Yes, Considerable Similarity as 64 Teams Get Ready to Open the 18th Independent Season

Any new baseball season brings excitement, and while some of it has to do with the hope brought on by spring flowers and warmer days there also is the optimism that last year’s stinky bullpen will be better this time and that the hits will come at the most opportune time.

We finally get to start tasting the reality in Independent Baseball circles next week when the Atlantic League rings up the curtain on the 18^th summer since this phenomenon of non-affiliated professional leagues started.  The Atlantic League as well as some of the other established circuits opening in May will have a very similar look except for the inevitable changes on rosters because their teams remain unchanged, but that is not the case for the Golden, Northern and Continental Leagues, all of whom will reveal significant alterations in their lineup of teams.

The Golden League has the most drastic changes, including new franchises in Mexico and Hawaii. Long Beach, CA has departed, but the new team across the United States border into Tijuana and Na Ikaika Koa on the island of Maui get this six-year-old operation back to the easier schedule of a 10-team league.

Northern League fans should be excited to get more diversion with the addition of two more Illinois teams, Rockford, which steps up its level of player experience after eight years in the Frontier League, and a brand new operation north of Chicago where the Lake County Fielders will appear in Zion. The Northern had been limited to six teams the last two summers.

Long term forecasts for the Continental League remain difficult because the league has dropped from six franchises to four and two of those will be road teams.  Las Cruces, NM is new, and teams elsewhere in New Mexico and Colorado are being talked about for 2011.

Lineup Unchanged in Some Leagues

The Atlantic League, American Association and United League are made up of exactly the same teams as one year ago while the Can-Am League has added Pittsfield, MA (to replace the American Defenders of New Hampshire, who played in Nashua) and the Frontier League added Oakland (MI) County of Ypsilanti to replace Rockford.

The final head count is 64 teams compared to 61 one year ago when Independent Baseball missed by less than 35,000 fans of its third consecutive regular season of 8,000,000 fans.

Chasing Sparky Lyle’s Patriots, Again

On the field, it appears everyone will be trying to find the magic the Somerset (NJ) Patriots have had in winning five of the last nine Atlantic League championships including the last two.  Manager Sparky Lyle, the onetime standout major league closer, does not go for the big names as much as some clubs do although he made an exception recently by adding hustling Ryan Freel to an offense that already returns such potent producers as Jeff Nettles, Matt Hagen and Josh Pressley, who combined to drive in 240 runs last season.

“It sounds like he (Freel) is the type of guy I want,” Lyle told MyCentralJersey.com. Freel, 34, was a multi-position player who averaged 113 games for Cincinnati from 2004-07 but was limited to 89 major league games total the last two years because of a variety of injuries.

“I enjoy playing the game,” Freel told writer Ryan Dunleavy. “It’s not the situation (Atlantic League) that I really wanted to be in, but I’m going to make the best of it.  I’m not going to go out there and Cadillac it.”  Freel said he won’t play cautiously for fear of further injuries, either.  “I don’t plan on changing who I am,” he added.

Major League Camp ‘A Really Nice Experience’

Pete Parise’s ascent from starting in Independent Baseball a mere three years ago to closing for Triple-A Memphis late last season to his first major league spring training invitation (St. Louis) was pretty rapid.  And even though the 25-year-old Bronx-born right-hander, who first donned a professional uniform at Slippery Rock, PA (Frontier League), did not show a mastery of big league hitters with the Cardinals, his spirit seems far from broken.

“It was a little bit nerve-racking at first, but once you’re a little bit comfortable and see what they’re about and get into a routine, it was a really nice experience,” Parise told The Memphis Commercial Appeal when he returned to that city for another Pacific Coast League season.  “It’s where you want to be.  I enjoyed it a lot.”