With the Tucson Sidewinders’ season wrapping up and getting ready to pack for their move to Reno, Nev., the Tucson Toros are planning a return home to Hi Corbett Field.

Before tonight’s (Sept. 1) final Sidewinders’ game at Tucson Electric Park, former owner Jay Zucker has scheduled a news conference in which he will announce the return of the Toros.

Zucker declined to comment on his plans but sources said the Toros team taking the field next year will be an expansion team of the independent Golden Baseball League.

The three-year-old Golden Baseball League this year fielded eight teams: in Calgary, Alberta; Chico, Calif.; Edmonton, Alberta; Fullerton, Calif.; Long Beach, Calif.; Reno, Nev.; St. George, Utah; and Yuma.

Players in the league are mostly young pros who haven’t been signed by a Major League Baseball organization. The players generally receive monthly salaries ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 during the season. Players in the past have also included former Major Leaguers Rickey Henderson, Jose Canseco and Alex Arias.

Zucker, former owner of the Sidewinders, owns the rights to Tucson Toros, which was the name of Tucson’s AAA franchise until 1997. The following year, the team moved from the city’s Hi Corbett Field to Pima County’s Tucson Electric Park and was renamed the Sidewinders as part of its minor league affiliation with Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks.

Zucker acquired the team in 2000 and has said it was a financial struggle for him to keep it in Tucson attracting fans to its out-of-the-way location at Tucson Electric Park.

He sold it after the 2007 season for $15 million to a group whose announced intention was to move it to Reno, Nev., once a new ballpark there was completed. That project in downtown Reno is underway and due to be completed in time for next summer’s Pacific Coast League season.

Despite the fact the Golden Baseball League has a team in Reno that will be displaced by the as-yet-renamed Sidewinders, that team isn’t moving to Tucson. Instead it is more likely to move to nearby Carson City, Nev.

As a young league, the Golden Baseball League has seen changes in each year of its existence.

In its first year, 2005, the league had eight teams, three of which were in Arizona - Mesa, Surprise and Yuma - four in California - Chico, Fullerton, Long Beach and San Diego - and a traveling team of 24 Japanese players called the Samurai Bears.

After that season, the Surprise and Japanese teams folded and the Mesa team moved to Reno.

For the 2006 season, the Golden Baseball League fielded six teams after which the San Diego team dropped out switching to the Arizona Winter League.

For 2007, the Canadian teams were added along with the team in St. George, Utah.

For next year, in addition to adding the Toros, there have been reports in the San Diego area about that team rejoining the Golden Baseball League.

Teams in the Golden baseball League play 80 to 90 games in a season, half of which are home games. The season begins in late May after a two-week spring training. The season ends with a championship series over Labor Day weekend.

Contact reporter Joe Pangburn at jpangburn@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4259.

Tucson Toros history 1969 – 1997

Class-Level:

Triple-A (1969-1997)

Minor League affiliations:

Pacific Coast League (1969-1997)

Major League affiliations:

Milwaukee Brewers (1997)

Houston Astros (1980-1996)

Texas Rangers (1977-1979)

Oakland Athletics (1973-1976)

Chicago White Sox (1969-1972)

Ballpark:

Hi Corbett Field (1969-1997)

Minor League titles:

• League titles 1991, 1993

• Division titles 1973, 1991, 1993