Chico Outlaws

The Chico Outlaws were an independent professional baseball team based in Chico, California. They competed in the Northern Division of the North American League (NAL), an independent circuit unaffiliated with Major or Minor League Baseball. The Outlaws called Nettleton Stadium on the campus of Chico State University home from the 2005 season through 2011. The club officially ceased operations on February 29, 2012, with some of its management and on-field personnel moving to the NAL’s new San Rafael Pacifics. The rights to the Outlaws, previously held by Diamond Sports & Entertainment (DSE)—whose board chairman was Timothy Draper and CEO was Brian MacInnes—were left unresolved.

**History**

**Golden Baseball League (2005–2010)** The Outlaws debuted in May 2005, three years after the Chico Heat folded when the Western Baseball League dissolved and no new league could be found. When the Golden Baseball League (GBL) formed in 2004, Chico became one of six original charter members, joining the Fullerton Flyers, Long Beach Armada, San Diego Surf Dawgs, Mesa Miners, Surprise Fightin’ Falcons, Yuma Scorpions, and the traveling Japan Samurai Bears. Of these, only the Outlaws, Flyers, and Scorpions remained active in the league by the time of this writing. Chico, Long Beach, and Yuma had previously been Western League cities. Bob Linscheid, a former Heat minority owner and Western League president, served as the Outlaws’ first president and general manager from 2004 to 2008. The team played in the GBL’s Western Division.

The Outlaws opened their inaugural season on May 27, 2005, against the Flyers at Nettleton Stadium, bringing professional baseball back to Chico for the first time since the Heat’s 2002 championship season. They won that game 9–4. Their first manager was former Major League catcher Mark Parent, a Cottonwood, California native. Linscheid was named the league’s first “Executive of the Year.”

The Outlaws reached the playoffs in their first year but lost early. In 2006, they seemed poised to win the second-half title and face Fullerton in the Championship Series, but they collapsed, blowing a six-game lead in the final ten games by losing seven of their last eight to the Reno Silver Sox. Reno went on to win the 2006 GBL Championship, beating Fullerton 3–1.