There was a story breaking over the weekend, and if you follow baseball it is pretty huge. It also could have repercussions with our local team.

Maybe Sanford’s idea to get into the minor league baseball business isn’t such a major stretch?

A SouthDaCola foot soldier sent me the breaking news with links to stories, and their speculation on the deal;

Interesting developments on the horizon for affiliated baseball will be even more interesting to see the impact on independent baseball, the American Association (league in which Canaries play), the Sioux Falls Canaries franchise and the future of the Bird Cage (or other baseball stadium in Sioux Falls). 

Saw this in the Pioneer Press: 

In a massive proposed restructure of minor league affiliated baseball (and a proposed action seemingly unsolicited by the St. Paul Saints?), Major League Baseball might propose to bring the St. Paul Saints into status as a team affiliated with a major league team.

Found some other articles defining the big picture of this:

The McNews (USA Today) version:

From Baseball America:

From the Baseball America article, a good summary: “At the core of the negotiations, MLB is looking to dramatically improve Minor League Baseball’s stadium facilities as well as take control over how the minor leagues are organized as far as affiliations and the geography of leagues. Those areas have been under the control of MiLB for the past 100-plus years and would lead to a dramatic restructuring of how MiLB is governed and operates.”

  • Why St. Paul and Sugar Land independent league teams?  Speculation: St. Paul is one of the more successful and financially stable franchises in the American Association.  To poach them from independent baseball would destabilize the American Association.  No knowledge about the Sugar Land TX franchise, but doubtful that MLB is looking to bring a “weak sister” franchise into the fold of a consolidated model of affiliated minor league baseball.  
  • Up to 42 less teams in affiliated baseball.  Effect could be that those communities which are spurned by MLB might try to cling to a baseball identity by hosting independent league teams.  More independent league teams?  But someone still needs to be an owner for each of these teams.  See also Dream League below.
  • Each team will be limited to 150-200 players under contract.  As an example, the Yankees might have to drop 85-135 players the result of this proposal.  The pool of players who might be interested/available to independent league teams will expand.  The role independent baseball in development and advancement of players could become more important.  Or could fade completely away.  See Dream League below.
  • Formation of a “Dream League”. MLB draft to be reduced to 20-25 rounds (fewer players selected).  Undrafted players could join the Dream League (or an independent league team, such as the Canaries) in order to get noticed.  From Baseball America: “The Dream League would be a joint MLB-MiLB venture, but in essence, it would be a quasi-independent league where the clubs would field teams of undrafted players.”   IMO, this is a move by MLB to take up the space currently occupied by independent baseball leagues.  A real threat to a franchise like the Canaries.
  • Major League Baseball to exact higher minimum standards for facilities and other elements of minor league affiliated baseball.  I can actually see how this could play to the favor of baseball in Sioux Falls (and specifically emergence of minor league affiliated baseball) – health conglomerate which spends freely for sports and entertainment facilities (sports training and sport viewing facilities; golf entertainment facility; restaurant); CEO of health conglomerate who is a wanna-be sports franchise GM and relishes involvement in the money deals of sports (e.g. paying college teams hundreds of thousands of dollars to give up ‘Home game dates’ to come to play a game in your palace) and a municipality which may have an appetite to participate in building a baseball facility.  The kind of big money game which MLB is mandating is right up the power alley for said healthcare CEO and free-spending Mayor PTH.

Are there some journalists in this community that are so out of touch with reality that they just propose anything based on nothing and hope for results;

But the Sioux Falls sports and entertainment scene didn’t get to where it is by settling for a modest status quo. The Premier Center, Pentagon, Kirkeby-Over Stadium, even Howard Wood Field – those are among the best venues in the country for their size and level of competition.

It’s time for baseball to join the party.

While I will confess I don’t follow sports (local, college, Olympic or professional, none of the above) I do know one thing, spending taxpayer money on a new baseball stadium in Sioux Falls is not only a bad idea, it will never pass the smell test. I encourage all those who think it is a good idea to start a petition drive for a bond initiative and watch as it gets voted down 2-1.

Before you start calling me a Negative Nancy, I will first say as a Positive Pete, that I think it is a good thing the old guy PGA tour is coming to Sioux Falls, and it certainly WON’T have a negative affect on our economy. In fact, it will draw publicity to the city for sporting events, and I am sure some deals will be cut between our mucky-muck. I get it.

But all this fanfare like this is the greatest thing since sliced bread is laughable.

I could go on and on about our crime rate increases, our lack of affordable housing, good jobs and a slowing economy and sales tax revenue. The PGA tour doesn’t fix any of these problems, and that is kind of my point.

We often like to sit around and try to act like a sporting event coming to town is some kind of game changer. As I said to someone, “Looks like a bunch of old rich Sioux Falls people watching a bunch of old rich golfers play golf.”

So Denny opened his wallet. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. But will it have an effect on the 99.9% of hardworking Sioux Falls residents? Probably not. But I sure like Arnold Palmers.

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Kelly Hepler (Left) possibly thanking someone for a lobbying gift

Had to chuckle, shake my head, and let out a long sigh when I saw this story about our new director the other day;

Hepler, who has worked with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game since 1979, was among several public officials in Alaska accused in August of not reporting gifts from a lobbying organization known as the Kenai River Sportfishing Association, . . .
While he was let off on a technicality, it is still unknown what exactly he received as a gift. He is probably pretty happy about the fact that in SD, with our extremely closed state government, he won’t have to worry about getting busted for that kind of activity here. Accept as many gifts as you want, we will never know.