"This is very good news for the club and the league. I believe experience is the best teacher and having done this once before, I believe this will be the best all-star game in league history," said Goldeyes GM Andrew Collier. "Whether there are six, 10 or 12 teams, and this year there will be six, in a league and no matter the sport, all-star games are about more than the competition on the field.

"Mr. [Pat Gillick] is an outstanding baseball person and his resume speaks for itself," said Collier. "He's a friend of Sam's (Goldeyes founder and Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz) and Sam put this deal together. It just got done on (Tuesday) so I don't have many other details."

"Pepsi has stepped up and offered cash prizes for the skills events so they should be very competitive," said Collier. "No one in the Northern League is getting rich so this incentive should really add some excitement to the skills portion of the event."