MLB to Small Town America: Drop Dead

They could save even more money by moving the whole league to Lake Tahoe. Every road game is just 15 minutes away.

 

RIP Minor League Baseball: 1901-2020

 

Sounds to me like MiLB suffered more grievous losses in the 1950s when it shed all the B, C and D leagues. I hate to see the lower A leagues go bye-bye, but college baseball will gain from it greatly. If you're a kid that can play, there will still be a place for you.

 

That doesn't help you if you're in the Dominican or Cuba, or if you're a kid who can't afford college or if you're not on the traveling circuit.

 

The Lowell Spinners, the Red Sox' short-season Single A team in the New York/Penn League is one of the teams that it likely to be on the chopping block.

The team has been around for about 25 years and has always had a decent following in Lowell and good community support. It doesn't sell out every night the way it once, did, but the support is strong.

There are already three wood bat college summer league teams within an hour's drive, including one, the Nashua Silver Knights, that is two towns over from Lowell, just over the state line, and is owned by the Spinners' owners.

If the Spinners have to become a college team, I guess that's the end of the Silver Knights.

 

I guess I don't get MLB hooking up with the independent leagues and shoving the short-season leagues aside. I understand that by the time the draft is held and a kid is signed, short season may have 30 games left or so.
Wonder if a big part of it is the growing trend toward college players (who've already played 60 games). Might be better to have the new signees do an extended spring training/orientation (though Arizona and Florida in the summer aren't too welcoming), before doing a fall league.

 

If you're a rich white kid from a prep school, then yes.

 

A lot of those losses in the 1950s were due to television suddenly becoming a staple. Rather than head to the local Class D team, people were staying home to watch their major league team on TV.

 

Minor league baseball barely survived the 1970s, when the recession/oil crisis/stagflation hit at the same time as expansion to the south and west. Not only did major league attendance figures drop, but several minor leagues folded and others merged in order to have enough teams to play. The Carolina League shrunk to four teams at one point. The Florida State League played a strange 11-team schedule one season.

The resurgence of minor league baseball is a relatively new phenomenon, thanks to newer ballparks, catchy nicknames, cool logos, crazy mascots and wacky promotions. Some of that was a direct result of "Bull Durham." But the economic upturn of the 1980s and 1990s -- giving families a cheap but fun night out as major league ticket prices skyrocketed -- had just as much to do with the explosion of minor league teams in untapped markets.

With the pandemic and long-term economic effects, there's no guarantee minor league baseball gets anywhere close to its recent heyday for some time to come. MLB is buying at the high.

 

I haven't seen an updated list, but late last year, Baseball America has a list with four AA teams going away, including Chattanooga, which I think once claimed to be the oldest minor-league team in baseball.

I know the Lookouts have big support in Chatty, and are a well-regarded market in baseball circles, so I really don't understand the thinking.

 

MLB is hoping to pressure Chattanooga into building another stadium. I happen to like that one a lot because it's unique and close to dining and other attractions downtown (and how many times can you see a foul ball wind up on a freeway?). And contracting a team in the center of the Southern League's circle is downright dumb.

Chattanooga Lookouts stadium location seen as a hindrance in battle against MLB contraction

 

The economic boom times of the mid-90s allowed many minor league cities to build parks to get or retain teams. Those parks are all still standing and virtually all in good condition, making it tougher for teams to demand new facilities, especially from taxpayers who don't wanna pay no taxes for nuthin.

This upcoming round of contractions/ eliminations is gonna blow a huge hole in that whole equation. Of the 40 teams about to be eliminated, I'd bet millions of internet bucks more than half have had multi-million dollar stadium renovations or improvements, if not full construction, in the last 30 years.

Cities are gonna be a lot more reluctant to spend $50 million or so (price tags are going up as are the Santa Claus lists of bells and whistles goodies MLB is demanding for minor league parks) to build a new ballpark if a city 75 miles away just got contracted and is stuck with a 20 year old million dollar park they gotta use for tee-ball now.