Silver Sox Fan
07-27-2007, 01:54 AM
Hey, guys. I posted this in the GBL forum since that is the area I am in but I'd love your feedback on these ideas since you are the newest independent baseball league. What keeps you guys coming back for more and supporting your team?
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I started reading this book I read about on the nlfan website about the Northern League. It is called Wild and Outside by Fatsis.
Anyway, some coments from the introduction really resonated with me as to why I like the Silver Sox so much over my experiences with affilated ball. Don't get me wrong--I love baseball in every form and I would love to see guys I know on the field (rehab assignments, etc) but I think indy teams have the potential to be so much more a part of their community than an affiliated team and so much more personal than an MLB team.
"The players have been liberated from the relentless scrutiny of front offices concerned only with developing major league talent not with winning baseball games."
"The league involves a loyalty that has vanished from a game in which major leaguers change uniforms and organizations shuffle minor league affiliates annually...Northern League teams--and their players--belong to cities themselves, not to some far off parent."
"Emotion sets the league apart. Players and managers need to win, because winning is the only guaranteed reward. Unlike farm club operators handed a roster a few days before the season, Northern League owners scout, sign, and pay players selling the contracts of the best ones back to big league organizations"
"Its founders wanted to pump fresh air into an institution suffocated by rulers ever more distant from the game on the field. In the minors you frequently hear how...owners have taken the fun out of the game by focusing exclusively on the bottom line. But resurrecting the spirit of baseball is no easy task. Citizens have to be willing to sacrifice money, time, and energy. Clubs need to field a credible product. And players have to trust that joining an untested , somewhat outlaw venture will help their careers."
Wow, that is it for me. Baseball decisions made for baseball reasons without other motives (i.e. pitching a prospect only so many innings, arranging line ups to give guys reps, etc).
I would love it if the GBL leadership would put out an "open letter the fans" signed by all owners and GMs with comments similar to the above and pass them out all over town, reiterate them at Rotary meetings and the like, and generally enforce to everyone that they want to be part of the community. We've read some of this in interviews with Mr. Kaval and Patel. But a one pager that reinforces that and is handed out in booths at local fairs or conventions or maybe in the program would be really neat. The Arena Football team has a contract with the fans on what they can expect at the ballpark. Maybe this is something the GBL can take advantage of too!
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I started reading this book I read about on the nlfan website about the Northern League. It is called Wild and Outside by Fatsis.
Anyway, some coments from the introduction really resonated with me as to why I like the Silver Sox so much over my experiences with affilated ball. Don't get me wrong--I love baseball in every form and I would love to see guys I know on the field (rehab assignments, etc) but I think indy teams have the potential to be so much more a part of their community than an affiliated team and so much more personal than an MLB team.
"The players have been liberated from the relentless scrutiny of front offices concerned only with developing major league talent not with winning baseball games."
"The league involves a loyalty that has vanished from a game in which major leaguers change uniforms and organizations shuffle minor league affiliates annually...Northern League teams--and their players--belong to cities themselves, not to some far off parent."
"Emotion sets the league apart. Players and managers need to win, because winning is the only guaranteed reward. Unlike farm club operators handed a roster a few days before the season, Northern League owners scout, sign, and pay players selling the contracts of the best ones back to big league organizations"
"Its founders wanted to pump fresh air into an institution suffocated by rulers ever more distant from the game on the field. In the minors you frequently hear how...owners have taken the fun out of the game by focusing exclusively on the bottom line. But resurrecting the spirit of baseball is no easy task. Citizens have to be willing to sacrifice money, time, and energy. Clubs need to field a credible product. And players have to trust that joining an untested , somewhat outlaw venture will help their careers."
Wow, that is it for me. Baseball decisions made for baseball reasons without other motives (i.e. pitching a prospect only so many innings, arranging line ups to give guys reps, etc).
I would love it if the GBL leadership would put out an "open letter the fans" signed by all owners and GMs with comments similar to the above and pass them out all over town, reiterate them at Rotary meetings and the like, and generally enforce to everyone that they want to be part of the community. We've read some of this in interviews with Mr. Kaval and Patel. But a one pager that reinforces that and is handed out in booths at local fairs or conventions or maybe in the program would be really neat. The Arena Football team has a contract with the fans on what they can expect at the ballpark. Maybe this is something the GBL can take advantage of too!
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