With this takeover, Minor League Baseball has been streamlined. Leagues have been realigned, and affiliations with MLB teams redone so that a big club's farm teams are closer to them. But the big thing is that 43 formerly affiliated ballclub have been cast out of the safe arms of big league baseball. Well, some of them are going to be "partnered" up with MLB, but that's just bullshit. Minor league ballclubs are the cultural lifeblood of many of the American towns that now don't have a connection to The Big Show, and will no longer be able to say that the stars they see on TV striding up to the plate or tossing on the mound once gave them an autograph after they spent ten bucks watching them play while sitting on an outfield berm in the local ballpark. And while the cold efficiencies of "the market" and "player development" may make such a downsizing both inevitable and smart, there is something that definitively will be lost once these cities and teams head out to play in the uncertain future of unaffiliated baseball ... although in at least three instances, teams decided not to even find out: They committed suicide and shut down altogether.
To indulge my record-keeping heart, I will list The Fallen 43, first by level and then by league. This reorganization was bloody, folks, and as someone who was a part of MiLB for one summer, it breaks my heart.
Big hat tip to SportsLogos.Net, from whose page I borrowed heavily:
- Rookie
- Appalachian League (entire league; becomes a summer "partner league" with MLB for college freshmen and sophomores)
- Bluefield Blue Jays
- Bristol Pirates
- Burlington Royals
- Danville Braves
- Elizabethton Twins
- Greeneville Reds
- Johnson City Cardinals
- Kingsport Mets
- Princeton Rays
- Pulaski Yankees
- Pioneer League (entire league; becomes a "partner league" with MLB)
- Billings Mustangs
- Grand Junction Rockies
- Great Falls Voyagers
- Idaho Falls Chukars
- Missoula Osprey
- Ogden Raptors
- Orem Owlz
- Rocky Mountain Vibes
- Class A Short Season
- New York-Penn League
- Auburn Doubledays
- Batavia Muckdogs
- Connecticut Tigers
- Lowell Spinners
- Mahoning Valley Scrappers
- State College Spikes
- Staten Island Yankees
- Tri-City ValleyCats
- Vermont Lake Monsters
- West Virginia Black Bears
- Williamsport Crosscutters
- Northwest League
- Boise Hawks
- Salem-Keizer Volcanoes
- Class A (aka Low-A)
- Midwest League
- Burlington Bees
- Clinton LumberKings
- Kane County Cougars
- South Atlantic League
- Hagerstown Suns
- Lexington Legends
- West Virginia Power
- Class A Advanced (aka High-A)
- California League
- Lancaster JetHawks
- Carolina League
- Frederick Keys
- Florida State League
- Charlotte Stone Crabs
- Florida Fire Frogs
- Class AA
- Eastern League
- Trenton Thunder
- Southern League
- Jackson Generals
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