It’s just a matter of time before we see the return of all sports to our daily lives and fans need that. Watching major league baseball games exclusively on TV was exhausting and quite frankly, at times, unwatchable. Be it baseball, football, basketball, hockey etc, etc, they all have tried to give us a semblance of normal but it was not what we were used to seeing. Especially with empty stadiums and arenas. I guess at least, there have been things to watch. But this coming season in baseball, if there is a season with fans in attendance, there will still be less to see. Why? Because fans all across the country will see less games in the small towns and cities where minor league baseball is king. So then, what is the future of minor league baseball in America?
Most people may attend a few big league games during the course of a season and with the cost of going to one of these games becoming more expensive, fans have turned to minor league or independent league baseball more and more over the past two decades. Well guess what, MLB, it’s owners and their commissioner, have begun the process of eliminating not only clubs but also entire leagues. There will be no more New York Penn League or South Atlantic League, often informally called the Sally League who’s existence goes back to 1904. In 2005, the “Sally League” had its highest attendance in 101 years with over 3,541,992 fans. That year minor league baseball across the land, set a record with 41,333,279 people seeing baseball that they could afford. These figures have stayed steady for over twenty years and note that these ballparks only seat about 4,500 to 7,500 fans.
It is becoming quite clear that MLB and its dominance of all things baseball have had enough of these small cities and towns across America taking money out of their pockets. MLB can say all they want about streamlining their organizations to put out a better product or bringing their minor league affiliates closer in proximity to their teams home city all they want. The truth is that there is one theme that has been echoed over all of America for hundreds of years, “It’s All About The Money!”
MLB decided to eliminate at least 42 affiliations, while some independent teams could become affiliates. There will be only 120 affiliated teams, four per major league team. Today, MLB has embraced the analytical math geniuses who plot out just about every aspect of decision making by a club. From who to sign, where to position players on the field to lineups. I imagine they have done the math and are aware that most of these businesses, not owned directly by them, will probably fold. We are looking at approximately an 11 million loss in attendance. Add to those figures, the loss of jobs to the local people who work at these ballparks and young college graduates who are trying to break into professional baseball as non players. Those young kids will have to take unpaid intern jobs in MLB, if they are lucky enough to even find a position open in pursuit of the dream of working in professional baseball.
A veteran major league scout told me he believes that the majority of minor-league players will never make it to the big leagues. But that doesn’t mean they can’t perform at a high level. When I worked with the legendary scout Tom “T-Bone” Giordano, he would always make me aware of players he would call “Organizational guys.” They would be the players needed to fill minor league rosters as well as instructional league and extended spring training groups so a team’s high ceiling prospects and big leaguers in rehab, had a place to play. Some of them do find their groove and sometimes make it to the big leagues. Ever hear of a guy named Mike Piazza? He was picked in the 62nd round of the 1988 MLB draft, as a first baseman. He was the number 1390 over all pick that year. If he were coming out of Miami Dade JR. College today, he would have never been picked. He was considered an “Organizational guy” when he was signed.
How many players will the fans, who support baseball at all levels, be cheated out of seeing play, possible stars of tomorrow? All because owners want to cut costs throughout their billion dollar organizations. They all bought into Astros then-GM Jeff Luhnow’s brainstorm a few years ago and have now acted on this destruction of the minor leagues. Another shiner for Baseball brought to you by those silly Houston Astro geniuses.
One thing that is certain though, we will get used to it. We tend to forget things after a short period of time, good and bad. The fans who will lose their minor league teams will find another team to passionately root for. They will drive a little further down the road, well maybe more than a little, where they will enjoy a baseball game on a warm summer night, in a ballpark where they will not have to spend a weeks worth of grocery money to attend. They will find a player who will catch their eye and he will be someone whose career they will follow, hoping they will see him on TV in the big leagues one day. The only problem will be that the odds of having that be fulfilled will be a lot less with 42 teams gone. I wonder why they picked 42 teams? I thought no one in baseball could use that number (42) anymore. Guess that’s the magic number that came up on the analytical mumbo jumbo computers in the commissioners office.
