Current Atlantic League franchises 1 July 2013
Atlantic League of Professional Baseball[]
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For previous leagues named "Atlantic League", see Atlantic League (1896–1900) and Atlantic League (1914).
Current season, competition or edition:2023 Atlantic League season | |
Sport | Baseball |
---|---|
Founded | 1998 |
President | Rick White |
No. of teams | 10 |
Country | United States |
Most recent
champion(s) |
Lancaster Barnstormers (2022) |
Most titles | Somerset Patriots (6) |
Official website | atlanticleague.com |
The Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB) is a professional independent baseball league based in the United States. It is an official MLB Partner League based in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. The Atlantic League's corporate headquarters is located at Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
The Atlantic League operates in cities not served by Major League Baseball (MLB) or Minor League Baseball (MiLB) teams; most of its teams are within suburbs and exurbs too close to other teams in the organized baseball system to have minor league franchises of their own. The Atlantic League requires cities to have the market for a 4,000 to 7,500-seat ballpark and for the facility to be maintained at or above Triple-A standards. When Atlantic League professionals are signed by MLB clubs, they usually start in their Double-A or Triple-A affiliates.
The league uses a pitch clock and limits the time between innings in an effort to speed up the game. In 2019, the Atlantic League began a three-year partnership with Major League Baseball allowing MLB to implement changes to Atlantic League playing rules, in order to observe the effects of potential future rule changes and equipment. In 2020, the Atlantic League, together with the American Association, the Frontier League, and the Pioneer League, expanded this agreement to become an official MLB Partner League.
The Atlantic League is generally regarded as the most successful and highest level of baseball among independent leagues. The Atlantic League has had more marquee players than any other independent league, including Jose Canseco, Mat Latos, Steve Lombardozzi Jr., Francisco Rodríguez, Chien-Ming Wang, Roger Clemens, Rich Hill, Scott Kazmir, Juan González, and Dontrelle Willis. Two former Atlantic League players are in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Tim Raines and Rickey Henderson. Gary Carter, another Hall of Famer, managed in the league. The Atlantic League has had many notable managers and coaches, including Wally Backman, Frank Viola, Tommy John, Sparky Lyle, and Bud Harrelson. The Atlantic League has consistently posted higher per game and per season attendance numbers than other independent circuits including the American Association, Can-Am League, and Frontier League.
History[edit][]
In 1998, the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball played its inaugural season, with teams in Bridgewater, Newark, and Atlantic City, New Jersey; Nashua, New Hampshire; Newburgh, New York; and Bridgeport, Connecticut. The creation of the league was the result of the New York Mets' objection to Frank Boulton's proposal to move the former Albany-Colonie Yankees because of its territorial rights to the region. Boulton, a Long Island, New York native, decided to create a new league that would have a higher salary cap for its players and a longer season than most of the other independent baseball organizations. He modeled the Atlantic League after the older Pacific Coast League, with facilities that exceed AAA-level standards. Boulton also emphasized signing players of Major League Baseball experience for all Atlantic League teams, raising the level of play above other independent leagues.
In 2010, the league announced that it would be expanding to Sugar Land, Texas and adding its first franchise not located in an Atlantic coast state. The Sugar Land Skeeters began play in 2012. In 2010, amid financial struggles, the Newark Bears moved from the Atlantic League to the Can-Am League, leaving the Bridgeport Bluefish and Somerset Patriots as the only teams remaining from the league's inaugural season. In the summer of 2013, then-ALPB President Frank Boulton announced that he would be resigning so that he could devote more time to operating the Long Island Ducks. He was replaced by longtime high-ranking Major League Baseball executive Rick White. On July 8, 2015, the Atlantic League began using Rawlings baseballs with red and blue seams, virtually unused in the sport since the American League swapped the blue in their seams for red in 1934.
On September 1, 2015, the Atlantic League announced conditional approval for an expansion team or a relocated team to play in New Britain, Connecticut for the 2016 season. On October 21, 2015, the Camden Riversharks announced they would cease operations immediately due to the inability to reach an agreement on lease terms with the owner of Campbell's Field, the Camden County Improvement Authority. The team was replaced by the New Britain Bees for the 2016 season. On May 29, 2016, Jennie Finch was the guest manager for the league's Bridgeport Bluefish, thus becoming the first woman to manage a professional baseball team.
Shortly before the conclusion of the 2017 season, the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut voted to not continue with professional baseball in the city and announced plans to convert The Ballpark at Harbor Yard into a music amphitheater; the Bridgeport Bluefish announced plans to relocate to High Point, North Carolina in 2019 when the construction of a new multipurpose facility in High Point is completed. League officials announced the return of the Pennsylvania Road Warriors, an all road game team, to keep the league at an even eight teams while the Bluefish go inactive for the 2018 season.
In 2015, the Atlantic League experienced a watershed moment for independent baseball when it signed a formal agreement with Major League Baseball which put into writing the rules which the ALPB would follow in selling its players' contracts to MLB clubs and their affiliates. This marked the first time that MLB, which has enjoyed a U.S. Supreme Court-granted antitrust exemption since 1922, had made any formal agreement with or acknowledgment of an independent baseball league.
2020s[edit][]
In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the league announced that it would be unable to operate for the 2020 season with the current 8 member ballclubs, thereby canceling its season. Several teams (Somerset, York, and Lancaster) did not gain necessary approval from governmental and health officials to open their ballparks to the capacity level necessary for competition. They used their stadiums to host recreational and community-based events, as well as local baseball activities where allowed. Meanwhile, the Long Island Ducks, High Point Rockers, and Southern Maryland Blue Crabs initially attempted to partner with teams from other leagues in order to play a 70-game season from mid-July through the end of September. However, due to ongoing restrictions and capacity limitations, they ultimately decided to suspend all baseball activities for the 2020 season. The only teams that played in 2020 was the Sugar Land Skeeters, who would create a new 4-team independent league in Texas, with all 60 games played at Constellation Field, and the Somerset Patriots, who played weekend games with a second squad called the New Jersey Blasters.
In July 2020, the league announced the addition of a new franchise in Gastonia, North Carolina beginning in 2021; it is the league's second team based in North Carolina.
In November 2020, the Atlantic League lost its last charter franchise and its westernmost franchise when both teams became official minor league affiliates. On November 7, the Somerset Patriots announced that they were leaving the league to join the MLB-affiliated Eastern League, where they will replace the Trenton Thunder as the Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. Approximately two weeks later, the Houston Astros announced that they had purchased a controlling stake in the Sugar Land Skeeters and, as a result, the Skeeters would become the Astros' Triple-A affiliate and join the Pacific Coast League.
On February 18, 2021, the league announced the addition of the Lexington Legends, previously the Class A South Atlantic League affiliate of the Kansas City Royals, for the 2021 season. The Charleston Dirty Birds, formerly the West Virginia Power of the South Atlantic League, announced their move to the league on February 24, 2021.
In 2022, Kelsie Whitmore signed with the Staten Island FerryHawks of the Atlantic League, and started a game for them in left field; this made her the first woman to start an Atlantic League game. Later that year she became the first woman to pitch in an Atlantic League game when she made her first pitching appearance for Staten Island; entering the game with the bases loaded and two outs, she retired Ryan Jackson, a former major leaguer, on a fly out to end the inning.
Experimental rules[edit][]
2019[edit][]
In March 2019, the Atlantic League and Major League Baseball reached agreement to test multiple rule changes during the 2019 Atlantic League season:
- Use of a radar tracking system to assist umpires in calling balls and strikes
- Reducing the time between half innings by 20 seconds, from 2 minutes 5 seconds to 1:45
- Requiring pitchers to face at least three batters
- Exceptions: side is retired or injury
- Banning mound visits
- Exceptions: pitching change or for medical issues
- Restricting infield shifts
- Two infielders must be positioned on each side of second base
- Increasing the size of bases from 15 inches (38 cm) to 18 inches (46 cm)
- The size of home plate is not altered
- Moving the pitching rubber on the pitcher's mound back 24 inches (61 cm)
- This change would have taken effect in the second half of the season
In April 2019, implementation of two of the changes was delayed:
- The tracking system for calling balls and strikes "will be implemented gradually over the course of the 2019 season"
- Moving the pitching rubber back will not occur until the second half of the 2020 Atlantic League season; this rule change was never implemented.
The tracking system for calling balls and strikes was introduced at the league's all-star game on July 10. In addition to rule changes noted above, additional changes being implemented for the second half of the league's 2019 season are:
- Pitchers required to step off rubber to attempt pickoff
- One foul bunt permitted with two strikes
- Batters may "steal" first base
- "Any pitched ball not caught by the catcher shall be subject to the same baserunning rules for the batter as an uncaught third strike, with the exception of the first base occupied with less than two out exclusion."
- "Check swings" more batter-friendly
- "In making his ruling, the base umpire should determine whether the batter's wrists 'rolled over' during an attempt to strike at the ball and, if not, call the pitch a ball."
2021[edit][]
The Atlantic League and MLB jointly announced that the former would adopt several additional experimental rules for the 2021 season:
- The automated ball-strike calling system introduced for 2019 remains in use, but has been tweaked. The strike zone, which had been a three-dimensional space above home plate in 2019, changed to a two-dimensional space measured at the front of home plate.
- A "double-hook" rule is in force for the entire season. Under this rule, once a team removes its starting pitcher, it loses the right to use a designated hitter for the rest of the game.
- During the second half of the season (starting on August 3), the pitcher's rubber was moved back 1 foot (30 cm), making the distance between the front edge of the rubber to the rear point of home plate 61 feet 6 inches (18.75 m).
2022[edit][]
In January 2022, the Atlantic League announced they would no longer be using the following rules for the 2022 season:
- The automated ball-strike system that was first introduced in 2019, would no longer be used to assist home plate umpires in making ball or strike decisions. While the Atlantic League discontinued the use of the system, MLB opted to use the system in Spring Training games and in Triple A for the 2022 season.
- The distance of the pitching rubber to home plate went back to its original length, 60 feet 6 inches, down from 61 feet 6 inches. The mound was first moved a foot back (from 60 feet 6 inches to 61 feet 6 inches) on August 3, 2021, half-way through the 2021 season.
In March 2022, the MLB announced modifications to the "double-hook" rule and reintroduced the "dropped pitch" rule for the 2023 season:
- The "double-hook" rule was modified so that clubs do not lose their designated hitter if their starting pitcher completes at least five innings.
- The "dropped pitch" rule allows batters to attempt to advance for first on any pitch not caught in the air by the catcher, even with a runner on first. Those that reach first base will be awarded a hit.
2023[edit][]
In April 2023, it was announced that the Atlantic League would be testing three rules for the 2023 season:
- The "designated pinch-runner" rule will have clubs designate a pinch runner that is not in the starting line up. That player can be substituted into the game at any point as a baserunner, but unlike typical substitutions the player that is substituted for as well as the pinch-runner will be allowed to return to the game with no penalty.
- Pitchers will be allowed only one disengagement per at-bat. Any additional disengagements will be counted as a balk unless an out is recorded.
- The "double-hook" rule will continue being used in its 2022 form.
Teams[edit][]
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Further expansion as 1 July 2013[]
Fort Worth, Texas: Opening Day Partners is exploring the possibility of renovating LaGrave Field, currently home to the Fort Worth Cats of the United Baseball League, on par with their other ballparks and for an expansion team to join the Atlantic League's upcoming Western Division. If completed, the Fort Worth Atlantic League franchise would play possibly in the 2015 season and be the first Texas-based rival of the Sugar Land Skeeters.[[|[5]]][[|[6]]]
Fredericksburg, Virginia: Bob Hagan, the former president of the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce, is working with Opening Day Partners to study the impact of a ballpark in the Washington, D.C. suburb. Since Fredericksburg is close to the Potomac Nationals Single-A franchise in Woodbridge, Virginia, they would be required to pursue independent baseball instead of affiliated.[[|[7]]]
Malden, Massachusetts: Boston Baseball Field of Dreams, LLC plans to privately invest $51 million toward a 6,500-seat ballpark in Malden. It is tenatively proposed for a site bound by Commercial, Centre, Canal, and Charles Streets and will include locker rooms for the Malden High School baseball teams.[[|[8]]]
Virginia Beach, Virginia: Virginia Beach Professional Baseball, LLC has been granted conditional approval for an expansion team provided it can secure financing to build a 6,000-seat stadium near the Virginia Beach Sportsplex.[[|[9]]]
Loudoun Hounds | Ashburn, Virginia | Edelman Financial Field | 2010 | 2014 |
History of the Atlantic League since 1998
1998 Atlantic City, NJ, Bridgeport Ct, Bridewater NJ, Nashua NH, Newark NJ, Newburgh NY
1999 Bethlehem Pa enter the leage and Newburgh has left the league
2000 Aberdeen Md and Central Islip NY Enter the league.
2001 Camden NJ enetr the league and Aberdeen has left the league.
2002 Road Team-Pennsylvania enter the league and Bethlehem has left the league
2003 No Teams enter or left the league.
2004 No Teams enter or left the league.
2005 Lancaster Pa enter the leage and the Road Team-Pennsylvania left the league.
2006 Road Team-Road Warriors enter the league and nashu has left the league
2007 York Pa enter the league and Atlantic City has left the league
2008 Waldorf Md enter the league and the Road Team-Road Warriors has left the league.
2009 No Teams enter or left the league.
2010 No Teams enter or left the league.
2011 Road Team-Road Warriors enter the league and Newark has left the league
2012 Sugar Land Tx enter the league and and the Road Team-Road Warriors has left the league
2013 No Teams enter or left the league
2014 No Teams enter or left the league
2015 No Teams enter or left the league
2016 No Teams enter or left the league
2017 No Teams enter or left the league.
2018 -Road Team-Road Warriors enter the league and Bridgeport has left the League.
2019 - High Point NC has enter the league and Road Team-Road Warriors have left the league.
2020 - Charleston WV, Gastonia NC and Lexington Ky enter the League and Somerset, Sugar Land and New Britian has left the League.
2021 - No Teams enter or left the league
2022 - Lexington-Kentucky and New Your City-Staten Island has entered the League.
2023 - Frederick Md, has enter the league and Kentucky has left the league.
2024 - Hagerstown Md has enter the League and Fredrick Md has left the league
2025 - Frederick Md has entered the league - this is only a rumor