January 2005 Cover - FAB50™ Hockey

Goaltender Kari Lehtonen of the AHL Chicago Wolves graced our first cover of the year 2005 as the No. 1 pick in the MLN FAB50 Hockey 2005.

The Fifth Anniversary seal graced our new covers along with the new single-swoosh MLN Sports Logo.

The FAB50 Hockey 2005 article also was the debut of our new broadband-ready articles with large format photos and artwork.

February 2005 - Blueprint for the New NHL?

With the NHL threatening to continue its player lockout seemingly until the sun burned out, we mused over the idea of leveraging the strengths of minor league hockey to rebuild major league hockey with a mix of local and super-regional teams. Thus our Blueprint cover was born.

The AHL All Star Classic is also featured in the February issue, and made its appearance on the cover in a right-corner sneak.

March 2005 - Are The Players in Charge of the Circus?

Of Commissioner Bud Selig's few great achievements, the minor league drug testing policy may be his one legacy. Fair, tough, and disciplined, it's was rejected outright by the MLB Players Association. After the steroids debacle on Capitol Hill, the owners and players developed a new "get tough" policy which was still watered down. We compared the double-standard for minor and major league players, and gave fans a real take on what the sham that was the MLB major league drug testing policy.

April - The NBDL Expands

Switching commissioners and legacies, David Stern of the NBA moved his great experiment, the NBDL, the NBA's development league, another step forward by working with the NBA Players Association to make the newly renamed D-League a part of the fabric of major league basketball. Even though Stern went on the record as saying that he didn't care whether the league made money or not, the NBA made moves to find private owners and expand into sunbelt growth markets like Austin, Fort Worth and Albuquerque.

May 2005 - Open Source Sports Directory and Juan Diaz' Cuban Odyssey

In May we made the debut of the Open Source Sports Directory, the first comprensive biographies on all professional minor league and independent athletes from 1900 to the present. We did a feature on Juan Diaz, a player whose promise had seemingly slipped through some quirks in the immigration laws of a post-911 world. We also featured Butch Hobson, Red Sox legend and skipper of the Nashua pride, whose choice to replace himself was... himself!

June 2005 - La Famiglia

We covered all rounds of the Major League Baseball draft in June with a celebration of the No.1 pick, Justin Upton, whose brother BJ was our No. 1 in the FAB50 2004 Baseball and the No. 3 in our 2005 FAB50 edition.

July 2005 Cover - AAA All Star Game

The Triple-A (AAA) All Star game is the acme of all-star classics in the minors. The 2005 edition was hosted in Sacramento, California, arguably the most well attended minor league baseball park in the country. We did extensive coverage, from the home run derby to the game itself, with a full story on the side-show and hoopla that make up an all-star love fest.

August 2005 - FAB50™ 2005 Baseball

Who was the No. 1 pick in Minor League and Independent Baseball? This year Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners organization, a pitcher making a huge impression on everyone in the Pacific Coast League, but lesser known to the powers-that-be in the East, was our top pick. Our cover teaser was actually picked up by a few Tacoma Rainiers fans who identified Felix from the arm motion in the silhouette.

September 2005 - We Are The Champions

As the major league pennant race heats up, the minor league season explodes in a burst of early Fall championships, that often get a little weird as the major league clubs call-up players and strip championship teams of the guys that got them there. The Spokane Indians of the Class A Northwest League were featured on our cover for September.

October/November 2005 - Canadians of the Desert

Hurricane Wilma sent our schedule crashing along with our offices in South Florida, giving the MLN Minor League Business of the Year for 2005 a little more time to grace our digital cover.

We celebrated the Central Hockey League and its parent company Global Entertainment, for putting together a new business model for the minors that brings financial success to teams without having to have direct affiliation with major league clubs.

December 2005 - Playing in Providence

In December we told you the story of Jordan Sigalet, goaltender for the Bruins who understands the meaning of the word 'providence' as he fights off fast-scoring forwards while waging a personal battle against Multiple Sclerosis.