Calgary Vipers
Encyclopedia
The Calgary Vipers were a professional baseball team based in Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...

, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. They were part of the Western Division of the independent North American League
North American League
The North American League is an independent baseball league that began play in the 2011 season...

. The Vipers have played all of their home games at Foothills Stadium
Foothills Stadium
Foothills Stadium, formerly Burns Stadium, is a stadium in Calgary, Alberta. It is primarily used for baseball, and was formerly home to the Calgary Cannons AAA baseball club until September 2002, when the team relocated to Albuquerque. It is now the home field of the Calgary Vipers baseball team...

. Previously, the Vipers played in the Northern League from 2005–2007. The Vipers were champions of the Golden Baseball League
Golden Baseball League
The Golden Baseball League, based in San Ramon, California, was an independent baseball league. It later merged with the Northern League and the United Baseball League to form the North American League in the western United States, western Canada and Mexico....

 in 2009, having defeated the Tucson Toros
Tucson Toros
The Tucson Toros are a professional baseball team based in Tucson, Arizona, in the United States. They are owned by Tucson Baseball, LLC with Jay Zucker as chairman of the board. Sean Smock is the team's general manager....

 in the Championship Series.

Management problems surfaced just prior to the end of the 2011 season. By the end of the 2011 Season, it became apparent according to news media reports, that the Vipers were financially moribund, and would not be back for 2012. It was reported by the CBC on Sept 30th, 2011, that the President quit citing lack of financial support from the ownership. The team's last two paychecks in August reportedly bounced, and the Calgary Sun is reporting the team is folding. The team's Website has since been dismantled.

As of October 6, 2011, the Vipers owner Jeff Gidney has been hospitalized with a serious illness, leaving the team's future in limbo. Owner Jeff Gidney was an enthusiast owner, in the game for the game, not for the financial return. As such it is unlikely the other family members will continue to run the team at a loss.

Franchise History

Calgary had been served by the Triple-A Calgary Cannons
Calgary Cannons
The Calgary Cannons were a minor league baseball team located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for 18 seasons, from 1985 until 2002. They were a member of the AAA Pacific Coast League and played at Foothills Stadium. The Cannons replaced the Calgary Expos who played in the rookie level Pioneer League...

 of the Pacific Coast League
Pacific Coast League
The Pacific Coast League is a minor-league baseball league operating in the Western, Midwestern and Southeastern United States. Along with the International League and the Mexican League, it is one of three leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one step below Major League Baseball.The...

 (PCL) for 18 years until the team relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...

 in 2002. The Calgary Outlaws
Calgary Outlaws
The Calgary Outlaws were an independent minor league baseball team in the Canadian Baseball League. Based in Calgary, Alberta, they shared Foothills Stadium with the Calgary Dawgs. In 2003, the only Canadian Baseball League season, they had the best record when the league was suspended at the...

 played half a season in 2003 in the independent Canadian Baseball League
Canadian Baseball League
The Canadian Baseball League, was an independent minor league that operated in 2003. The league's only Commissioner was Major League Baseball Hall of Famer and Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame member Ferguson Jenkins...

 before the league folded, leaving the city without professional baseball in 2004. The college level Calgary Dawgs
Okotoks Dawgs
The Okotoks Dawgs are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Okotoks, Alberta, Canada. They play in the Western Major Baseball League . The Dawgs are the three-time defending WMBL champions.-History:...

 of the Western Major Baseball League
Western Major Baseball League
The Western Major Baseball League or WMBL is a collegiate summer baseball league. The league can trace its roots back to 1948, as it has gone by many names over the years, including the Alberta-Saskatchewan Baseball league, Western Canadian Baseball League and Saskatchewan Baseball League before...

 also began play in 2003.

The Northern League announced on April 3, 2004 that it was expanding to Alberta, granting new franchises to Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...

 and Calgary. The Calgary franchise was to be owned by a pair of Japanese businessmen, Hiro Masawa and Naoto Higuchi, and incorporated as Calgary Baseball LLC. Due to the distance between the Alberta franchises and the Northern League's base in the midwest United States, the two teams were required to pay a C$
Canadian dollar
The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...

60,000 annual travel subsidy to offset the costs for the other teams to fly into the city.

Northern League (2004-2007)

Calgary Baseball LLC had promised to significantly renovate the aging Foothills Stadium
Foothills Stadium
Foothills Stadium, formerly Burns Stadium, is a stadium in Calgary, Alberta. It is primarily used for baseball, and was formerly home to the Calgary Cannons AAA baseball club until September 2002, when the team relocated to Albuquerque. It is now the home field of the Calgary Vipers baseball team...

 as part of an ambitious plan for the team. However, little movement was seen with the franchise, causing the league to investigate the status of the team in November, 2004. A month later, on December 10, commissioner Mike Stone
Mike Stone
Mike Stone may refer to:*Mike Stone , former guitarist for the progressive metal band Queensrÿche*Mike Stone , retired American professional ice hockey centre...

 announced that he had revoked the franchise, stripping Calgary Baseball LLC of its ownership. On February 11, 2005 the league sold the franchise to Winnipeg businessman Jeffrey Gidney. He had less than three months before the start of play to hire staff, sign players and name the team. The team quickly named themselves the Vipers, and began signing players.

Despite the short time frame, the Vipers managed to build a quality team on the field, finishing second in the Northern division in both halves of the season. They played the first game in franchise history, on the road against the Sioux City Explorers
Sioux City Explorers
The Sioux City Explorers are a professional baseball team based in Sioux City, Iowa, in the United States. The Explorers are a member of the North Division of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball.They were originally to be...

 on May 20, 2005, losing 7–3. They won their first game the following night, defeating the Explorers 12–2. The team played its first game at home on May 27, defeating the Joliet Jackhammers
Joliet JackHammers
The Joliet JackHammers were a professional baseball team based in Joliet, Illinois, in the United States. The JackHammers were a member of the Northern League, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball. From 2002 to 2010, the JackHammers played their home games at Silver Cross...

 9–8 in 11 innings.

Off the field, the Vipers finished last in attendance, averaging just over 1100 fans. However, crowds slowly improved as the season went on and the Vipers grew from a bare bones operation, and as the weather improved following a month of June that featured record amounts of rainfall.
On June 13, 2006, a string of bean balls in the first two innings touched off two major brawls between the Vipers and their provincial rivals, the Edmonton Cracker-Cats
Edmonton Capitals
The Edmonton Capitals are a professional baseball team based in Edmonton, Alberta. Known originally as the Edmonton Cracker-Cats, they began play in the Northern League in 2005 before switching to the Golden Baseball League in 2008. The team was sold to Daryl Katz in 2009, after which the team was...

. After Edmonton's Greg Morrison
Greg Morrison
Greg Morrison is an Tony Award–winning and Drama Desk Award–winning Canadian writer and composer best known for his work on the music and lyrics of The Drowsy Chaperone, which he wrote with Lisa Lambert. He also has extensive credits directing and musical directing shows across the United States,...

 was hit by a Calgary pitch for the fourth time in five games, the Cracker-Cats responded by throwing at two Calgary players. The resulting melee was so violent that the umpires sent both teams off the field, and suspended the game for over an hour to consult with league officials. When the Cracker-Cats refused to return to the field afterward, the game was declared a forfeit and the Vipers were awarded a 9-0 victory.

The league came down hard on both teams, as both managers and seven players were suspended a total of 79 games. Morrison blamed Calgary manager Mike Busch for the incident, believing that Busch continues to hold a grudge after both Morrison, and another former Viper, J.P. Fauske defected to the Cracker-Cats after leaving the Vipers after a falling out with the Calgary manager late in the 2005 season.

The Vipers finished first in their division in the first half of 2007 with a record of 29–19, and qualified for the playoffs for the first time. During the season, outfielder Darryl Brinkley
Darryl Brinkley
Darryl Maurice Brinkley is an American former professional baseball player and manager. He played one season in the Korea Baseball Organization for the Hyundai Unicorns in 2000. In 2007, he became the first player in Northern League history to bat .400...

 became the first minor league baseball player of the modern era to achieve a .400 batting average
Batting average
Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...

. Brinkley was named the Independent League Player of the Year by Baseball America
Baseball America
Baseball America is a magazine which covers baseball at every level, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in high school, college, Japan, and the minor leagues. It is currently published in the form of a bi-weekly newspaper, five annual reference book titles, a weekly podcast, and a...

.

In the playoffs, they faced the second half winning Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks
Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks
The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks are a professional baseball team based in Fargo, North Dakota, in the United States. The RedHawks are a member of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball...

 in the North Division championship. The Vipers defeated the RedHawks 9–4 in the first game of the series to win their playoff debut, en route to a three game sweep of Fargo as they won the pennant and earned a berth in the Northern League Championship Series. The Vipers won the first game of the final series against the Gary SouthShore RailCats
Gary SouthShore RailCats
The Gary SouthShore RailCats are a professional baseball team based in Gary, Indiana, in the United States. The RailCats are a member of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball. The RailCats have played their home games at...

, 7–6, on a two-run, walk-off home run by Carlos Duncan. The teams traded wins in the first four games, forcing the series to a decisive fifth game. The RailCats won the game, and the championship, 5–1.

Leaving the Northern League

The playoff run would prove to be the team's last hurrah in the Northern League, as both the Vipers and Edmonton Cracker Cats announced that they were leaving the league after declining to post $1 million performance bonds as asked for by the Northern League. Both teams jumped to the California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 based Golden Baseball League
Golden Baseball League
The Golden Baseball League, based in San Ramon, California, was an independent baseball league. It later merged with the Northern League and the United Baseball League to form the North American League in the western United States, western Canada and Mexico....

.

Golden Baseball League (2008-2010)

The Vipers have been making headlines since moving to the GBL. They suggested that former National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 star Theoren Fleury
Theoren Fleury
Theoren Wallace "Theo" Fleury is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player for the Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, New York Rangers, and Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League , Tappara of Finland's SM-liiga, and the Belfast Giants of the UK's Elite Ice Hockey League...

 was considering playing for the Vipers. The former Calgary Flame
Calgary Flames
The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is the third major-professional ice hockey team to represent the city of Calgary, following the...

 took batting practice with the team, and threw out the first pitch at their home opener.He hit a single in his first at-bat. The next play he charged hard for second but was forced out.

Then, the Vipers traded pitcher John Odom to the Laredo Broncos
Laredo Broncos
The Laredo Broncos were a professional baseball team based in Laredo, Texas, in the United States. The Broncos are a member of United League Baseball, an independent professional league which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball or Minor League Baseball...

 of the United Baseball League for ten bats. Odom was unable to enter Canada and was turned away at the Canadian border due to an unspecified criminal charge on his record. The Vipers intended to auction the bats off to raise funds for their Snakes and Batters charity fund, however they were instead sold to Ripley's Believe it or Not for $10,000.

On September 5, 2008, the Vipers won the GBL North Division Championship outright by sweeping the Cracker-Cats 3 games to 0. On September 14, they lost the best-of-five GBL Championship Series to the Orange County Flyers 3 games to 2.

In the 2009 season, the Vipers won both halves of the season, qualifying for the playoffs as the North Division regular season champions along with the second-place Edmonton Capitals. In the playoffs the Vipers won their first round series against the Capitals to win their second straight GBL North Division championship. The Vipers set a franchise attendance record in game four, with 4859 fans at the game.

2009 GBL Championship

On September 12, 2009, the Vipers finally won their first professional baseball championship by defeating the Tucson Toros
Tucson Toros
The Tucson Toros are a professional baseball team based in Tucson, Arizona, in the United States. They are owned by Tucson Baseball, LLC with Jay Zucker as chairman of the board. Sean Smock is the team's general manager....

 3 games to 1 to capture the GBL Championship in front of over 2,000 fans at Foothills Stadium. They eliminated the Edmonton Capitals
Edmonton Capitals
The Edmonton Capitals are a professional baseball team based in Edmonton, Alberta. Known originally as the Edmonton Cracker-Cats, they began play in the Northern League in 2005 before switching to the Golden Baseball League in 2008. The team was sold to Daryl Katz in 2009, after which the team was...

 by the same 3 games to 1 in the North Division Championship to get back to the finals. It was the second straight year Calgary defeated a rival team from Edmonton. It is the first pro baseball championship for the city of Calgary ever (the Calgary Cannons
Calgary Cannons
The Calgary Cannons were a minor league baseball team located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for 18 seasons, from 1985 until 2002. They were a member of the AAA Pacific Coast League and played at Foothills Stadium. The Cannons replaced the Calgary Expos who played in the rookie level Pioneer League...

 of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League
Pacific Coast League
The Pacific Coast League is a minor-league baseball league operating in the Western, Midwestern and Southeastern United States. Along with the International League and the Mexican League, it is one of three leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one step below Major League Baseball.The...

 lost the title twice in the early 1990s), the first time a Canadian team has captured the title and the first time ever for an original privately-owned franchise to do so. (The Orange County Flyers, who won the title the previous year, were originally a league-owned team before they were sold to their current private ownership.)

The Vipers won the championship on their third straight try after losing the Northern League title in 2007 and the GBL title in 2008.

Arizona Winter League version (2010)

In October 2009, it was announced that the Vipers have launched a new instructional version of their team to begin play in the Arizona Winter League
Arizona Winter League
The Arizona Winter League is the short-season instructional independent winter professional baseball league affiliated with the independent North American League...

 in 2010, replacing the departed Palm Springs Chill
Palm Springs Chill
The Palm Springs Chill are an independent baseball team based in Palm Springs, California. They are co-owned by the Palm Springs Power and play their home games at Palm Springs Stadium...

, who formed their own instructional league. They will play in the new Canadian division along with the Saskatchewan Silver Sox
Saskatchewan Silver Sox
The Saskatchewan Silver Sox are an independent professional baseball team based in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. They play in the developmental Arizona Winter League, a short-season instructional winter league affiliated with the North American League and compete in the International...

, Team Canada and Western Canada Miners
Western Canada Miners
The Western Canada Miners are a professional independent baseball team based in Yuma, Arizona, and representing western Canada...

. They will be managed in the AWL by former Montreal Expo legend Boots Day
Boots Day
Charles Frederick "Boots" Day is a retired American professional baseball outfielder. A native of Ilion, New York, Day played Major League Baseball for all or parts of six seasons , with the bulk of that time spent with the Montreal Expos...

, who also serves as bench coach for the parent GBL team.

The Vipers defeated the San Luis Atleticos
San Luis Atleticos
The San Luis Atleticos are a professional independent baseball team based in San Luis, Arizona, representing that city and Mexico. They play in the developmental Arizona Winter League, a short-season instructional winter league affiliated with the Golden Baseball League and play in the...

, 8-1, in the AWL Championship Game shortened to eight innings due to rain. They became the first team in history to capture both the GBL and AWL titles since the GBL's and AWL's respective inceptions. More impressive is that it was done within one calendar year. They would not return to the AWL in 2011.

North American League (2011-present)

The Vipers were one of six former GBL teams to join the newly-formed North American League
North American League
The North American League is an independent baseball league that began play in the 2011 season...

 in 2010 and will begin play in 2011.

Year-by-year record

        First Half   Second Half   Overall      
Season Division W-L Finish W-L Finish W-L Win% Playoffs
2005 NL North 25–22 2nd 26–22 2nd 51–44 .537 Did not qualify
2006 NL North 19–29 4th 23–25 3rd 42–54 .438 Did not qualify
2007 NL North 29–19 1st 21–27 3rd 50–45 .526 Won North Division pennant (3–0 FM
Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks
The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks are a professional baseball team based in Fargo, North Dakota, in the United States. The RedHawks are a member of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball...

)
Lost championship series (2–3 Gary
Gary SouthShore RailCats
The Gary SouthShore RailCats are a professional baseball team based in Gary, Indiana, in the United States. The RailCats are a member of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball. The RailCats have played their home games at...

)
2008 GBL North 26–18 1st 19–24 2nd 45–42 .517 Won North Division pennant (3–0 Edm)
Lost championship series (2–3 OC)
2009 GBL North 26–13 1st 23–14 1st 49–27 .645 Won North Division pennant (3–1 Edm)
Won Championship (3–1 Tuc
Tucson Toros
The Tucson Toros are a professional baseball team based in Tucson, Arizona, in the United States. They are owned by Tucson Baseball, LLC with Jay Zucker as chairman of the board. Sean Smock is the team's general manager....

)
2010 GBL North 23-20 3rd 30–15 1st 53–35 .602 Lost North Division Playoff (0-3 Chico
Chico Outlaws
The Chico Outlaws are a professional baseball team based in Chico, California, in the United States. The Outlaws are a member of the Western Division of the independent North American League, which is not affiliated with either Major League Baseball or Minor League Baseball...

)

External links

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