We now have two summer-collegiate leagues in Texas and Louisiana, as the Hall of Fame Baseball League (HOFL) will launch this coming season with six teams in Fort Worth, Granbury, Mineral Wells, Tyler, Weatherford and Shreveport.
Wayne Poage, the former Director of Athletics at Dallas Baptist University and the architect of the Texas Collegiate League (the existing summer-collegiate league in the region), will be the league commissioner. Gary Elliston will serve as president of HOFL.
“We are dedicated to making the Hall of Fame Baseball League one of the top three collegiate leagues in the country,” said Elliston. “We believe it fills a void in this region.”
The Shreveport-Bossier Captains, formerly of the independent American Association, will be part of the new league, playing out of Fair Ground Field.
The Hall of Fame Baseball League will be a wood-bat league, and feature a 44-game regular season schedule, an All Star Game in July, and playoffs in early August. HOFL will feature light travel with teams concentrated in the North/East Texas region. Players will live with host families in each community. Players from a number of major schools have already committed to play this year, including players from TCU, Texas, Texas Tech, LSU, Rice, Dallas Baptist University, Kansas, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, Sam Houston St., and New Mexico.
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