The big conversation topic in the baseball world this week was spawned by comments made by Commissioner Rob Manfred in an interview during the fourth inning of the 2025 MLB Little League Classic this past Sunday. In that segment he discussed his support for expansion and a geographic realignment which has not happened since the strike-shortened 1994 season . The last time MLB introduced new teams was in 1998 when the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now Tampa Bay Rays) joined the National and American Leagues, respectively. The next expansion clubs, however, might not even be part of either "league" in the current sense if the realignment reorganizes each circuit into geographical conferences. The first thing to sort is which cities get teams and I am glad Portland has finally emerged as a frontrunner for one on the West Coast. Their presence brings us closer to my favorite period in baseball history: the heyday of the Pacific Coast League (PCL), which effective...
I might have just written about a Seattle Mariners affiliate just a few weeks ago but I had no choice but to feature yet another link to the M's this time as earlier this week some good friends recently shared photos of the whole family enjoying an Everett AquaSox game and a video of birthday girl throwing out the first pitch that night! In addition to celebrating my friends' Northwest journey, this post joins that recent Riverside Pilots hat with last week's San Jose Giants cap as I' ve written about the AquaSox before but also shown love to that city in other posts as the Everett Giants played in the Northwest League from 1984-94. Lastly , the Bellingham Giants ( 1995–1996) and Bellingham Mariners ( 1977–1994) are another Northwest League link between the Giants and Mariners, respectively. Earlier I mentioned my other AquaSox hat with this being the third and final on-field logo left to feature here. The zaniness of this batting...