By J.J. Cooper
October 5, 2005

And then there were four.

The Sioux City Explorers became the fourth Northern League member to announce their voluntary withdrawal from the league, a move that is expected to lead to them joining a trio of other clubs that are forming a new breakaway league.

The Explorers filed their withdrawal Tuesday night, a decision that came just before an already scheduled Northern League conference call. During that conference call, the remaining eight Northern Leagues all pledged their intent to stay in the league. Then again, just a week ago, Sioux City pledged its intent to remain in the Northern League during a conference call to discuss the decision of the Lincoln Saltdogs, St. Paul Saints and Sioux Falls Canaries to leave the league.

A week later, the Explorers decided to leave. Geography made the new league for former Northern League clubs a much more logical fit, as Sioux City is only 90 miles from Sioux Falls, and Lincoln is only 150 miles away. St. Paul is about 350 miles away.

Marv Goldklang, chairman of the St, Paul Saints, said that the trio of teams in the as-yet unnamed league had not contacted Sioux City before the team's decision, but they have made it clear that there is a short period of time in which they will welcome any Northern League team that wants to join them. Goldklang, away from his office on Wednesday, said he was unaware of an official request by the Explorers to join the new league, but he expected one shortly.

Northern League commissioner Mike Stone said that the league's board of directors have agreed to look at modifying the rules on voluntary withdrawal, but it appears that no action has been taken as of yet.

"The directors have agreed to renew their commitments to the league," Stone said. "I don't see any tremendous urgency (to modify the withdrawal rules). We had a long conference call last night. They reaffirmed their faith in each other."

Under the league's rules, it would take a unanimous vote by the owners to alter the constitution's withdrawal rules.

"What we're examining is a pledge of affiliation," Stone said. "I can assure you there was 100 percent agreement on firming up that portion of the constitution."

Sioux City's decision has made the Northern League's scheduling decisions easier in some ways. Until the Explorers left, the league had nine teams, which probably would have necessitated an expansion team or a traveling team to make the 2006 schedule work. After running schedule permutations, Stone said that a nine-team schedule was "impossible," as it would leave teams off on weekends and would not fit within the league's late-May until early-September window.

But the Northern League does face some geographic questions with its current layout. The league would appear likely to form two four-team divisions for 2006, but in those divisions, Winnipeg and Fargo would be separated by more than 700 miles from Calgary and Edmonton in one division. In the other division, there would be three teams in the Chicago suburbs and Kansas City, which is now roughly 500 miles from the nearest other team in the league.

Kansas City, just 190 miles from Lincoln, might make more geographic sense joining with the four Northern League breakaway clubs, but that appears unlikely. It was the T-Bones' X-box promotion--where three innings of a Kansas City-Schaumburg regular-season game would be decided by a pair of video game players--and the league's approval of the promotion that helped get the trio of teams thinking about the possibility of forming a new league (commissioner Mike Stone eventually cancelled the promotion before it occurred). The T-Bones have given no sign that they intend to leave the Northern League.

The new league has offered to play some limited interleague games, but Goldklang said such an offer would only be available for a couple more weeks, as the new league will have to start firming up its scheduling permutations before long.

For the new league, the addition of Sioux City gives the league a fourth team that fits geographically, as all four clubs are within a 500-mile radius. Goldklang said the addition of Sioux City means the league is looking at having between 10 and 12 teams for 2006. When asked, he said that the new league could reach that number without going into existing markets or raiding markets with current college summer league teams.

"In 2006, it will be pretty good, but we're not doing what we're doing to wind up where we are in 2006, it's for 2007 and 2008 and beyond," Goldklang said.

The group is aiming to have its schedule and all of its markets announced by baseball's Winter Meetings, slated for Dec. 5-8 in Dallas. The yet-to-be-named league is currently running potential names past lawyers to check on trademark and other issues, while also fielding calls from parties and cities interested in potentially joining the league.

Goldklang also said that while the new group has gotten calls from officials with cities that have current Northern League teams, those calls are not being returned.

"We are not interested in hurting any of those teams in the Northern League," he said.

Goldklang said Stone refuted a report that the Northern League was investigating putting a new franchise in the Twin Cities market.

"I did ask (Stone) about it, and he denied it. The reason he denied it is I believe he doesn't seen any point in it," Goldklang said. "Once someone crosses that line, it's the Wild West. I would think no one would want to cross that line. If we get a call that someone is trying to put a Northern League team in our backyard. Mike (Veeck) and I would talk and see how we would react. But it would obviously send a message to us about how the Northern League views our relationship."