Rep. Trahan Launches Save Minor League Baseball Task Force

LOWELL, MA — U.S. Rep Lori Trahan and her colleagues ramped up their effort to save the Lowell Spinners and over 40 other minor league baseball teams around the country, Tuesday. Last month, Trahan and colleagues sent a bipartisan letter to Major League Baseball, calling on them to abandon a plan to cut off the teams from their Major League affiliations — likely, a death sentence. Tuesday night, they announced the creation of a bipartisan "Save Minor League Baseball Task Force."

Trahan, a Massachusetts Democrat, was joined by West Virginia Republica David McKinley, New York Democrat Max Rose (D-NY) and Idaho Republican Mike Simpson. All represent districts with teams in the league's sights: the Spinners, the West Virginia Power, the Staten Island Yankees and the Idaho Falls Chukars. Most of the teams the league is looking to cut are lower level teams; the spinners are single A, short-season affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.

For the inaugural meeting, the congresspeople were joined by the Minor League Baseball President Pat O’Conner and several Minor League team owners.

"The Save Minor League Baseball Task Force will advocate on behalf of the communities that stand to be most harmed by MLB’s plan to eliminate 42 minor league franchises," Trahan's office said in a press release. "They will closely monitor ongoing negotiations between MLB and MiLB as well as discuss potential legislative action if and when such a remedy becomes necessary."

“Together along with our colleagues we will make perfectly clear that Congress is ready to defend our communities, which stand to lose out in MLB’s proposal to slash the number of Minor League teams. The Lowell Spinners and other minor league teams across the United States provide critical economic and cultural benefits to the communities they call home, and Congress must have a voice in this conversation,” Trahan said in a statement.

The Spinners have been in Lowell since 1996, and have seen future Red Sox World Series champions like Jonathan Papelbon, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Mookie Betts, who won the American League's 2018 Most Valuable Player award. From 1999 to August 30, 2010, the team sold out every ticket to every home game, believed to be a record. Other teams on the chopping block include those in states with no major league teams at all, like the West Virginia Power, the Billings Mustangs, in Montana, and the Kingsport Mets, in Tennessee. Some have a very lengthy history, like the Chattanooga Lookouts, which are over 100 years old.

MLB proposed to put the teams into a "Dream League," essentially an independent league for non-drafted players looking for their break.

"Baseball is America’s pastime, and minor league teams have a major impact on small communities across our country,” McKinley said. “While we understand the MLB has concerns: the idea that doing away with 42 teams is the only solution is not reasonable. We look forward to working with MiLB and MLB to find a compromise that will preserve affiliated baseball in these cities.”

“Major League Baseball can look at all the ‘sabermetrics’ it wants, but what they don’t understand is the serious impact that losing these baseball teams will have on our communities,” Rose said. “You won’t see it in any formula, but my colleagues and I have all seen the impact teams like the Staten Island Yankees can have on the faces of the children who show up at the ballpark every year. I’m proud to join this effort to urge the MLB to reconsider.”

“Baseball is America’s pastime and that pastime should not be exclusive to a select number of cities. Minor league baseball is at the heart of many small and rural cities in our country. To deprive those communities of baseball would not only deny them access to our national heritage, but it would also harm local economies that depend on minor league baseball organizations. I am proud to join my colleagues in starting this task force to ensure baseball stays vibrant in communities like Idaho Falls and Boise,” said Congressman Simpson.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or [email protected].