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Independent Ball

Yinz Play Baseball At WHAT Time?!

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This summer, baseball was played from morning until night at Wild Things Park in Washington, PA.

Just like every summer for the past 20 years, the Washington Wild Things played baseball in the evenings from May through September.

But for the second summer in a row, the stadium was also host to the Yinzer Baseball Confederacy and their own double headers every morning.

Born out of the summer of COVID baseball and the need for players to stay active and ready to play ball, the Black Sox pro baseball organization created the Yinzer Baseball Confederacy to give guys a place to play the game that they love.

This year, the Yinzer became a place that the MLB Partner leagues could rely on to find game-ready players at a moment’s notice.

In fact, more than 80 players went through the Black Sox/Yinzer to play in one of the four MLB Partner Leagues this summer. (More on some of those players will be featured in upcoming posts throughout the off season… Stay tuned!!)

I have always been a big supporter of the Black Sox. I’ve known the owner, Joe Torre, since I started this website over 6 years ago.

I’ve been in the dugout when it was hard to find players and the teams struggled to put up runs against established indy teams. I’ve also been there when guys were doing anything to get in that same dugout and have a chance to put up competitive numbers and win against those same indy teams.

They’ve adopted the wrestling “NWO” mentality… the outsiders who come in, take over and change the game.

This website was created for the guys like the Black Sox… For players who are seen as the underdogs… For the true grinders of the sport… For the guys who just want a chance to prove themselves…

It’s for the guys who get up and drive to the ballpark for early work before 7am… and play a double header starting at 9am… That’s right… the majority of the games this season started at NINE IN THE MORNING.

It’s for the players who put in the work on the field and then help out in the stands – charting, chasing foul balls, working the scoreboard, announcing on the PA system, and live streaming on social media…

It’s for those same players who – after early work/BP and two games of their own – stay around to work in the concession stands during Frontier League games just to make enough money to live and play baseball.

These guys played hard every single day with the hope that they would be the next guy up… the next one to get a chance to prove themselves.

Some guys were used for spot starts and to fill depleted positions. Those guys would drop everything at a moment’s notice just to meet up with a team in need… sometimes with no idea how they will even get home if they were released after they did their job.

Some were able to be a part of a “travel” squad who played games north of the boarder when other teams couldn’t field their own full roster.

And then some even proved themselves and stayed around for a lot longer than anyone (outside of this Black Sox organization) ever thought possible.

In fact, a few of them are currently playing in the Frontier League and American Association playoffs or finishing up the regular season in the Atlantic League.

This guys are at the very heart of indy ball and what it’s all about. THEY are the reason I love this sport the way that I do.

On a personal level, this has been one of the most enjoyable seasons of my life.

Getting up and driving an hour to the stadium to be there by 9am, sitting in the blazing sun for two straight games while watching the Killer B’s (the eventual Yinzer League champions), Road Warriors, Brilliance Sox and Wolfpac, and then staying in town to watch the Wild Things play in the evenings… I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

And those Wild Things evenings meant even more this season when my favorite Black Sox guys were working around the ballpark or just sitting in the stands because they just couldn’t get enough baseball.

To those players who I got to talk baseball with and just enjoy the game in the company of someone who truly loves the game the way that I do… Thank you. Those were some of my favorite moments of the entire season.

I was also fortunate enough to travel and see former Yinzer players thrive in the Frontier and Atlantic Leagues. There is something special about seeing a player who put his heart and soul into the Black Sox showcase their talent and commitment in a top league. It’s on the same level as seeing a brother and family member succeed.

And that’s because it is exactly that… it’s a family. Those guys who play against each other every day, who are competing against each other for attention and a chance to “make it” are still brothers. When one succeeds, they all celebrate.

Any time a former Yinzer would be at the plate or on the mound in Wild Things Park – no matter what team they happened to be on – you could always find a crowd of current Yinzers behind home plate cheering on their brothers because…

When you’re NWO… you’re NWO for life.

And if you didn’t know… Now you do.

Stay tuned this off season for more features and articles highlighting players from the Yinzer Baseball Confederacy.

Independent Ball

Movement of Pitching Mound Already Causing Issues Within the Atlantic League

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The Atlantic League has reached the halfway mark in their season…

And with that milestone, the pitching mound is set to make it’s move.

Two years ago, the MLB announced that they would experiment with rule changes in the Atlantic League, one of which being to move the pitching mound back to 62 feet 6 inches.

When Rob Manfred, the MLB commissoner, was interviewed by NBC Sports in an article from March 2019, he didn’t seem too concerned about the pitchers:

Baseball also is using the independent Atlantic League for experiments, such as increasing the distance from the mound to home plate to 62½ feet from 60 feet, 6 inches. When Kay suggested pitchers would get injured, Manfred quipped: “That’s why we’re doing it in the Atlantic League.”

NBC Sports

There was plenty of backlash and concern of injury from players and teams, and ultimately, the league did not move the mound in 2019.

Last year, the Atlantic League did not play due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so any new experimental rule had to be put on hold again.

However, the Atlantic League is back in full swing this year, and it appears as though MLB and the Atlantic League will go through with the moving of the mound starting tomorrow (August 3rd).

The new distance – 61 feet 5 inches – will be put into place for the second half of the season… with dire consequences if a player refuses to play.

The goal is to give the hitters a better chance of hitting due to the increasing velocity in pitches. The moving of the mound at the halfway point will be used to have two separate sets of data, a control group at the normal distance for the first half of the season and an experimental group with the new distance for the second half of the season.

But what about the players and teams that are still concerned with injuries (not to mention the logistics for a team having to literally move a mound that has been in place since the stadium was built).

Indy Ball Report (@indyballpod on Twitter) has reported on the topic as well.

I believe that the “grace period” suggested in the above report may have ended at 11:59pm last night (August 1st).

A list of Atlantic Transactions can be found HERE although I do not know how complete they may be.

And if you’re looking for an honest opinion on what is happening, it doesn’t appear as though you will get it from any of the managers and coaches involved in the league.

If there is one bright spot in all of this, JJ Cooper did report in April 2021 that since the reports of moving the mound came out two years ago, there has been research done on pitchers and mound distance from an injury standpoint. Baseball America reported:

Since that 2019 proposal, there has been research that may allay some of the injury concerns. Dr. Glenn Fleisig and the American Sports Medicine Institute conducted a randomized study that found that pitchers’ biomechanics did not change when they threw from the traditional 60.5 feet, 62.5 feet or 63.7 feet.

In that study, 26 college pitchers were asked to throw five fastballs each from the three different distances in a randomized order. The study found their mechanics were not altered by the differences in distance.

The summary of that paper, published in ScienceDirect, stated that “No significant differences in pitching kinetics and kinematics were observed among the varying pitching distances. Ball velocity and strike percentage were also not significantly different among the pitching distances, however, the duration of ball flight and horizontal and vertical break significantly increased with pitching distance … In conclusion, it is unlikely that moving the mound backwards would significantly affect pitching biomechanics and injury risk; however, the effects on pitching and hitting performance are unknown.”

But that’s just one study of college level pitchers…. should professional pitchers really be asked to use their arms and their careers as an experimental game for the MLB? Especially when refusing will not allow them to compete in any top league in the United States or Canada thanks to the top independent leagues all becoming partner leagues over the last year.

Indy Ball Island will continue reporting on this issue as the story plays out.