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FIELD NOTES: Baseball realignment not quite a homerun

Die-hard baseball fans have known for a couple of years that a significant restructuring of the minor leagues was coming this season, pending a renegotiation of the master agreement with the majors. It was understood that 40 or so of the less-viable teams would be contracted, with each Major League team claiming one squad in Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, and Low-A for a total of 120 minor league affiliates. There was also speculation about a geographic realignment of the leagues to reduce travel costs and facilitate roster moves to and from the parent teams. The extent to which this realignment occurred was a surprise to many, though, myself included.

The Charlotte Knights, an affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, have played in the International League (IL) since their elevation to Triple-A in 1989. Under the new alignment, the IL is gone, replaced by the generically named Triple-A East. The Knights will play in the Southeast Division of the Triple-A East, along with their former IL rivals the Durham Bulls, Gwinnett Stripers, and Norfolk Tides. Three new teams, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, Nashville Sounds, and Memphis Redbirds, will join them. Nashville and Memphis came over from the also-disbanded Pacific Coast League, and Jacksonville was promoted from Double-A.

Aside from the fact the Knights will now regularly play a team called the Jumbo Shrimp, this seems like a pretty good arrangement. As a “traditionalist,” I’m not happy they eliminated the International League, which was older than the American League, but I hold out a flicker of hope the “Triple-A East” moniker is just a placeholder and a better name for the league will be forthcoming. Heck, even “Eastern League” would be less generic. 

The 2021 schedule was also just released and, while it is absurd, we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt as a nod to the impact of COVID-19. The Knights will only play teams from within their division this season, and the number of games with each team is all over the place. They will play Jacksonville a whopping 42 times (get ready to hear Jumbo Shrimp a lot), but Nashville just 12 times. They don’t play Memphis at all. That kind of schedule disparity could lead to some interesting (as in controversial) results. A limited number of fans will be allowed at Charlotte’s Truist Field, 700 for the opening series with Durham that starts April 13. That number should increase as the season progresses and the pandemic (hopefully) wanes. 
 

Of course, if you aren’t interested in the Knights, you have several other options. The Cannon Ballers will christen their brand new stadium in downtown Kannapolis on May 4, and teams in Columbia, Hickory, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and Fayetteville are all less than a two-hour drive from Wadesboro.

Note: After this article was completed, the start of the Triple-A season was pushed back to May.


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