LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - It has been a bad year for the commonwealth of Kentucky with professional sports.
Some two months after NASCAR abandoned Kentucky Speedway, Wednesday brought the expected but nevertheless disappointing news that the Lexington Legends have been cast aside by Major League Baseball.
As part of a restructured business arrangement between MLB and its network of minor league clubs, the local team will no longer be a Class A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals - nor will the Legends have a tie to any other big-league team.
Lexington was one of 43 minor-league franchises given the streamlining boot by MLB.
In the case of the Legends, a franchise located in a relatively large (Lexington population: 328,690), relatively prosperous (Lexington median household income: $57,291) market was nevertheless deemed by the Royals and the rest of Major League Baseball to be unworthy of continued inclusion in the “family.”
On Wednesday, Legends President and CEO Andy Shea issued a statement vowing that the Lexington franchise would move forward and continue fielding teams.
Can the franchise survive outside the protective cocoon of affiliated minor-league baseball?
If you look exactly 69.9 miles north of Whitaker Bank Ballpark, there is an example of an independent minor league baseball team that has endured in Kentucky.
The recently renamed Florence Y’alls - nee Freedom - have been in business for 16 years in northern Kentucky.
For the past 16 months, David DelBello has been an owner and the team president of the Y’alls (named for the famous “Florence, Y’all” water tower along I-75/I-71).
The big difference awaiting Legends ownership in a world outside affiliated minor league baseball, DelBello says, is not having a major-league patron to supply players, a manager and coaches.
The good news for Lexington, DelBello says, is that the contraction of existing minor-league teams means “there will be a plethora of talent available. It won’t be difficult to find players moving forward.”
With no MLB team supplying the talent, it will fall on the Legends ownership to pay players’ salaries.
Asked how much players in independent leagues are paid, DelBello said, “Not a lot. The kids who play ball at our level are doing it for the love of the game and to still be able to chase the dream (of reaching the big leagues).”
In minor league baseball, the majority of fans attend games less because they are invested in contest outcomes and more because they want to soak up ballpark experience.
DelBello says an independent minor league team can supply the same level of game atmosphere that affiliated franchises do.
For Y’alls games at Florence’s 4,200-seat UC Health Stadium “we have very good and plenty of concessions,” DelBello says. “We have specialty items. We have an in-stadium bar. We have unique-to-us food items. It’s a complete experience.”
Very much to be determined here in Lexington is whether the absence of a direct tie to the major league baseball feeder system will make local fans less inclined to sample the ballpark experience.
DelBello says if the Louisville Bats, the AAA affiliate of the nearby Cincinnati Reds, had lost their affiliation (they didn’t) it would have hurt the team badly at the turnstiles.
Because the Lexington Legends’ affiliation was with far-away Kansas City (and Houston before that), he does not think the impact on attendance will be great.
“If Louisville had lost its affiliation, it would be a big deal because the Reds are only an hour and 20 minutes away and people want to go to see those prospects because it’s part of their (being) fans of the Reds,” DelBello said. “This is my personal opinion, it won’t make as much difference in Lexington because the Royals were so far away.”
The Florence Y’alls compete in the Western Division of the Frontier League. The other six teams in the division are located in Evansville, Ind., and in the Illinois towns of Sauget, Joliet, Schaumburg, Marion and Crestwood.
DelBello hopes Lexington will join the Frontier League and give Florence a geographic rival.
“The option is open to Lexington, yes,” he said. “We are hoping and anticipating that they will join our league. It’s completely up to Andy Shea as owner of the team where he’s going to go. We are excited to be able to develop a Kentucky rivalry should he choose to come to us.”
As disappointing as it is from a perception standpoint to see Lexington lose its direct connection with Major League Baseball, DelBello says the fans who go to games here should not despair.
“Tell the fans in Lexington that life is going to be great on the other side of the equation,” DelBello says.
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