‘Excited’ Amarillo Adds to American Association

The American Association has expanded from 10 to 14 teams this offseason so it’s only natural that a giant share of the attention has been on the four franchises moving from the long-established Northern League. Still, some of the greatest excitement is being generated in Amarillo, TX, which also is new to this mushrooming league.

Amarillo, a market of about 175,000 in northwestern Texas, has a long history in professional baseball and has been a regular almost continually in the Independent leagues since Year 2 of the resurgence back in 1994.  But the newly-named Sox will have the city’s highest profile, at least since the Texas League days ended (1982).  The struggles to maintain any stable league affiliation have been such in recent times that General Manager Mark Lee sighed recently “it seemed like every winter there was uncertainty”.

Yet, once the season started the fans turned out, last season’s count was 139,790, an average of 2,912, which easily led the United League and was well into the top half of all Independent teams.

“The town is excited”, said Lee, the onetime major league pitcher, who spent a couple of decades in the insurance world before taking on the GM duties in 2006.  After this year’s squabbles for residency between the United League and new owner Scott Berry, Lee and Assistant General Manager Ben Miller were able to get the business office running by December 1 (two months earlier than the previous season), and “we’ve actually caught up” Lee said.

“This jump to the American Association is a big jump,” Lee offered.  “I think the caliber of baseball will be much better.”

Kirk and Company Could Unseat Affiliated Team in Frederick, MD

While Peter Kirk’s effort to jump-start a Southwestern Division for the Atlantic League still is a one-city venture (Sugar Land, TX) as far as we know, the successful multi-team owner and real estate lawyer Jack Lavoie are digging into a highly intriguing situation in Frederick, MD.

It appears Frederick Mayor Randy McClement is within a month and a half of opening the door via a request for proposal which could allow Kirk and Lavoie to put in a long-term community-favorable bid to place an Atlantic League team where Baltimore has had an affiliated Carolina League franchise since 1989.  An Independent league trying for a foothold where Major League Baseball has a farm club?  Very interesting!

The Frederick Keys, who are up for sale, have been working with one-year leases that are on the inexpensive side, and the current lease only runs for six months.  Lavoie is “really intrigued with the Atlantic League model”, and says he and Kirk have already had meetings with community, civic and business leaders in their hopes to “re-build” a strong community-oriented organization.

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Indy Hurlers Start Strong in Caribbean Series

The Caribbean Series, often a pre-spring training showcase for players, started off Wednesday with Mexico outlasting the Dominican Republic 4-3 in 15 innings, after starting as a mound duel between two top-notch southpaw graduates of the Independent leagues.

Raul Valdes and Alberto Castillo allowed only one earned run in a combined 12 innings.  Valdes, the Cuban escapee who went on to pitch in the Can-Am League (New Jersey Jackals and Nashua, NH) and is due in the St. Louis Cardinals camp as a non-roster invitee in two weeks, gave up just three hits and one earned run (two overall) in 6.1 innings for the Dominican team.  Castillo, recently re-signed by Baltimore and likely headed to the Birds’ major league camp although they have not announced their full non-roster contingent, was not charged with any earned runs (three runs total) in the first 5.2 innings for Mexico.  Castillo has spent time with three Atlantic League teams (Newark and Camden, NJ and the traveling Road Warriors) as well as Schaumburg, IL when it was in the Northern League.

Seth Etherton, who once toiled for Long Beach, CA in the Golden League and played in the Los Angeles Dodgers system last season but is believed to be a free agent, was the winner in the other first-day game, allowing just three hits and two runs in six innings as Venezuela bested Puerto Rico, 5-3.

(This is an excerpt from the column Bob Wirz writes year round on Independent Baseball.  Fans may subscribe at www.WirzandAssociates.com, enjoy his blogs, www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com and www.IndyBaseballChatter.com, or comment to RWirz@aol.com.  The author has 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as spokesman for two Commissioners and lives in Stratford, CT.)