Brian Ross
Senior Editor
Minor League News

Where Do the Minor Leagues Play?

From tiny towns with parades and peach queens to the Big Apple, you can find minor league sports being played throughout the fifty United States, Canada, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela. Even Japan has decided to add a developmental system to its major league baseball program.

For the most current listing of all teams in all sports, see the MLN Travel Section .

The shift of population into smaller metro markets like Durham, Memphis and Austin, particularly in the sunbelt, has caused an explosion of minor league professional sports. People from large cities moving to these areas for quality of life expect that live professional sports are part of that standard.

In major markets, skyrocketing prices of everything from tickets to trinkets in the major leagues has caused the minor leagues' reach into the outlying suburbs of cities like Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. People who want to see 'the sport,' sit closer to the action, or see a few games for the cost of one, come out to minor league teams in the 'burbs.

A lot of people in major cities have the notion that the minors are the dusty run down facilities of movies like "Bull Durham."

Largely gone are the dumpy practice fields and dank arenas dressed up to seat a few die-hards. New stadiums and arenas spring up every year. Bright, clean, shiny new facilities with food choices for the whole family, sky boxes, and everything from pools to play areas are the order of the day.

Some minor league teams play in the major league facilities of other sports. Others play in mixed use facilities. A growing number operate in dedicated facilities built by the local communities.

The quality of the place that you go to watch a game is usually related to the community's drawing power and the quality of the team that takes the field.

Memphis, which has major league sports, boasts the best minor league baseball park in the country. Home of the AAA (See What is AAA? AA?) Memphis Redbirds, an affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. The experience compares favorably to many major league parks that you'll visit.

Bossier-Shreveport, home of the multi-championship Mudbugs of the Central Hockey League is a top-flight arena built in a local gambling and entertainment mecca.

Go to Billings, Montana, and check out the Mustangs, and you will find more humble digs.

Travel in and around the minor leagues has been on the rise for the last ten years. Why go to Altoona or Rockford to catch a game?

The minor league parks are more intimate. As much as people get a rush out catching a Vick pass or a Bonds bomb, there is something refreshing about watching people who make a fraction of Barry's balm and salve bill go and play all-out for a shot at the big leagues, or just to play for the excellence of whatever level they can achieve.

There are still those places with 'character.' The Austin Ice Bats played in a converted barn for many years. The venerable Waconah park, where the setting sun obliterates the game for half an hour, is pressed into use from time to time.

The facilities are reflective of the towns and their times, and are very much rooted in the culture of their communities.

If you live there, you go because it's close. If you travel, though, you come to experience the flavor of the place. The ghosts of the greats haunt Legends Field in Tampa, home of the Florida State League Tampa Yankees (T-Yanks); The Chicago Wolves put on a Better-than-Blackhawks show in the suburbs; the Dell Diamond in Austin, the house of Nolan and the Ryan Brothers rocks nightly to the bats of the RoundRock Express.

The minor leagues will deliver what Field of Dreams promised. It's that feeling of renewal, a return to the game, whatever game you like, away from the bail bonds, brawls, and highlight reels. You will remember a player not because you had his slam dunk drilled into your brain three times nightly on SportsCenter, but because you were there, it was in your face, and it was fun.

He may be nobody to the pundits at Football Weekly, but he's somebody to you because he impressed you when you watched him kick it up a notch.

The minors are the real deal: Sports as it has been played PTVE (Pre Television Era) for centuries.

In your face. In your back yard. Live.

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