We have an update on the state of Minor League Baseball and what the game balls will look like this season. The Museum recently spoke with Jeff Lantz, former MiLB Director of Communications and current MLB Senior Manager, Communications, (and fellow official game ball collector!) about the current structure of MiLB and, specifically to our interest, what the official baseballs will look like this season and going forward.
Following the announcement that the generic, regional league names used in 2021 will be replaced with the traditional league names in 2022, we asked Mr. Lantz about the league stats. “According to Major League Baseball’s Data Operations team (MiLB’s official statistician), the league records and stats from 2021 will be considered part of the old (and returning) league histories.” This is great news in terms of the history and continuity of the affiliated minor leagues.
Regarding each league’s front office, Mr. Lantz said, “The leagues will not have presidents, but MLB has assigned Regional Supervisors that assist with the operation of the leagues.”
What does that mean for the official game balls? “All balls will have Commissioner Manfred’s signature on them moving forward (assuming that most clubs exhausted their supply of the Pat O’Conner balls or the old league balls last year).” So the “generic” MiLB ball that debuted in 2021 will continue to be the official ball of all affiliated leagues.
Finally, we will not (yet) see a return of league All-Star Games in 2022, but the post-season series format introduced last year will continue. The regular season ball will be used for these series as well.
While the revived league names was a welcome development, the fact that no commemorative game balls will be produced in 2022 is disappointing. We can hope that in the future MLB will consider reinstituting the league All-Star Games and producing unique game balls for them once again.
We would like to thank Mr. Jeff Lantz and MLB for taking the time to answer our questions.