Updated Sites To Go See

Imagine my surprise when I went to BASEBALL AMERICA's website and saw that it had been completely redone. Gone is that wide, kinda brown mustard stripe on the left hand side that had been there for as long as I have been going to their site.

There is an important story for fans to go check out there today. It is on the minor league umpires being on strike. A quick taste:

The union is asking for raises in salary and per diem payments, along with improvements in travel, insurance and umpire safety. Management has offered a $100 a month raise and a $1 a day increase to the per diem, though the deductible for health insurance would rise from $100 to $500 a year as well.

Minor League Baseball has said it has made its best and final offer to the umpires, and will not negotiate further. The negotiations have gone on throughout
the offseason, giving leagues plenty of time to work on assembling rosters of replacement umpires, although it did lead to a busy last month leading up to the season. League presidents around the minors said they have umpires lined up to
work games. Most of the spots will be filled with college or former pro umpires.

Read it. Learn it. I may have more on this later today.

The other site is still going through some major renovations. A Fan's Guide to the Midwest League has been dormant for some time. But, it looks like the 2006 season is going to be an active one over there. That's great news. Check them out.

You can sign up for a Midwest League Mailing list on that site. I'm pretty sure the list is run by the same guy who used to run the Northern League Mailing List when I used to work for the Duluth-Superior-Dukes.