FRONTIER LEAGUE EXPANDS TO 18 FOR 2025
Much the way the biggest college conferences have gone recently, Independent minor league baseball is moving in the same direction. The Frontier League, home of the Florence Y’alls, has just announced its expansion by two teams – to a total of 18 – for the 2025 season with the league moving south.
The two new franchises are the Mississippi Mud Monsters whose home is Pearl, Miss., right across from the state capitol in Jackson, and the Down East Bird Dawgs of Kinston, N.C., county seat of Lenoir County.
Adding the two new franchises will require new divisions in the Frontier league with the Y’alls now in the Midwest Conference’s Central Division along with the Washington (Pa.) Wild Things, Lake Erie Crushers and Evansville Otters. Also in the Midwest Conference will be the West Division with holdover franchises along with the Mud Monsters: the Gateway Grizzlies, Joliet Slammers, Schaumburg Boomers and the Windy City Thunder Bolts.
The rest of the league will now play in the Atlantic Conference with North and East divisions. The new configuration will change the playoff structure with each division’s champions plus two wild cards advancing to an eight-team playoff as opposed to last year’s six.
As for the Y’alls, they’ll open on the road, Thursday, May 8, in Pearl against the Mud Monsters in Trustmark Park, former home of the Class AA Mississippi Braves. The Y’alls’ home opener will be Friday, May 16, at Thomas More Stadium against the Washington Wild Things. In 2025, the Y’alls will face each of their division opponents 12 times and will play conference opponents nine times.
From the Atlantic Conference, Florence will host the New England Knockouts and Tri-City Valley Cats while traveling to Canada to play Ottawa and Trois-Rivieres in August for individual three game series.
MAILE NAMED REDS’ ‘GOOD GUY’
Not really a surprise that Cincinnati Chapter of the Baseball Writers gave the Joe Nuxhall Good Guy Award this year to Covington Catholic and University of Kentucky alum Luke Maile. The award recognizes a Reds’ player with an outstanding relationship with the media and the public.
As cited in the award, Maile, a nine-year veteran MLB catcher at the age of 33, has been a “clubhouse leader” since arriving to the Reds organization in 2023, the writers say. The CovCath graduate “has been instrumental in the development of the Reds’ young pitchers. Win or lose, he always makes himself accessible to the media and has further showcased his personality through appearances on the Jim Day Podcast and being mic’d up for a game. In addition, he often chatted with fans during batting practice, participated in season ticket and kids club member events, always made time for Make-A-Wish guests, and met with young ballplayers during a Reds Camps visit to Great American Ball Park.”
SEVEN NEW NOVEMBER INDUCTEES FOR NKY SPORTS HALL OF FAME
To be honored at the group’s November 20 monthly meeting at 1 p.m. at The Arbors in Park Hills are seven new members.
They are: CovCath alum Bryan Clemons, a basketball/cross country star who became a top basketball defender at Bellarmine; Ludlow’s Dan Molique, a three-sport athlete who walked on in baseball as a pitcher at Tennessee before finishing up at Wilmington College; Villa Madonna’s five-sport athlete, then coach and AD, Kim Gunning, who has one of the all-time great athletic resumes in Northern Kentucky history; no way to talk about women’s golf here without talking about Notre Dame grad Laura Schild; continuing the theme of women’s golf champions is Beechwood’s Margaret Wilkerson; and to take golf to the men’s tees, there is CovCath grad and a longtime leading presence in local amateur golf, Tommy Leonard: and finally, there is Ludlow’s Ryan McKenzie, a football-basketball star for the Panthers and then a four-year defensive starter at Morehead State in football.