Former Tri-city skipper sees Frontier as a fit
Langbehn managed for nine seasons in that independent league
On a recent night, Gregg Langbehn wore his old Tri-city Valleycats visor while he shot pool with his son downstairs in his home in Wausau, Wis. Valleycats team posters hung on one wall.
“It’s always fun to look back,” Langbehn said. “Great memories, no doubt about it.”
Langbehn managed the Valleycats from 2004 to 2006, twice guiding the team to the New York-penn League championship series.
He was the first minor league manager for Hunter Pence and Ben Zobrist, both 2004 draft picks of the Houston Astros who went on to All- Star ap
pearances and World Series titles.
The New York-penn League no longer exists and the Valleycats aren’t affiliated with the Astros or anybody else. They found out this month they weren’t among the 120 teams invited to be major league affiliates next season.
“I was disappointed how all this has played out,” Langbehn said.
The Valleycats are looking to join an independent league. They’re talking to the Atlantic League and Frontier League. Valleycats general manager Matt Callahan said the team hopes to know more by the first week of January.
Langbehn knows a lot about the Frontier League. After leaving the Astros system, he managed in the Frontier for nine seasons — five with the Traverse City (Mich.) Beach Bums and four with the Washington (Pa.) Wild Things.
Langbehn, 51, retired from managing recently to focus on his family and his full-time job in insulation and asbestos abatement. But he said he talked to Valleycats president Rick Murphy just last month, when it was uncertain whether Tri-city would keep affiliation.
Langbehn called Murphy at the request of Frontier League commissioner Bill Lee, who would like to have Tri-city in his league.
“I think Tri-city would be an exceptional addition to that league,” Langbehn said. “I told Bill Lee that and I told Rick Murphy that, as well. I said, ‘You’re going to have the best facility and they (the Frontier) know what the hell they ’re doing.”
Langbehn said he had a good conversation with Murphy.
The Atlantic League is considered the better baseball league, but also has a higher salary structure.
The Atlantic League plays 140 games to the Frontier’s 96.
The Frontier League has a minimum salary of $600 per month and a salary cap, according to Langbehn.
“I told (Murphy) the Frontier League is very reputable from a standpoint of promoting their players to get back into affiliated ball or get in there for the first time,” Langbehn said. “As far as I know, it’s probably one of the best independent leagues that pushes players there.”
Langbehn compared the caliber of play in the Frontier to the Class A Midwest League, which was one step above the New York-penn League. There are players who reached Double-a or Triple-a before being released, rookies who weren’t drafted, and the occasional exbig leaguer.
He said the biggest differences for a manager in independent ball is playing with the main objective of winning — instead of developing prospects — and not having to answer to a major league team.
“The biggest thing, No. 1, you have to win,” he said. “You sign your own players. You make your own decisions. … When a player doesn’t produce, you don’t have to keep playing him because you signed him for $750,000. Nobody’s telling you where to play them, where to hit them, stuff like that, what their role is. You do all that on your own for whoever suits your team.”
Langbehn said Joseph L. Bruno Stadium, home of the Valleycats, would be a major asset for the Frontier League.
“That would be the best ballpark in the Frontier League and there are some really nice ballparks, but that would be the best,” he said. “I’m assuming they still have natural grass — that makes it even better. Because so many teams in the Frontier League have that turf, and I’m more the baseball purist, I guess.”
Langbehn said he told Murphy to feel free to reach out to him if the Valleycats have any more questions about the Frontier League.
“I’ll be as brutally honest as I can, but it would be great for them,” he said. “I don’t know where they ’re at with their decision. They have a lot of things they have to weigh. Paying players. There’s an expense involved. They’ll figure it out. I’d be really happy if they did join the Frontier League. That’d be pretty cool.”