From the sidelines
By Marty Gordon
The recent decision to change the Appalachian League to a wooden-bat college league has me torn. The rookie league has been a big part of my life for a long, long time.
Growing up in Wytheville, there were the Pirates and then the Braves. My dad volunteered a lot of work in the teams’ fieldhouse, gaining us season tickets. Boy, that was great for a kid who would see many future major leaguers push through Withers Field. A short time later, the Braves would move to Pulaski where players like David Justice took to the field. This was common as many future professional players started in the lower classification.
Later, my oldest brother served on a committee that brought baseball back to Wytheville in the form of the Chicago Cubs. As a freshman at Radford University, I worked on the same field where I grew up watching minor leaguers. This was my first step in what would become a short career.
I worked part-time at several minor league parks before becoming the marketing director for the Pulaski Blue Jays. I later worked as the assistant general manager for the Pulaski Mariners. Stints also included the public address announcer for the Yankees in Calfee Park.
So I have seen my share of Appy games. That major league experience all changed this week. Gone are the Yankees. Gone are the Blue Jays in Bluefield. Gone are the Mets in Kingsport. Gone are the Cardinals in Johnson City.
I just don’t know if it will be the same. These summer games have helped the local economies here in Southwest Virginia, eastern Tennessee and southern West Virginia for a long, long time. This was definitely seen in Pulaski where factories closed and the downtown had become a ghost town.
A new ownership group dropped a lot of money in the park and in the community. Thank you. But now, this could come to a screeching halt. I hope not.
Minor league baseball officials say this change will keep baseball in the local communities. Yes, this is true. But it will never be the same.
A lot of this has to do with Major League Baseball, which had decided the rookie league no longer mattered to its development. Again, there have been plenty of great players that got their start here. I guess it comes down to money as MLB teams will cut their payroll and won’t have to pay players in the lower leagues.
Now, each MLB team will have only four affiliated minor league organizations. So, across the board, many communities are losing that connection.
I just don’t know if the Appy communities will attract large numbers of fans. In Pulaski, it will be very difficult to have large numbers of fans show up to watch freshmen and sophomore college baseball players.
We cannot blame COVID-19 for this one. MLB wanted to change the minor league baseball farm system, and it will never go back. Thanks, Appy, for the memories.
