Minor Openings

Today is minor-league opening day.

Stand up in your place of work, grab the nearest thing that resembles a bat, place it on your forward, lean over, and perform your own dizzy bat contest as a tribute to that event.

I just got my annual Baseball Almanac's Directory the other day. I love to sit down and asses the changes throughout orgaized ball and as well asin independent ball. With the popularity of minor-league ball in the last decade, possibly due to the labor strife and the attendant disaffection of the fanbase, a number of old-time baseball hotbeds which had subsequently lost their teams were experiencing a rebirth (replete with silly looking hats, gregarious mascots, and ludicrous nicknames). The Directory is the best source for independent and foreign leagues. It also correlates the changes within organized ball from the present to the previous year, which a lot of guides overlook. It's my extension of the incredible Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, which is a good six years out of date (even with a second edition).

Maybe if I have time tonight, I will go through the Directory and list the changes throughout the minors along with the history of the towns that have acquired a team.