In the last week the JAL has experienced a significant growth spurt. Last weekend the league introduced a new expansion team, the Missouri Express. Today, the league is proud to introduce yet another expansion team, the Cowlitz Bambinos.
Cowlitz is co-owned by Hunter Whitten and his father Brian. Like the Express, Cowlitz is set to make their franchise debut in JAL XII.
The team was approved for expansion by the JAL at about the same time as the Express were. However, instead of introducing both teams at once we decided to do them individually on separate weeks to give them each the acknowledgement they deserve.
Hunter’s request add Cowlitz to the league came in a little different form than Garrett’s did with the Express. If you recall, Garrett is especially excited about the challenge of “playing General Manager” and building winning team from scratch. Hunter on the other hand, brings the Bambinos into the league fulled loaded from the start, so he won’t necessarily be building from the ground up.
Brotherly duo Tyler and Lane Traver, as well as Colton Titus are who Cowlitz has already signed to the team. Both Tyler and Lane recieved max rookie contracts ($6/2-tournaments), and Colton was inked to a HS contract (no salary). Hunter himself (Who is currently stationed in Germany) also plans to play for the team when he comes in a few months.
Since all of the players the Cowlitz Bambinos are will be rookies, it’s hard to predict how well the franchise will do early on.
For those wondering, the name Bambinos was selected as a tribute to the movie “The Sandlot,” which appropriately draws many similarities to this backyard league of ours, the JAL. As seen in the team’s official logo above, Cowlitz will use a bull mastiff dog as their mascot (resembling “the beast” from the movie). Also, red and a tan-shade of gold are the franchise’s official colors.
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