New Minor League Baseball Affiliation Agreements

[Herk]

Is GB/Appleton really a bigger media market than Madison?? I'm not sure just asking.

About the realignment, it's about time the Brew Crew are back in Wisconsin. I understood why they abandoned Beloit but it really was a shame after they were there since the early 1980s.

[illwauk]

Suprisingly, yes.

Green Bay-Appleton is #70 and Madison is #85. The Madison market is pretty much just Madison, it's suburbs and a lot of boonies where Green Bay-Appleton has about 5-6 cities of at least 50,000 people.

[JH42XCC]

http://wgr550.com/An-Amazin--Partnership/3009266

The Bisons will be made over. The team will change its color scheme to coincide with the Mets blue and orange uniforms.

from the article.

Bisons in Blue and Orange? I don't think that will look good.

Bucknell disagrees.

Well with that said, I think I'm gonna do a Buffalo Bisons logo in Mets Colors request in the "Requests" forum.

[Gothamite]

Suprisingly, yes.

Green Bay-Appleton is #70 and Madison is #85. The Madison market is pretty much just Madison, it's suburbs and a lot of boonies where Green Bay-Appleton has about 5-6 cities of at least 50,000 people.

True enough - they add up.

Count me in as another who thinks this is a great move - develop a complete baseball culture in your region.

I really do wish that the Brewers would do something about the lack of quality baseball in Madison, though. I miss the Muskies. Heck, I miss the Hatters.

[TBGKon]

Suprisingly, yes.

Green Bay-Appleton is #70 and Madison is #85. The Madison market is pretty much just Madison, it's suburbs and a lot of boonies where Green Bay-Appleton has about 5-6 cities of at least 50,000 people.

True enough - they add up.

Count me in as another who thinks this is a great move - develop a complete baseball culture in your region.

I really do wish that the Brewers would do something about the lack of quality baseball in Madison, though. I miss the Muskies. Heck, I miss the Hatters.

Now I don't know the situation in Madison, but with the way Beloit is going (apparently down the tubes), is there a possibility that ownership can be found to place the Snappers in Madison?

[Lee.]

Suprisingly, yes.

Green Bay-Appleton is #70 and Madison is #85. The Madison market is pretty much just Madison, it's suburbs and a lot of boonies where Green Bay-Appleton has about 5-6 cities of at least 50,000 people.

True enough - they add up.

Count me in as another who thinks this is a great move - develop a complete baseball culture in your region.

I really do wish that the Brewers would do something about the lack of quality baseball in Madison, though. I miss the Muskies. Heck, I miss the Hatters.

Now I don't know the situation in Madison, but with the way Beloit is going (apparently down the tubes), is there a possibility that ownership can be found to place the Snappers in Madison?

The Northern League, I'm sure, would love to come back.

[Sec19Row53]

Suprisingly, yes.

Green Bay-Appleton is #70 and Madison is #85. The Madison market is pretty much just Madison, it's suburbs and a lot of boonies where Green Bay-Appleton has about 5-6 cities of at least 50,000 people.

True enough - they add up.

Count me in as another who thinks this is a great move - develop a complete baseball culture in your region.

I really do wish that the Brewers would do something about the lack of quality baseball in Madison, though. I miss the Muskies. Heck, I miss the Hatters.

Now I don't know the situation in Madison, but with the way Beloit is going (apparently down the tubes), is there a possibility that ownership can be found to place the Snappers in Madison?

The Northern League, I'm sure, would love to come back.

The Madison Mallards of the Northwoods League are there, and are doing quite well at the "Duck Pond" fka the "Fish Bowl".

[Gothamite]

I think the great support for the Mallards has shown that a city like Madison really ought to have professional baseball.

[Lee.]

I think the great support for the Mallards has shown that a city like Madison really ought to have professional baseball.

Or at least the next best thing, the Northern League

[Mac the Knife]

I think the great support for the Mallards has shown that a city like Madison really ought to have professional baseball.

Pittsburgh doesn't have it, why should Madison?

[illwauk]

Suprisingly, yes.

Green Bay-Appleton is #70 and Madison is #85. The Madison market is pretty much just Madison, it's suburbs and a lot of boonies where Green Bay-Appleton has about 5-6 cities of at least 50,000 people.

True enough - they add up.

Count me in as another who thinks this is a great move - develop a complete baseball culture in your region.

I really do wish that the Brewers would do something about the lack of quality baseball in Madison, though. I miss the Muskies. Heck, I miss the Hatters.

In my fantasy world, the Muskies are the Brewers Triple-A affiliate. If Des Moines can compete on that level, why not Madison?

At least the Brewers-Rattlers affiliation happened in real life. Although in my fantasy, someone also did the math and figured out how many pennants the club won as the Timber Rattlers (zero) compared to how many they won as the Appleton Foxes (8, the MWL record) and made the appropriate switch.

[Sodboy13]

The Snappers are on the verge of collapse? *looks at Snappy hat, lone tear rolls down cheek*

I've gotta say, even though Pohlmann Field may be just aluminum bleachers and a good-sized wooden deck, when I went there in '04, I saw an organization doing a lot with a little. 10 beers on tap and grills fired up all over - it was a good time.

Oh, for the days of the Wausau Timbers and Kenosha Twins...

[rams80]

The Snappers are on the verge of collapse? *looks at Snappy hat, lone tear rolls down cheek*

I've gotta say, even though Pohlmann Field may be just aluminum bleachers and a good-sized wooden deck, when I went there in '04, I saw an organization doing a lot with a little. 10 beers on tap and grills fired up all over - it was a good time.

Oh, for the days of the Wausau Timbers and Kenosha Twins...

Seriously. The Midwest League is more fun with the smaller towns in it. One of my more modest dreams (if I had the kind of needed disposable income) would be to spend a summer visiting all the Midwest League ballparks. It'd be fun...especially with the smaller towns.

[illwauk]

Snappy was my avatar for the majority of the first year I posted here. But for me, Beloit baseball died the moment their relationship with the Brewers ended. I really wish the Crew had done more to keep the affiliation and help the Snappers out (like paying out of pocket to upgrade the facilities) since at that point, Beloit was probably the only place outside of Greater Milwaukee that still gave a damn about the Brew Crew. Not to mention the incredible atmosphere that had been cultivated at Snappers games that MORE than made up for the lack of shiny new facilities. But this was during the Selig-Prieb regime and if they made a move that made sense, the universe probably would've collapsed on top of itself. Then once the Snappers admin announced that none of the sites they were looking at for the new ballpark were in Beloit, I gave up on hoping that the two clubs would reunite and started hoping for an affiliation with the Timber Rattlers.

Beloit will probably get a Northwoods League team once the Snappers fold just like every other Wisconsin city with an abandoned minor league park.

And I agree that the Midwest League is better with the small towns. I don't see why some of the teams in bigger cities (West Michigan, Fort Wayne, Dayton, etc.) don't go Double-A and leave the MWL to the Beloits and Battle Creeks of the region.

[Sodboy13]

One of my more modest dreams (if I had the kind of needed disposable income) would be to spend a summer visiting all the Midwest League ballparks. It'd be fun...especially with the smaller towns.

If you're willing to set your sights a little bit lower, you could do what I did back in '04: scan through the region's major, minor, and indy league schedules and plan yourself a road trip. I saw 7 games in 7 cities (Gary, Beloit, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Detroit, West Michigan, Joliet) in 5 days. Probably set me back all of 300 bucks, and was worth every penny. There's an amazing amount of lower-tier baseball here in the Midwest, and I recommend everyone experience as much of it as they can.

[TBGKon]

And I agree that the Midwest League is better with the small towns. I don't see why some of the teams in bigger cities (West Michigan, Fort Wayne, Dayton, etc.) don't go Double-A and leave the MWL to the Beloits and Battle Creeks of the region.

Problem lies in that there isn't really a higher league that shares the same region. Advanced A is California, Carolina, and Florida State and AA is Texas, Southern, and Eastern, with Eastern being the closest, but a stretch.

[illwauk]

Well, the Eastern League already has a team in Ohio and pretty much all of the bigger MWL cities are in Ohio or Michigan. In fact, I think I remember reading something awhile back that said Lansing built their ballpark as big as they did (10,000 seats) in anticipation of a jump to a higher level.

I never really understood why the Texas and Southern Leagues played on the same level. That's a lot of Double-A ball for pretty much the same part of the country.

[rams80]

Well, the Eastern League already has a team in Ohio and pretty much all of the bigger MWL cities are in Ohio or Michigan. In fact, I think I remember reading something awhile back that said Lansing built their ballpark as big as they did (10,000 seats) in anticipation of a jump to a higher level.

I never really understood why the Texas and Southern Leagues played on the same level. That's a lot of Double-A ball for pretty much the same part of the country.

Akron's an outlier already. In Northeast Ohio. IIRC there was some talk about the Tigers moving (Erie was it?) to the Detroit area and the league wasn't exactly thrilled with the additional travel miles.

[The_Admiral]

I wish there was some way to put a Double-A league together to serve the Midwest. You could get Madison or Beloit, Rockford, and Gary aligned with the Brewers, Cubs, and White Sox. Throw the Twins and Cardinals in there too.

[SymnSearveBam]

*spammer*