MWL Midwest League

Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
Published on May 2, 2022 under Midwest League (MWL)


BASEBALL

Midwest League: Minor League Baseball will sponsor a game between two High-A Midwest League teams on August 9, 2022 at the Field of Dreams located in Dyersville (IA). The Iowa-based Quad Cities River Bandits (Davenport) will play as the Davenport Blue Sox and the Cedar Rapids Kernels will play as the Cedar Rapids Bunnies to pay tribute to the two former minor league teams in their cities.

American Association: The Cleburne (TX) Railroaders of the American Association announced the team will play as the Lone Star Railroaders on Sunday home games during the 2022 season to reflect the club's status as the number one independent baseball team in Texas.

International League: The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (Allentown, PA) of the Triple-A International League will play a game in August of the 2022 season as the Lehigh Valley Scrapple, as a tribute to a regional delicacy that is a combination of pork scraps left from pig processing.

Liga Norte de Mexico: After cancelling its 2020 and 2021 seasons due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), Mexico's minor league LNM (Northern Mexico League) started its 2022 season this weekend with seven teams. Of the seven teams announced last year for the 2022 season, the Vaqueros de Comondu (Baja California Sur) and Rojos de Caborca (Laguna, Yucatan) were replaced by the Bucaneros de Los Cabos (Baja California Sur) and Tiburones de Puerto Penasco (Sonora).

Major League Baseball: The group trying to bring a relocated MLB team or an MLB expansion team to Nashville as the Nashville Stars is still seeking investors to move forward. The Oakland A's have expressed interest in a site on the Las Vegas Strip for a possible new ballpark that could become home to the relocated team. Proposed plans for a new ballpark in Oakland have faced local opposition.

BASKETBALL

American Basketball Association: The semi-pro ABA announced a team called the South Atlanta Crows has been added as a 2022-23 expansion team for the league's Southeast Division.

Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional-Femenil: Mexico's LNBP-Femenil (Women's National Professional Basketball League), which is affiliated with the men's top-level LNBP, started its 2022 season last weekend with eight teams aligned in a four-team Zona Norte (North Division) and a four-team Zona Sur (South Division). The 2022 regular season runs until mid-June 2022.

National Basketball League - United States: The semi-pro NBL-US, which bills itself as ‚¬Å“The Exposure League ‚¬Â, is finishing up its six-team 2022 Winter Season this weekend and announced its 2022 Summer Season will start on July 4. The league recently announced a team called the New Orleans Spirit has been added for the 2022-23 seasons.

Professional Basketball Association: The semi-pro PBA recently announced two new teams called the Base Hill Bullies (Orting, WA) and the Young Yellowjackets (Maryville, TN) for the 2022 season. The PBA plans to start its second season later this month and also plans to add a women's league called the Ladies Professional Basketball Association.

FOOTBALL

American West Football Conference: The AWFC's Idaho Horsemen played a home game this weekend in Nampa against the Las Vegas Kings, a member of this season's new American Indoor Football Alliance. Back in December 2021, the AWFC announced it would have six teams that would play some crossover games this season with the AIFA. Since then, the AWFC lost the Yakima (WA) Canines and the So Cal Redtails (City of Industry, CA) for the 2022 season. So far, only this one AWFC-AIFA game is on the AWFC schedule. The AIFA has played only two regular-season games, but has yet to post a complete 2022 season schedule.

Champions Indoor Football: The CIF league announced a 2023 expansion team will be added in Mesquite (TX), which is just east of Dallas. The CIF had a previous Mesquite team called the Mesquite Marshals for the 2016 season and it was renamed the Dallas Marshals (still in Mesquite) for the 2017 season. The team moved to Dallas for the 2018 season, but folded during the season. A team called the Mesquite Bandits failed in an attempt to join the former indoor Lone Star Football League for the 2012 season and a briefly proposed indoor football team called the Mesquite Ghostriders failed to join an indoor league for the 2013 season.

HOCKEY

Federal Prospects Hockey League: A new team called the Elmira (NY) Mammoth announced this week that it will be part of the FPHL starting with 2022-23 season. A former team called the Elmira Enforcers played three seasons (2018-21) in the FPHL, but could obtain an arena lease and dropped out this season. A team called the Elmira Jackals played seven seasons (2000-07) in the former United Hockey League and ten seasons (2000-17) in the ECHL. The FPHL recently completed its 2021-22 regular season with seven teams and is also planning to add the new Biloxi-based Mississippi Sea Wolves team for next season.

SOCCER

National Women's Soccer League: After starting the 2022 season with its Challenge Cup tournament, which featured each team playing six games and the teams aligned in four-team East, Central and West divisions, the 12-team professional NWSL started its 2022 regular-season this week with all teams aligned in a single-table format. Each team will play a 22-game regular-season schedule through October 2, 2022. The NWSL is holding the Challenge Cup semi-finals and finals next week. The NWSL operated with ten teams last season and added expansion teams called the Angel City FC (Los Angeles) and the San Diego Wave FC for the 2022 season. The NWSL team known last season as the Kansas City NWSL changed its name to the Kansas City Current for this season.

United Women's Soccer: In the pro-am UWS, the RBFC (Riverside/Brookfield, IL) club has taken over the league's Indiana Elite FC (Crown Point), which was part of the 2021 UWS season. The team has been renamed the RBFC Elite and will play in the league's five-team Midwest Division for the 2022 season.

OTHER

American Ultimate Disc League: The professional AUDL started its 2022 season this weekend with 25 teams aligned in a seven-team East Division, a six-team Central Division, a five-team South Division and a seven-team West Division. The 2022 regular season runs through July. The AUDL added three expansion teams called the Colorado Summit (Denver), Salt Lake Shred (Utah) and Portland (OR) Nitro for the 2022 season. The AUDL had a previous team called the Salt Lake Lions that played in only the 2014 season. An ultimate team called the Portland Stags played in all four seasons (2013-16) of the former Major League Ultimate. Also, the AUDL's Dallas Roughnecks were renamed the Dallas Region; the San Jose Spiders were renamed the Oakland Spiders; and the Raleigh Flyers were renamed the Carolina Flyers in the off-season. In the AUDL alignment, the three expansion teams were added to the West Division with Dallas and Austin moving back to the reestablished South Division, which includes Tampa, Atlanta and Carolina from the former Atlantic Division. Pittsburgh returned to the Central Division from the former Atlantic Division. The AUDL's three Canadian teams, which were grouped in one division last season due to coronavirus (COVID-19) travel restrictions, returned to the reestablished East Division.

National Lacrosse League: The indoor (box lacrosse) NLL's Las Vegas expansion team announced it will be called the Las Vegas Desert Dogs when it starts play in the 2022-23 season. The Desert Dogs will be the league's 15th team.

Dan Krieger is the creator of the Weekly Sports League & Franchise Report, which has been tracking changes in the sports world's leagues, teams and nicknames since April 2007.

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Midwest League Stories from May 2, 2022


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