Baseball League Sets March Start

The United Baseball League, the new venture that came into being during the major league strike, will begin play on March 28 of next year.

The league, consisting of eight teams aligned in Eastern and Western divisions, will play a 154-game schedule ending the third week of September and followed by a best-of-seven championship series between the two regular-season winners.

“We have come a long way since our announcement earlier this year of our initial six franchise cities,” Mike Stone, chief operating officer of the UBL, said Thursday in announcing the starting date for the league.

Liberty Sports’ regional networks, including Prime Sports, will broadcast up to 40 games. “This agreement with the United Baseball League and our regional sports networks will provide viewers with professional baseball programming from the new league,” Ed Frazier, president of Liberty Sports, Inc., said Thursday.

Eastern Division teams will be in Kissimmee, Fla.; Brentwood, N.Y.; Bayamon, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. Western Division teams will be in Los Angeles; New Orleans; Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, British Columbia.