Apparently the way to introduce professional baseball to America is to remove it.
Major League Baseball’s intention is to disband all rookie and short-season leagues and also eradicate 15 minor league franchises.
The excuse is that some minor league ballparks have reached obsolescence, and the bus travel between some Class A cities is too punishing. The sides will continue talks at next week’s Winter Meetings in San Diego. If there is a withdrawal, it would begin in 2021.
“They want to bring people closer to the game,” said Jeff Lantz, senior director of communications for the minor leagues, “but if you’re growing up in Billings, Montana, your closest major league team is where? Seattle or Denver? If you lose your team you lose contact with the game.”
The Lancaster Jethawks are on the hit list. They drew 2,342 per game in 2019, third in the California League. They’ve been operating since 1996 in The Hangar, their ballpark which cost $14.5 million to build and has been upgraded significantly. Many of today’s Houston Astros were Jethawks.
It’s easier to understand why the Florida Fire Frogs (average crowd of 327 last year) might be doomed. The Hagerstown (Md.) Suns drew 918, worst in the 14-team South Atlantic League. But that’s different.
The Suns have been around since 1993. Municipal Stadium has been around since 1930. Actual hands put the numbers on the scoreboard, and there are plaques on the right-field wall. One simply says “Adenhart,” because Nick Adenhart grew up there on the way to an Angels’ career that was ended by a drunk driver in 2009.
Nearly 30 miles away, the Frederick Keys led the Carolina League with 4,392 fans per night. They have a 30-year presence, but they are endangered, too.
“We estimate they bring about $16 million into our economy,” said John Fieseler, of Visit Frederick, the local tourist bureau. “Then there’s the community involvement they have, in a variety of areas. It would be a huge loss if they left.”
A fellow can get off work, get a $10 ticket, tell stories among friends and watch nine kids, two of whom might be Washington Nationals someday. Minor league players often meet their future spouses in those towns. Why do we want to lose that? And what about the jobs lost and the hours unfilled?
“They talk about the ballparks, but they have a company that sends evaluators to every park,” Lantz said. “They check the showerheads, the urinals, measure the height of the mound, all the facilities. If something isn’t right they tell the clubs to get it fixed. Obviously you need more space because there are more coaches, more video equipment, nutritionists, conditioning personnel. These things can be worked out.”
MLB also says it wants to realign the leagues to make travel easier. That’s valid, except that the 726-mile trip from Augusta, Ga. to Lakewood, N.J. wasn’t arranged by the South Atlantic League. The Phillies wanted their Lakewood club closer to home. That is easily understood but, again, it’s a fixable problem.
“If you do away with the short-season and rookie leagues,” Lantz said, “think of Jose Altuve (the 2017 MVP from Houston). He spent three years in a rookie league. It would deprive a lot of players of the opportunity to develop.”
There’s little question that players can be developed more efficiently. But most minor leaguers spend too little time there, not too much. As an industry, the minors are thriving, with 68 new ballparks since 2000 and with a 2.6 percent attendance hike in 2019.
The Dayton (Ohio) Dragons have sold every seat for 1,385 consecutive games, an all-sports record. Las Vegas opened a new suburban park and led the minors with 650,000 admissions.
Meanwhile, MLB attendance has plunged by 14 percent since 2007.
What is the endgame here?
MLB has suggested a “dream league” could replace the deleted franchises, but those players would not have Player Development Contracts, in which the salaries are paid by MLB. This is the independent league model, which has been wildly successful in St. Paul, Minn. and Sugar Land, Texas, in big markets. The Amarillo Thunderheads drew 1,071 fans per game this year in the American Association. That makes it a little tough to meet a payroll, much less pay the freight for trips to Winnipeg and Gary, Ind.
An industry that seems obsessed with shaving 30-second increments from game times now wants to padlock ballparks altogether.
“We’re hoping this is just the first step in negotiations and it will come out completely different,” Fieseler said.
His insistence on using logic is quaint, like the idea that a $3 burger and an 18-year-old shortstop just go together.
