Ballparks around the world: Petco Park

In Ballparks around the world, it is time to pay attention to the final venue of the 2017 World Baseball Classic: Petco Park in San Diego, home of the San Diego Padres. This modern ballpark is situated right next to the famous Gaslamp Quarter. The construction of the ballpark started in 2000 and the ballpark …

Wednesday, El Paso Diablos day

The El Paso Chihuahuas, AAA Pacific Coast League affiliate of the San Diego Padres will have a special themed Wednesday during the 2017 season. The team will look back to the past of El Paso baseball and wear jerseys in accordance with the themed night. The Chihuahuas will wear complete El Paso Diablos uniforms, referring …

51s celebrate 35th anniversary

The 51s landed in Las Vegas 35 years ago. To celebrate the feat, the club has revealed a special anniversary logo which refers to the current moniker but also the previous one. AAA baseball landed in Las Vegas in 1983 when the AAA Spokane Indians moved to the city of light and became the affiliate …

D-Backs leave Mobile and look for greener pastures in Jackson

The Arizona Diamondbacks have announced that they have left the Mobile BayBears to look for new AA partner in the Southern League. During the last decade, the team was linked to the Mobile BayBears, but after ten years the club has decided to sign a player development contract with the Jackson Generals, who were the AA affiliate …

More holy PDC news

The San Diego Padres have been pretty active with signing PDC extensions this week. Not only did they extend the deal with their A Full Season affiliate, the Fort Wayne TinCaps, they also signed a new extension with the Lake Elsinore Storm, one of the eight remaining teams in the California League in 2017. The …

Holy PDC extension

More PDC news today from San Diego. The Padres extended their player development contract with their A Full Season farm team, the Fort Wayne TinCaps. The two clubs extended their cooperation for two more years through the 2018 season. TinCaps president Mike Nutter  led off the praising with the following words: “We’re truly thrilled to …

Rangers and Indians extend PDC

The Texas Rangers and the Spokane Indians (A Short Season, Northwest League) have extended their player development contract with two more years through the 2018 season. The cooperation between the two clubs started in 2003. Since the two clubs became partners the Indians have won three Northwest League titles. One in the inaugural year of …

Trevor Hoffman to join UK WBC staff

And now for something completely different. This time no news about players from the Netherlands, Curacao or Aruba, nor about the Minor Leagues or the Yankees. With the World Baseball Classic Qualifier 4 (in Brooklyn NY) getting near rapidly, the Twitter account of the WBC (retweet) and the website of UK Baseball announced that former …

Southern California PDC news

Two Southern Californian MLB clubs have extended their Player Development Contract with one of their Minor League affiliates. Starting with the most Southern of the two, the San Diego Padres. The Friars have extended the PDC with their A Short Season team, the Tri-City Dust Devils. The cooperation between the two clubs began in 2015 and …

More affiliation news

The time of the year is approaching where MLB clubs extend their PDC's with their minor league affiliates or start to look around for new Minor League partners. The Dodgers did not wait for the season to end. Yesterday you could read here that they have extended their PDC's with their AAA and AA affiliates. …

More PDC extension news

The Chicago Cubs and the Eugene Emeralds (A Short Season, Northwest League) have extended their Player Development Contract with two years. Now the contract runs through the 2018 season. It is not the first time that the Cubs and the Emeralds joined forces. In the 1999 and 2000 seasons, both clubs teamed up as well. …

Chihuahuas go Padres throwback

The El Paso Chihuahuas,the AAA farm team of the San Diego Padres, the team with arguably one of the worst logos in Minor League Baseball (I know, I know, it's a matter of taste), have announced that the team will wear brown-yellow jerseys Padres throwback jerseys on May 7. Throwback because the Padres wore this …

Kalian Sams back in Quebec

Kalian Sams, who was released by his Mexican club earlier this month, will return to the Quebec Capitales of the independent CanAm League. The multiple champion of the CanAm League kept the door open as Sams signed with the Delfines de Ciudad del Carmen. Last season Sams was named most valuable player of the club …

Biscuits owner signs deal with SL rival

No, no, it is not as shocking as the head tells you. But the head of this blog post is true nevertheless. Tom Dickson, owner of the Montgomery Biscuits is also owner of PCL, a professional catering company specialized in catering and concessions at minor league ballparks. In this case PCL has struck a deal …

Minor League history: Dixie Association

The Dixie Association was a cooperation between the Southern League and the Texas League in 1971. As both leagues lost a team after the 1970 season, both leagues were left with an uneven number of teams. To overcome this problem the leagues decided to join forces and to have an interlocking schedule. The problems arose …

Kalian Sams finds new club in Mexico

Kalian Sams, outfielder of team Kingdom of the Netherlands will not return to the Quebec Capitales in the upcoming season. On the day of the press conference of team Netherlands in preparation on the Premier 12 tournament, he told me that he liked it in Quebec but that he was looking for something different. This …

My top ten MLB caps

About a year ago, I posted an article about my 10 favorite Minor League Caps. Since I have never posted something similar about MLB caps, I thought it would be time doing so. I will start this article with number 10 and count down to one. 10: Miami Marlins Road Cap I am not a …

Padres turn back the clock (sort of) with new unis

This is my kind of thing. Another rebranding. Perhaps only for one year, but I don't care. 🙂 For the fifth time since 1991, the Padres have changed uniforms. Yesterday they unveiled a set of new uniforms that they will wear in 2016. The new uniforms are a homage to the unis that the Padres …