So, apparently, the citizenry of Dallas had best get acquainted with United League Baseball, which, if I read my Dallas Morning News right this morning, will throw out the first pitch on the banks of the Trinity River this time next year. So, let's see: Just last month in Dallas federal court, league co-founders John Bryant (you remember him) and business partner Byron Pierce won the right to buy back the ULB from their former partners, who'd filed for bankruptcy. There are six teams at present: the Amarillo 'Dillas, the San Angelo Colts, Edinburg Coyotes, the Harlingen WhiteWings, the Laredo Broncos and the newly minted Coastal Bend Thunder.
Which just about covers it, assuming Oak Cliff developer Richard Seib and Bryant and Pierce's Reunion Sports Group manage to cover the 50-plus acres along the Trinity with the ballpark and an attendant development -- including apartments, a water park, retail ... and a hotel! Course, this is the land the city had counted on Irving-based JPI to develop as a "pedestrian-friendly" retail, residential and office development, until JPI fouled off the pitch into foreclosure territory earlier this year. The new guys are promising: "We will build
the stadium in downtown Dallas independently, and everything else in
the project will follow." That sounds so ... familiar, maybe?