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Real baseball in America starts later this week when American Association ballclubs take the field on Friday. So what have they been doing in the meantime?
- If you missed the news, the league will be starting play on July 3, and fans will be in the stands.
- The regular season schedule has been posted for all six teams, too!
- Initially the Chicago Dogs were to play all their home games at the home of the Milwaukee Milkmen, but recent changes in regulations have allowed them to play from their home park - Impact Field outside Chicago.
- The St Paul Saints will not be playing at CHS Field for now, but they and the Sioux Falls Canaries are happy to be working with each other at the Birdcage this summer.
- Longtime Winnipeg Goldeyes skipper Rick Forney talked to The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead about getting ready for this season and happily playing in Fargo for most of this season.
- The dispersal draft happened and our sister site Brew Crew Ball wrote about the picks that the Milkmen took; you can take a look at the overall draft results here.
- After having one skipper for its first 22 seasons, the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks will have their fourth different manager in four years, this year with World Series Champion Chris Coste. The club released Jim Bennett from his duties after bringing F-M to their first postseason berth since 2013 and winning AA Manager of the Year.
In non-American Association independent league news...
- The Frontier League, who absorbed the smaller Canadian-American League earlier in the winter, decided to shut down operations for 2020 due to the pandemic.
- The Atlantic League, known for being MLB’s guinea pig for rule changes, has also shut down the league due to the pandemic while a handful of their teams are making other plans.
- And one of those “handful of their other teams” includes the Sugar Land Skeeters deep down in Texas, who is putting a four-team league together with Roger Clemens as one of the managers.
Discussion topic:
What is your favorite “wacky” team name?