and ending in August.

* Salaries: The league average is $1,150 per player per month, with a $3,000 maximum and $700 minimum for rookies.

* Ticket prices: $5-$11.

* Drug testing: Olympic-style random testing will be conducted during the season; first-time offenders will be expelled from the league.

* Expansion: There are plans to expand to 12 teams next season, adding several teams in Northern California. Possibilities for further into the future -- Simi Valley, Ventura and Valencia.