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Burlington Royals Kevon Jackson slides into homeplate and is met by Danville Braves Victor De Hoyos Saturday evening at the Burlington Athletic Stadium.
Times-News
Robert Thomason / Times-News, Times-News
Burlington Royals Kevon Jackson slides into homeplate and is met by Danville Braves Victor De Hoyos Saturday evening at the Burlington Athletic Stadium.
Times-News
Robert Thomason / Times-News, Times-News
Burlington Royals' Jay Charleston looks at the direction of the ball in play with Kingsport Mets in the home opener on Monday evening, June 24..
Times-News
Robert Thomason / Times-News, Times-News
Baseball in Burlington remains here to stay as part of a restructured Appalachian League.
Major League Baseball and USA Baseball announced Tuesday that the rookie-level professional league will become an amateur wooden-bat summer league for rising college freshmen and sophomores.
“We couldn’t be more excited about the outcome of how this happened,” Burlington general manager Anderson Rathbun told the Times-News on Tuesday. “The talent that we’re going to bring in here on a yearly summer basis, it’s going to be unmatched to anywhere else in the country as far as wood-bat leagues go. So we’re really, really excited about the potential this league has.”
The development provides resolution to a tumultuous past year that saw the league sit in the crosshairs of a proposal to eliminate 42 minor league teams, bringing a haziness of uncertainty over the future of the Burlington organization.
“When we were looking through the directions and the options we had in front of us, this was the no-brainer,” Rathbun said. “This was the league we were really hoping for the entire time and the fact that it’s now coming to fruition is music to our ears.
“From Day One, (MLB) wanted to find ways to keep baseball here in Burlington and in the Appalachian League. They recognize the history that has been the Appalachian League. They’ve loved the relationship that we’ve had with 10 major league teams at a time each year. I think that’s what really attracted to them to the Appalachian League specifically, is just we’ve had that longstanding relationship and good-faith, working partnership with them.”
All 10 existing Appalachian League teams are on board for a 54-game regular season slated to begin in the summer of 2021. MLB and USA Baseball have started the process of identifying 320 of the top eligible players to participate.
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As part of the transition, Appalachian League teams will undergo a rebranding phase, creating their own new team names and logos.
“What you’re really going to notice is for the first time, they’ll have their own local identity,” Appalachian League president Dan Moushon said. “Each team will have a unique name that benefits their locale.”
The opportunity to give the organization some homegrown flair is of great appeal to the Royals organization, Rathbun said.
“We’ve always been the Burlington Royals which is a Kansas City Royals affiliate. We’ve been the Burlington Indians which has been a Cleveland Indians affiliate,” Rathbun said. “We’ve never had the opportunity to brand ourselves as Burlington, as Alamance County, so we’re really excited for that challenge and opportunity. People are sad that minor league baseball left, but really in total, they’re going to get a brand-new, community-centered team, something that they’ve never had.”
Participants in the league will receive exposure to MLB scouts and instruction from former MLB players, in addition to being part of the identification and development process for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team.
“The Appalachian League will hopefully serve as a model for other new leagues across the country,” said Morgan Sword, MLB executive vice president. “From the start, MLB has made clear that we plan to preserve baseball in every community where it's currently being played. With (this) announcement, we're making good on that promise and furthering our efforts to grow the game. The support for the communities across this region has been overwhelming.”
The Appalachian League joins MLB and USA Baseball’s Prospect Development Pipeline, a joint effort between the game’s top league and its foremost governing body to progress amateur players in the U.S.
“When you have top talent coming through, you can really leverage that to create memorable moments for members of the community,” Rathbun said. “Not only that, you can establish role models within the community and then beyond. When people see these players like Anthony Rizzo or Bryce Harper coming through, that’s the type of talent that’s going to be coming through here now.”
