Midwest League waiting for cue; holding fan vote for best team

The Lake County Captains were scheduled to play their season opener April 9 in Indiana against the South Bend Cubs, but, as throughout ballparks at all levels across the nation, there is no Midwest League baseball because of the novel coronavirus.

The Captains would be playing their home opener on April 13 against the West Michigan Whitecaps to begin a seven-game homestand at Classic Park. That won’t happen, either.

Midwest League Commissioner Dick Nussbaum cannot predict when games in the Low Single A league will begin, but he feels for the players and fans trying to cope without baseball this spring, and perhaps into summer.

The Captains are in their 18th season in Eastlake after relocating from Georgia where they played as the Columbus RedStixx prior to 2003.

Some fans who ran on the field with mascot Skipper when they were in kindergarten in the early days of the Captains are now college students.

“I know a lot of people are working very hard to make sure we can come out of this pandemic and get back to regular life,” Nussbaum said April 9 in a phone interview from his office in South Bend, Ind. “That includes baseball and a lot of other things. I can’t tell you what’s going to happen with baseball. A lot of it depends on things that aren’t in our control.”

Meanwhile, the Midwest League has come up with an alternative for fans with an idea started by Lansing Lugnuts general manager Tyler Parsons.

The Lugnuts are celebrating their 25th season, so Parsons thought it would be appropriate to put together an All-Star team of the best Lugnuts in franchise history. That led to the idea of having every team in the league do the same thing to set up a virtual tournament with brackets similar to NCAA basketball’s March Madness, which was cancelled because of COVID-19.

Lugnuts radio announcer and media relations director Jesse Goldberg-Strasser reached out to the 15 other teams in the league to come up with their own AllTime teams. Thus, Midwest

League Madness was born — the eight All-Star teams from the East (the Dick Nussbaum Region) in one bracket vs. the eight teams from the West (the George Spelius Region) in another bracket.

The Captains play South Bend in the first round of the tournament. The team that gets the most votes wins the game and advances to the Elite Eight. Fans can vote for the Captains by going to the team’s website at milb. com/lake-county and clicking on the item in the top right corner in the news section of the page. Fans can also go to MidwestLeague. com to vote.

Even if you don’t vote, it is worth going to the website just to see the names of some of the amazing players that have come through the Midwest League, which originally was called the Triple-I when it was composed of teams from Indiana, Iowa and Illinois. Here are some examples: Mike Trout and Rocky Colavito are on the Cedar Rapids Kernerls’ all-time roster. The Clinton Lumberjacks have Grady Sizemore in center, Matt Williams at third base plus Orel Hershiser and Denny McClain on the pitching staff. Corey Kluber is a pitcher and Tori Hunter the center fielder for the Fort Wayne Tincaps. David Ortiz is the designated hitter, Alex Rodriguez the shortstop and Boog Powell the first baseman for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.

The Captains All-Time roster includes shortstop Francisco Lindor, second baseman Jose Ramirez, center fielder Clint Frazier, right fielder Bradley Zimmer and starting pitcher Shane Bieber.

Major League stars past and present are on each roster.

“The league is proud of its history,” Goldberg-Strasser said. “For everyone to look at these rosters and see the very best players in Major League Baseball today, like Mike Trout, came through the Midwest League, or the players from back in the day, like Paul Molitor and Rocky Colavito came through the Midwest League.

“We said, ‘There’s no baseball, so what else can we do?’ “Goldberg-Strasser said. “This is one of the ideas we had, and it got everybody involved.”

Nussbaum said he is in regular communication with team owners and club officials in the Midwest League. A conference call is scheduled for April 10.

“If we get the go-ahead and it makes sense to play, we’ll play,” Nussbaum said. “If not, we’re not. That’s the new normal right now. I don’t think anybody in leadership has all the answers right now. “Whatever the major leagues do, the minor leagues will follow. Good people are trying to find ways to get back on the field. The players, I’m sure, want to play. It’s just with the situation we have, there aren’t a lot of good solutions.” Baseball suspended spring training and all games until further notice on March 12.