MiLB

Major League Baseball teams will continue to pay their minor league players through at least May 31 amid the suspension of play because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Good news for minor leaguers… pic.twitter.com/xae7MfsQ1h

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) March 31, 2020

According to ESPN's Jeff Passan, all minor league players will receive $400 per week and medical benefits as part of the plan. Per Passan, Baseball America's J.J. Cooper noted that the pay represents a raise for lower minor league players, while veterans will make less than they otherwise would have.

Minor League Baseball officially suspended its seasons March 12 following Major League Baseball's decision to do the same.

Two weeks ago, Major League Baseball announced its intention to pay minor league players through April 8, but with no immediate end in sight to the suspension of the season, the decision was made to extend the timeline.

Despite the lack of clarity, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred was confident last week when talking on ESPN's SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt about the eventual resumption of the 2020 season: "The one thing I know for sure is baseball will be back. Whenever it's safe to play, we'll be back. Our fans will be back. Our players will be back. And we will be part of the recovery, the healing in this country, from this particular pandemic."

Manfred also said he was optimistic that the league could start "gearing back up" at some point in May.

He acknowledged that a 162-game MLB season is unlikely at this point, which means the minor league seasons figure to be shortened as well.

That could have significantly impacted the pay of minor league players, but by agreeing to pay them while no baseball is being played, some of the sting has been taken away.

Multiple companies have severed sponsorship ties with the Fresno Grizzlies because of the minor league baseball team's controversial Memorial Day tribute video, according to Scott Gleeson of USA Today.

The video was supposedly meant as a patriotic tribute during the holiday but featured an image of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sandwiched between pictures of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and former Cuban President Fidel Castro, while the narration called them "enemies of freedom."

Beer companies Tecate and Dos Equis have both decided to drop their sponsorships as a result of the video:

Tecate has always been about togetherness and we do not support the views expressed in the video, that was aired during the Fresno Grizzlies game on Memorial day. We have ended this relationship effective immediately and have let the team know of our decision.

— Tecate (@tecate) May 31, 2019

We are disheartened to learn of the views expressed in the video that aired during Monday’s Fresno Grizzlies game, as they do not reflect our core values. We have ended our relationship with the team, effective immediately, and we have informed them accordingly.

— Dos Equis (@DosEquis) May 30, 2019

The raisin company Sun-Maid also pulled its corporate sponsorship with the team Wednesday.

The Grizzlies, which are a Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, tweeted an apology for the video.

"We're embarrassed we allowed this video to play without seeing it in its entirety first," the statement said. "We unconditionally apologize to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez in addition to our fans, community and those we hurt. It was a mistake and we will ensure that nothing like it ever happens again."

However, it appears the organization is now suffering financial consequences of the mistake.

Josiah Viera, a 14-year-old who served as the State College Spikes' honorary bench coach en route to their 2014 New York-Penn League championship, died Monday, per a message from his family.

According to ESPN, Viera had Hutchinson-Gilford progeria, which is "a fatal genetic condition characterized by accelerated aging in children."

Viera also spent time with the Penn State football program, and head coach James Franklin offered his thoughts after learning of Viera's passing:

Going to miss my friend. Thankful for the time I was able to spend with him. Our thoughts are with his grandfather, family, friends & our hearts are with Josiah! pic.twitter.com/9RsP8rLAIm

— James Franklin (@coachjfranklin) December 25, 2018

The Spikes are a Single-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. A big baseball fan, Viera and the Spikes connected in 2013. An ESPN report notes he was invited to a game that year before becoming the team's honorary bench coach the following year. After going 35-41 in 2012, the Spikes improved to 48-27 in 2013 and made the championship round. They won it all the following season.

Viera has been called an inspiration by numerous sources, including Ron Southwick of Pennlive.com and ex-Spikes pitcher and naval officer Mitch Harris.

In the dog days of summer, minor league baseball teams come up with wild promotions to keep fans entertained. Which clubs have the wackiest giveaways and theme nights? Watch above to see how MiLB keeps things weird on the diamond.

    

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Tim Tebow will begin the 2018 season one step closer to the big leagues.

After spending last season between two levels of Single-A ball, the New York Mets minor leaguer will start this season with the organization's Double-A affiliate, the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. Tebow issued a statement on the decision, per Tim Heiman of MiLB.com:

"I'm excited to take the next step in my baseball career by playing for the Rumble Ponies. I look forward to getting to play in front of the Binghamton fans and around the Eastern League." 

Last season, Tebow slashed .220/.311/.336 with three home runs, 14 doubles, one triple and 23 RBI in 64 games with the Columbia Fireflies. Despite those less-than-pedestrian numbers, the Heisman Trophy winner earned a midseason promotion to the High-A St. Lucie Mets. He didn't fare much better there, hitting .231/.307/.356 with five home runs, 10 doubles, one triple and 29 RBI in 62 games.

Tebow was just 1-for-18 with a walk and 11 strikeouts in seven spring training games this year.

None of that production would warrant a promotion for any normal prospect, but the 30-year-old former quarterback is no average minor leaguer.

Per MiLB.com, the Fireflies ranked fourth in South Atlantic League attendance and the Mets drew the third-most fans in the Florida State League—and that's with both clubs having Tebow for half the season. Anticipating how many fans the Florida Gators legend can bring through the gates has Rumble Ponies president John Hughes excited.

"This is yet another win for this community," Hughes said, per Heiman.

It was just this past offseason that Mets general manager Sandy Alderson predicted Tebow would reach the majors one day. Although he may not be deserving at this point, the outfielder continues to rise through the ranks. In other words, that prediction may come true, perhaps with the organization tabbing Tebow as a September call-up at some point.

Minor League Baseball announced Wednesday a runner will be placed on second base at the start of all extra innings across every level of the minors beginning in the 2018 season.

Kyle Glaser of Baseball America passed along the rule change.

In January, Ronald Blum of the Associated Press reported Major League Baseball made a proposal to implement the same idea for the All-Star Game starting in the 11th inning as part of ongoing discussions about ways to improve the sport's overall pace of play.

While the AP report noted "MLB isn't considering using the rule in any games that count," it was used in the lowest level of the minor leagues last year and trimmed an average of 16 minutes off the extra-inning contests compared to the rest of the minors.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced a series of pace-of-play changes last month, including a new limit on the number of mound visits allowed per game and a reduced time allotment for commercials between innings and during pitching changes.

"I am pleased that we were able to reach an understanding with the Players Association to take concrete steps to address pace of play with the cooperation of players," he said, per MLB.com. "My strong preference is to continue to have ongoing dialogue with players on this topic to find mutually acceptable solutions."

A pitch clock, which was also discussed during the offseason, wasn't included after player backlash.

It's unclear whether MLB will reconsider the extra-innings runner in 2019 after reviewing the results from the experiment in the minors. That rule could also receive resistance from players, especially relief pitchers, since it fundamentally changes the way the game is played.

There was a time, not all that long ago, that coming to downtown Dayton, Ohio, meant settling for ballpark food without a ballpark to eat it in.

"I came back here in 1985 to run the family business, and the area was not in great shape," said Alan Pippenger, whose Requarth Company has been in Dayton for so long that the Wright Brothers were customers. "I asked someone where do you go for lunch. They said, 'Well, you can walk over to Sears and there's a place in the basement you can get a hot dog.'"

The Sears store is long gone, but these days Pippenger can get a hot dog and much more. He can catch a ballgame, too, although it's a good thing he signed up for season tickets when the Dayton Dragons showed up 18 years ago. He hasn't given up those seats yet, and not many around him have either.

These days, so many people come to downtown Dayton that the Dragons can claim every game as a sellout. Every game, for 18 years.

No major league team has ever done that. No minor league team has ever done that. No professional team in any sport can match the 1,242 consecutive sellouts the Dragons have announced, with four more expected before the Midwest League's regular season ends Sept. 8. The popularity has made the Dayton franchise one of the most valuable in the minor leagues, without having to sell its soul.

"The consistency, year after year, is incredible," said Richard Nussbaum, president of the Class A Midwest League, where the Dragons play as a Cincinnati Reds affiliate. "They've got the secret sauce."

The Dragons & @VectrenOhio honored @PinkRibbonGirls on 8.24 as Community All-Stars! They were recognized in front of a sold-out crowd. pic.twitter.com/XSOSZBtcvi

— Dayton Dragons (@DragonsBaseball) August 25, 2017

The Dragons annually outdraw every other team in Class A, every team in Double-A and all but a half-dozen of the 30 teams in Triple-A. They won't outdraw any major league teams this year, but their average of 8,037 a game is better than the 7,935 average the major league Montreal Expos attracted in 2001, four years before they moved to Washington.

Olympic Stadium has 56,040 seats. Fifth Third Field in Dayton has 6,830.

It's a stretch to say every one of those seats is filled for every game. Season-ticket holders don't show up every night. The Dragons website shows at least a few tickets for sale most nights. Some tickets are held back as required for player pass lists and released for sale if not needed. General admission tickets for lawn seating are available.

But the sellout streak is legit. The crowds are big, night after night. The atmosphere is unlike anywhere else.

"At the field, everyone loves you," said Cleveland Indians major leaguer Jay Bruce, who was a Dragon in 2006. "It was just a blast."

The players love the support. The fans love how accessible the players are.

Everyone knows they're part of something special, something that just doesn't happen in every city with every team.

"I'll be going to watch until I can't go anymore," said 71-year-old Fritz Menke, another who has been a Dragons season-ticket holder for all 18 seasons. "I love that place."

The Dragons are special, proof that baseball can work when it's done right and in the right place, that it can still attract fans young and old. The Dragons also are proof that in not chasing every last dollar and instant gratification, a professional team can build a loyal following that will last.

They came to Dayton nearly two decades ago promising to break the mold on how teams are run. They were stunned to sell out the entire first season by Opening Day but quickly set a goal of making it last.

"After that first year, we were really dumb and said we'd get to 500 straight sellouts," said Robert Murphy, the team's president and general manager since the beginning. "That was really dumb. We were just setting ourselves up for failure. We had a waiting list, and we knew the waiting list was real because we kept in touch with them. But I thought 500 was a crazy number.

"And once we got to 500, that's when I really got paranoid."

Five years later, the Dragons' streak reached 815, breaking the record set by the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers for a U.S. professional sports team.

That was in 2011. Six years later, the streak goes on.

---

The Dragons aren't selling championship baseball. They've never won a Midwest League title in their 18-year history. They've had some good players (Joey Votto, Didi Gregorius and Justin Turner are among those who have passed through) and exciting players (Billy Hamilton stole 103 bases in 135 games in Dayton in 2011).

Just this season, Jose Siri had a 39-game hitting streak, breaking a league record that had stood for 40 years.

But the Dragons also had two years where they lost more than 90 games, tough to do in a 140-game minor league season.

No matter. The streak went on.

"People drive home thinking, 'I'm not sure whether we won 3-2 or lost 3-2, but I know we had a good time,'" said executive vice president Eric Deutsch, who like Murphy has been there from the beginning.

Like all affiliated teams in the minors, the Dragons don't set their roster and have no control over player moves. The parent Reds assign players to the Dragons each March, and while they wouldn't mind seeing them win, the more important goal is to develop the prospects to eventually get to Cincinnati.

There are bobbleheads of Hamilton, Adam Dunn and Johnny Cueto, all in Dragons uniforms. But there's also one of Roofman.

Yes, Roofman, the clumsy superhero (as Murphy describes him) who lives on the Fifth Third Field roof. When foul balls reach the roof, Roofman transforms them into softee balls that he throws back into the stands.

It's all part of the show, a show that on any given night might include The Retirement Village People (a singing group), Golden Oldies (more retirees, this time competing to come up with the best pickup lines) and Toddler Racing (just what it sounds like).

The Dragons sell entertainment much more than they sell baseball. They sell a family atmosphere and a night out, and while every minor league team likely has that as a plan, in Dayton it has worked and keeps working.

"Until people come here and experience it, they don't understand it," Murphy said. "It's why I always hear people saying, 'My wife hates sports, but she loves coming to Dragons games.'"

Murphy and Deutsch hear from their fans often because they make a point of standing at the gate every night to thank their customers for coming to the game. They and the rest of the Dragons staff (about 40-50 full-time year-round employees) make regular appearances at local events too.

"I do about 50 speeches a year," said Tom Nichols, the team's broadcaster since 2008. "At the end of each one I do a Q&A session. At almost every speech, someone will raise a hand and say: 'I don't have a question, but I just want to thank you for doing what you're doing. It means so much to our family.'"

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The Dragons are obviously a financial success. Mandalay Baseball Properties, the original owner, sold the team in 2014 for a minor league record of nearly $40 million, according to Eric Fisher of SportsBusiness Daily. When Forbes ranked the most valuable franchises in the minor leagues last summer, the magazine placed the Dragons third at $45 million, behind only the Triple-A franchises in Sacramento and Charlotte.

But part of the business model that has worked so well in Dayton is not trying to squeeze every dollar out of every fan every day.

The Dragons limit the amount of advertising in their ballpark, and they don't sell sponsorships for most of the in-game entertainment.

"We don't do things in front of our fans because people pay us to do them," Murphy said. "Some teams feel it's their God-given right to subject people to whatever someone pays them to say. We don't want to do that. It's a pure entertainment experience, and we thought there would be coordination between season-ticket renewals and people having a great experience."

And when they have a giveaway item, there's no sponsor logo on it.

"It's quality stuff," Pippenger said. "Put it this way. It's about to rain, and when I go out I'm going to grab my Dragons umbrella."

He has one, because the Dragons make sure every season-ticket holder gets every item whether they make it to the park that night or not. Rather than use giveaways to fill the park for one night, as most franchises do, they use their giveaways to reward the most loyal fans.

"They make you feel special," Pippenger said.

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The entertainment helps. The loyalty to their fans helps, and so does the nice ballpark and the strong customer service.

But the Dragons also found the right city at the right time. Minor league operators had been trying to get to Dayton for many years before 2000 without success. The city sits barely an hour north of Cincinnati, and thus any team that moved there would need the Reds' permission.

For years, the Reds wouldn't consider it.

That changed in the late 1990s, right around the time a group of local leaders in the Downtown Dayton Partnership decided that a ballpark and a minor league team could anchor their hoped-for downtown revival. Sherrie Myers bought the Rockford Cubbies with the intention of moving them to a new park in Dayton.

"The analytics were very encouraging," Myers said. "At the time, Dayton was the largest city in the country that didn't have an affiliated major or minor league team. They had a large base to draw from; they had school groups, church groups and businesses with 100 or more employees. The analytics looked great."

Unfortunately for Myers, the people who run minor league baseball determined that her interest in another franchise (in Lansing, Michigan) was an issue. Before the ballpark was even built, she had to sell the franchise to Mandalay, which got basketball's Magic Johnson and Ohio State legend Archie Griffin involved as part-owners.

"There are still some days I'm sad about that," she said of having to give up the team.

The ballpark eventually got built, right across the street from Pippenger's Requarth Company warehouse. Plenty of other things got built too, including a performing arts center, a riverside park, bars, restaurants and nice enough housing that a couple of years ago, Pippenger decided to live just a few blocks away.

"Ultimately, the strategy worked," said Maureen Pero, who was president of the Downtown Dayton Partnership during the time the ballpark was planned and opened. "Our downtown is booming."

The Dragons are a part of that. It's hard for anyone to say how big a part of it they are, but it seems everyone in Dayton gives them some of the credit.

If nothing else, it's a place you can go get a hot dog.

     

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

Something you don't see everyday, @jp_crawford with an inside-the-park grand slam on a grand slide! #PlayOfTheYear pic.twitter.com/sa0SKCxJW2

— Lehigh Valley IronPigs (@IronPigs) July 27, 2017

Philadelphia Phillies prospect and current Lehigh Valley IronPigs shortstop J.P. Crawford made some history during Wednesday's game versus the Gwinnett Braves at Coca-Cola Park, Pennsylvania, thanks in part to Gwinnett catcher David Freitas. 

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth inning, Crawford smashed a pitch deep to center field. 

Gwinnett's Lane Adams misplayed the ball as it struck the wall, and three runs were scored in the process.

The relay throw to Freitas nevertheless beat Crawford to the plate, but the 22-year-old somehow managed to slide between the catcher's legs and score before being tagged. 

It's the first inside-the-park grand slam in IronPigs history, and the play serves as a reminder to all defensive players that one should never assume an out. 

[Twitter]

Oklahoma City Dodgers outfielder Alex Verdugo likely won't ever hit another home run like the one he belted against the Reno Aces at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark on Tuesday. 

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Verdugo hit what appeared at first to be a routine flyout to right field. 

Reno's Zach Borenstein apparently lost sight of the ball, however, and it took a high bounce off of him and over the wall for a three-run homer. 

Jose Canseco knows your pain, Mr. Borenstein: 

[MiLB]

pic.twitter.com/18ZVMIDQ7M

— #SagerStrong (@SagerStrong) July 22, 2017

The Daytona Tortugas remembered Craig Sager by hosting SagerStrong Night on Friday.

The Cincinnati Reds' High-A affiliate celebrated the late broadcaster, who died in December from acute myeloid leukemia. Along with wearing colorful uniforms, it raised $3,575 for the SagerStrong Foundation.

A huge Thank You to the Tortugas for their tremendous financial contribution to The SagerStrong Foundation!! @daytonatortugas pic.twitter.com/ImAlNglEV2

— #SagerStrong (@SagerStrong) July 22, 2017

NBA star Vince Carter attended the festivities at Jackie Robinson Ballpark in his hometown of Daytona Beach, Florida. The veteran guard, who signed with the Sacramento Kings this summer, threw a strike on his ceremonial first pitch.

BREAKING: Vince Carter is leaving the NBA for an MiLB career. #FakeNews. But how about that perfect strike?! #SagerStrongNight pic.twitter.com/oUlyQceP2a

— Daytona Tortugas (@daytonatortugas) July 21, 2017

Getting the party started at the Tortugas! @daytonatortugas @SagerStrong pic.twitter.com/9wJnjyvh41

— #SagerStrong (@SagerStrong) July 21, 2017

Though they lost to the Jupiter Hammerheads, the Tortugas put together a special evening in Sager's honor.

[SagerStrong and Daytona Tortugas, h/t For The Win]