Indy Baseball Chatter: THIRD NEW FRANCHISE SET FOR 2008

Monday, June 11, 2007

THIRD NEW FRANCHISE SET FOR 2008

If nothing else, doing this blog and my weekly IndependentBaseballInsider column keep me busy working on my geographical knowledge of the United States and Canada.

My current reason for reaching for the atlas is that the United League will be announcing on Tuesday that it is awarding a franchise to Brownsville, TX. Brownsville is as far south as one can go in the Lone Star State, and it is only some 25 miles from the existing Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings of Harlingen, TX. The addition of Brownsville to the six-team, second-year league isn't an overwhelming surprise, but I believe it will be that community's first professional baseball team since the Gulf Coast League left after 1953.

Brownsville is the third new addition to the Independent map for 2008, joining Southern Maryland in the Atlantic League and Grand Prairie, TX, the Dallas-area community which is entering the American Association.

The buzz continues around any number of other new entries into what is a 74-team Independent landscape this season. Very recent talk has been about Loveland and Castle Rock, CO, both for the American Association; and Killeen, TX for the Continental League.

But it is a long time before the 2008 baseball season. Stay tuned.

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Bob Wirz

Former chief spokesman for Major League Baseball Commissioners Bowie Kuhn and Peter Ueberroth. Six years as publicity director for the Kansas City Royals, and a background in newspaper, radio and television. Started Wirz & Associates, a sports PR and consulting firm, in 1985. Has written extensively on Independent Baseball since 2003.

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About 'My Nebraska'

It seems almost universally accepted that Nebraskans are friendly, hard-working people.

A native son, who eventually transitioned to the East Coast because it was the best avenue to follow his passion of continuing to work in major league baseball, has published a book to share a lifetime of memories of growing up in the Cornhusker state.

You may have guessed it when you saw the title: My Nebraska. Yes, Bob Wirz, now a youthful 85, is sharing his "rich memories of growing up in rural Nebraska" in the 1940s and 1950s in a delightful 136 pages in the book produced by Dorrance Publishing in Pittsburgh, PA.

Wirz, who got to live his passion of working at the highest levels of baseball and later developing his own sports public relations and marketing company, lovingly empties out his memories of everything from counting millions of tiny trees to playing grass-roots baseball where the age of teammates might run from the early teens to the 50s.

The colorful cover of My Nebraska, which features two paintings from Dunning, NE rancher/artist Laron McGinn that depict the beautiful landscape of rural Nebraska and the ranching lifestyle, sets the tone for the 5 x 8 book also filled with meaningful pictures.

It is "a wistful and endearing love letter to Nebraska filled with memories shared by generations raised in small towns throughout the Midwest", praises Shari Veil, who heads up the journalism and mass communications department at the University of Nebraska.

My Nebraska, a 5x8 paperback, is priced at $19.95 plus $4.00 for handling and shipping. Autographed copies may be ordered at www.WirzandAssociates.com