Wine Country Baseball launches in Healdsburg today

Wine Country Baseball will celebrate its second full season of play today with a Season Opening Celebration double header at in Healdsburg.

The double header includes:

2:30pm Santa Rosa Gnats vs Oakville Aces
6:30pm Windsor Wonders vs Healdsburg Owls.

Featured food vendors will include Old Mexico and WillieBirds BBQ.  Oakland A's legend Shooty Babitt will be throwing out the first pitch. Healdsburg Rec Park is at 515 Piper St. (cross road University Street) in Healdsburg.

Pocket schedules for the entire 84 game WCB regular season may be found at sponsoring stores and restaurants throughout Sonoma and Napa counties.

Earlier this spring Wine Country Baseball, www.winecountrybaseball.com, announced the hiring of legendary current head of baseball at Sonoma State University, John Goelz, as Chief Consultant of Baseball Operations and Commissioner of a new college players only division the Wine Country Baseball Premier Collegiate League.

will now be divided into two leagues. The first league will be summer collegiate league in the style and standards of the Cape Cod League, open for only college eligible players (begins summer 2012).

The second league is the current Wine Country Old Fashioned Baseball League, an independent community league open to all, playing its 2nd full season of play this summer 2011.

Wine Country Baseball Premier Collegiate League to commence June 2012:

Healdsburg Owls - Santa Rosa Gnats - Petaluma Piratas - Sonoma Grape Crushers - Vacaville Rattlers - Novato Knicks

Wine Country Old Fashioned Baseball League, independent community league, began play of its 2nd full season schedule June 2nd and will continue until the end of August 2011:

North:
Cloverdale Bandits
Healdsburg Owls
Windsor Wonders
Santa Rosa Gnats
South:
Sebastopol Apples
Rohnert Park Dragons
Petaluma Piratas
Sonoma Grape Crushers
Napa:
St. Helena Frost Angels
Yountville Robins
Oakville Aces
Napa Knights

"This league, now with seasoned baseball experience leadership, really does have the chance to become the 'Cape Cod League' of the West, as envisioned originally by its founder Howard Leonhardt," stated John Goelz. "I am really excited about the potential of this thing."

The league also announced that it will begin adding games with other leagues this season, starting with the 4th of July extravaganza against the Humboldt Crabs, in their 3000 seat stadium.

John Goelz, with a career record of 824-537-5, is one of the top 10 active Division II coaches in the nation. Goelz has seen over 75 of his players sign professional contracts. Wine Country Baseball is super excited to have him on board.

About Wine Country Baseball:

Wine Country Baseball is an affiliate of Leonhardt Ventures, see all of our affiliated companies at www.leonhardtventures.com; these organizations include www.leonhardtslaunchpads.com, a start up business incubator with NorthBay facilities in Santa Rosa and Berkeley, and The California Stock Exchange, www.calstockexchange.com.

Wine Country Baseball, www.winecountrybaseball.com, held its inaugural season in 2010, with 100 games in Sonoma and Napa Counties. Leonhardt Vineyards, www.leonhardtvineyards.com, the lead sponsor, provided $350,000 of support in 2010 to this community league and remains the lead sponsor in 2011.  

This sponsorship subsidization helped make tickets highly affordable at $5 for adults and $2 for children.  You may recognize the Leonhardt Vineyards lionhead logo from their two behind home plate advertisement boards last season, at AT&T Park, where we sponsored our beloved World Champions the San Francisco Giants. Leonhardt Vineyards' gold medal winning wines are sold at all 120 Trader Joes stores in California, www.traderjoes.com.