A New League

Back in the heyday of minor league baseball ... you know ... the 1940s and 1950s ... before Major League Baseball expanded to the West and the South ... there were minor leagues everywhere. You could even find pro baseball being played in Moultrie, GA, Opelika, AL, and many other small cities across the U.S.

When the Major Leagues moved into California in the 1950s, and into Georgia in the 1960s, plus expanding in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, plus the impact of television and other technologies, it became harder and harder for teams to draw crowds. I've seen a report (I can't confirm it) that the Georgia-Florida League champ Thomasville Tigers drew about 120 a game in 1963.

What finally happened to all those baseball teams and baseball leagues folded when baseball reorganized the minor leagues to affiliate all the teams with Major League teams.

Oh, to be sure, there are still independent leagues, but by far, most of the teams are in affiliated leagues.

But not all leagues are affiliated.

While there aren't as many independent leagues as once existed, they're still there. Oh, not the original leagues or teams, to be sure. But they carry on the namesake of the teams and leagues of old.

The American Association, for instance, was contracted in the 1990s when Minor League Baseball decided to have only two Triple-A leagues: the Pacific Coast League and the International League. Well, a few years ago, a group brought back the American Association. Actually, they stated up a league and called it the American Association.

But that's not much different than the South Atlantic League deciding to take the name of the defunct Southern League. Or the Western Carolinas League deciding to take the name of the South Atlantic League. That kind of thing has happened a lot.

Still, there are independent leagues floating around all over the U.S.

Well, not all over. Not in the South.

But that's supposed to change next year.

There's a new independent league starting up play on May 1, 2007: the South Coast League. The new league just announced another franchise for its inaugural season: Bradenton, FL. That team will join Charlotte County,FL, Albany, GA, Macon, GA, and Aiken, SC and one other planned team.

Now, whether or not the teams or the league will succeed ... I don't know. I hope so. But I do wonder if there's enough people willing to go out and support a team.

In the South Atlantic League, for instance, Rome is the smallest Georgia city with a team, far smaller than Columbus, Savannah, and Augusta. But Rome leads all those cities in attendence.

So, you never know. I hope the new league makes it. More children need the opportunity to see pro baseball. Even it's it watching the Macon Music play the Albany Polecats.