Are we nothing but historians now?
Another baseball season is upon us! The month of May sees even short season leagues like the Pecos League getting underway. Normally this would be a good time to discuss upcoming special events, like All-Star Games, that in the past would’ve featured new commemorative game balls to add to the collection.
But this is 2023 and, while there will still be All-Star Games this summer, for MLB-affiliated leagues that means there are no commemoratives anymore. Even the independent (MLB Partner) Atlantic League, celebrating its 25th Anniversary this season, has not produced a special regular season ball to mark the occasion.
Once a thriving hobby, with new balls every season ranging from Opening Day/Night balls to inaugural season balls, from All-Star Games to post-season series and league championship gamers, the minor league baseball landscape for new collectibles is now all but disappeared. Barring a change in the design of the regular season baseballs, or in the case of independent leagues a change in Commissioner or President necessitating a new ball, the minor league collector’s focus has shifted to filling gaps in the collection rather than adding anything new.
Is this a bad thing? Well, not entirely. We don’t have the excitement of looking forward to new designs mid-summer at All-Star Game time, but we’re also saving money. For those of us who collect more than the special gamers, there are a huge number of historical regular season baseballs to add to our collections. That’s one of the reasons I focused my collection on minor league balls rather than major league balls, because there are so many more of them (and not everybody and his brother collect them).
But apart from new teams joining the Pecos League and the occasional new independent league design, there aren’t any new minor league baseballs to look forward to. Collectors of all kinds tend to be historians to one degree or another, that’s part of the appeal: doing the research and learning about the history of one’s collection. But now it seems that the minor league baseball collector has truly been relegated to being primarily a historian.
Hopefully this will change at some point in the future. I do like to keep this site positive but I think the biggest change to minor league baseballs that I’m looking forward to is the replacement of Rob Manfred’s signature on the MiLB ball. Perhaps someone will take the helm of Minor League Baseball with some vision and appreciation of the minor leagues beyond a way to pinch every penny until Abe screams.
If and when that happens you can bet we’ll have an announcement! Until then, keep your eyes on this site. We are always adding to the collection, either with historical balls we didn’t have, or upgraded pieces in better condition that what was there before. We’re also in the process of getting better pics of the collection.
As always, keep enjoying minor league baseball in all of its forms! Support your local team, and if you go on vacation make sure to catch a game wherever you happen to be. Major League games are awesome but it’s the minor leagues that have local flavor and flair that you can’t find anywhere else. It’s the best form of the sport, even with MLB’s recent meddling.
-Tony Baseballs