{"id":246694,"date":"2017-02-17T06:00:10","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T20:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=246694"},"modified":"2017-02-17T06:00:10","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T20:00:10","slug":"sbl-kicks-off-2017-season-monday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/sbl-kicks-off-2017-season-monday\/","title":{"rendered":"SBL kicks off 2017 season Monday"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_246720\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-246720\" style=\"width: 268px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/SBL-pix-3-268x300.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-246720\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">BSI Aces catcher Virgil Secharmidal throws to pitcher Mike Iguel after catching a fly ball during Game 1 of their semis series against the GSM Brewers in last year\u2019s Saipan Baseball League at the Francisco \u201cTan Ko\u201d Palacios Baseball Field. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The 2017 SBL season kicks off Monday, Feb. 20, at the Francisco M. Palacios \u201cTan Ko\u201d Baseball Field at 6:30pm with defending champions and pennant winners CK Bears squaring off against last year\u2019s runners-up BSI Aces.  <\/p>\n<p>Like last year, eight teams will be vying for the championship with the Falcons, GSM, Titanium, Blue Jays, D-9ers (formally the North Starz) and newcomers Comets joining the Bears and BSI Aces in the field.<\/p>\n<p>A double-round-robin format will be utilized in the regular season with games to be played from Monday to Friday.  The Top 4 teams will advance to the playoffs and they will play in best-of-three semis series.  The winners will then collide in a best-of-five championship affair.<\/p>\n<p>At the conclusion of the SBL, members of the national and junior national teams will be selected to represent the CNMI in the second Micronesian Baseball Classic that will be held in Palau this June.<\/p>\n<p>The SBL is looking for corporate sponsors to help defray some of the league\u2019s expenses and humbly solicits from interested parties. For more information, contact SBL league director Tony Rogolifoi at 234-6672 or 285-3966. <strong>(PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2017 SBL season kicks off Monday, Feb. 20, at the Francisco M. Palacios \u201cTan&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":246720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[10493,10722,1352,731],"class_list":["post-246694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-blue-jays","tag-micronesian-baseball-classic","tag-saipan-baseball-league","tag-sbl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}