Minor League Baseball...the real deal?

[coach tom]

Hello "Froggy", figured since you were nice enough to visit us during our Aussie Open, I would return the favor.

There are minor league teams popping up all over the place. Here in the NY/NJ metro area we are getting two new ones this year. The Lakewood Blue Claws will be starting their inaugural season this spring. Cool, because the stadium is 10 minutes from my house, and I have season tickets (that didn't cost me a fortune). Brooklyn finally gets a baseball team after 50 years with the Cyclones (Howard Johnson, ex Met, manager). I also have season tickets to the Trenton Thunder.

The quality of baseball is certainly not the same as the majors, but the question I have is, do you feel that the real essence of baseball can be seen and experienced better watching minor league ball or is minor league ball just a poor man's baseball "corvette"?

[Wedge231]

I like Minor League ball better. You see potential stars rising through the farms and see guys really trying to make it to the big leagues. The atmosphere is alot more friendly and more fun to watch I believe. This is just my opninion.

[lmanchur.]

I've seen one MLB game (in 1996 at SkyDome in Toronto... Blue Jays vs. Angels) and two Northern League games (in 1999 & 2000 at CanWest Global Park... forget the opponents the Winnipeg Goldeyes faced).

I would assume that the Northern League isn't well-known, but Winnipeg, I believe, is its only Canadian-based team, with many other teams (10 or 15 or so) in the northern States.

Most definitley, it is more fan-friendly. The new ball park is AMAZING (if you've ever been to Walt Disneys World's Wide World of Sports complex, it's exactly like their b-ball stadium), and it's considered the best stadium in the entire league.

I wasn't particularly a baseball fan in '96 when I saw a pro-game and, especially since it was a hot and humid day, I didn't really enjoy myself that much, but I really do enjoy watching the Winnipeg Goldeyes in the Northern League once a year when I do go, although the quality of play is definitly not as high as Major League Baseball.

IMO, the pro level in ANY sport is always the best and most intense of them all.

[iFroggy]

Hey Tom :)

Well, I believe that you can see a lot of the upcoming young stars in the Minors and the majority of these guys will not make it to the minors ever, so with the younger players in the minors, there is that drive in some of them that is refreshing to watch, if you will.

[Marc]

Good topic. I see two sides to this. One, the minor leagues are filled with less greed and selfishness and up-and-coming stars, but then again, you're not on "the big stage" with the best players in the world, which you see in MLB.