Font ResizeWhile all minor league teams affiliated with major league organizations train in Florida and Arizona in the spring, most independent organizations train in their home ballparks.
The Atlantic League took the unusual step of taking every team to Florida, where clubs trained in recent years at Tigertown -- the Detroit Tigers spring facility -- in Lakeland, Fla. But several teams began to experiment with the idea of training at home during the last few seasons.
Newark stayed in New Jersey in 2007, and it eventually won the league title later that year. And the Somerset Patriots did the same before their league title run in 2008 and 2009. And while the Revolution posted the worst record in the league after staying at home for the first time in 2009, the club managed to attract the largest spring training crowd in league history when 5,026 fans attended an exhibition game between York's top townball players and the Revolution.
Owners for the league's eight teams approved the move to remain at home for spring training at a meeting in Manhattan on Wednesday, Revolution owner Peter Kirk said.
"It's still only a one-year experiment," Kirk said. "We'll try it with the whole league this spring and see how
The Revolution managed to sign some of its top talent in Florida, in part because players living in Florida would work out for the club when it trained in Lakeland. Closer Franklin Nunez and reliever Travis Phelps worked out for the Revs, making short commutes from their homes in Florida. And both managed to earn invitations from major league organizations to attend spring training after playing for York.
"I think we were able to demonstrate in York and Lancaster -- and what Somerset seemed to know for years -- that there are enough reasons to stay at home," Revolution general manager Matt O'Brien said.
The league has also approved a measure to schedule select day-night doubleheaders, with the first game lasting seven innings and the second lasting nine. In recent years, day-night doubleheaders had always been nine-inning contests. Fans needed to purchase separate tickets for each game. But if doubleheaders were scheduled back-to-back, the league played two seven-inning contests and fans needed just one ticket to attend. Kirk said the move will only affect select doubleheaders pre-approved by the league.
"I've been preaching for 10 or 15 years now that major and minor league games are going too long," Kirk said. "Personally I've never complained about a game going too long, but for the casual fan it's too long."
A league schedule for 2010 has not been ratified, but league owners could approve the measure in the coming weeks via conference call.
O'Brien and Kirk mentioned that the Revolution plans to honor former York White Roses player/coach William "Bill" Kirk, who died Monday. Kirk was a Lancaster native and is not related to the Revs owner. A former big league pitcher, Kirk injured his throwing arm in his major league debut Sept. 23, 1961 with the Kansas City Athletics, and he never returned to the big leagues. But he remained involved with baseball for the rest of his life, working as a part-time scout. He also attended several Revolution games this summer.
He once pitched a no-hitter for the Lancaster Red Roses during his career in the minors. Scheduled to start the second game of a doubleheader, his manager decided to switch pitchers for the games at the last moment. Kirk recalled in recent years how his team carried him off the field right about the time his family arrived at the ballpark, since he had not had time to notify them that he would pitch in the first game. When the Revolution played their franchise home opener in 2007, Kirk was announced before the game with former White Roses Curly Holtzapple and Brooks Robinson.
"He was part of the history of baseball in York ,and we want to reference that," O'Brien said.
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