Back when there was Minor League baseball at Bowman Field, one of the many between-innings fan contests featured was the tried and true game of musical chairs. You know the gig, four chairs for five people, the music plays, and the contestants scramble to find a chair, eliminating one of the participants. The act is then repeated with three chairs and four people, eventually culminating in one winner seated.

The crowd laughs, the winner gets some sort of prize, and the chairs are carried off the field to await the next on-field appearance. It’s all in good fun and in the Minor League baseball playbook of keeping the crowd entertained.

As summer turns to autumn and Major League Baseball battles COVID-19, hoping to crown a champion in this truncated 60-game season, Commissioner Rob Manfred has been paying a behind-the-scenes real-life game of musical chairs. Only this game does not involve plastic blowup chairs; it is much more serious as Manfred is moving ahead with his plan to pull the chairs out from under 40 communities currently hosting Minor League baseball teams.

In case you are not aware or have forgotten, the agreement in place between MLB and their Minor League affiliates expires on September 30. Before the start of Spring Training, MLB introduced a plan to reduce the minor leagues by 40 teams, effective in 2021. The Williamsport Crosscutters and their NY-Penn League brethren are among those teams that could be left without a chair when the music stops. While a lot of things have changed for MLB during the 2020 season, nothing has happened, at least publicly, that has altered those plans for minor league reduction.
Manfred’s rationale for reducing the number of Minor League teams includes:
• Existing inadequate facilities
• Untenable travel with 77 MiLB relocations since 1990
• Inadequate pay for minor league players (By reducing 40 existing MiLB teams, MLB will be able to address the growing issue of paying its minor league players a more equitable wage).
• The drafting and signing of players who don’t realistically have a shot at making it to the Major Leagues.
Applying Manfred’s concerns to baseball in Williamsport:

Very few, in any, minor league facilities have a better playing surface than Bowman Field. Since the advent of the MLB/Little League Classic, significant upgrades have been made to the ballpark, most of which MLB paid for. Since the end of last summer, improvements have been made to the visitor’s clubhouse, umpire room, and press box, and funding has been obtained for a new scoreboard for the facility.

Williamsport began its professional baseball existence in 1926 and, with very few exceptions, has fielded a team every year since. The NY-Penn League is a “bus league,” and while many late-night trips are made community to community, only the jaunt to the Vermont Lake Monsters in Burlington can be deemed excessive.

Yep, minor league players, except those signed as high draft choices, don’t make much; about $1,200 a month at the short-season Class A level, during the playing season. But, whose fault is that? With the money MLB shells out to its players, they could make that pay more equitable — if they chose to.

Yes, most minor league players will never “make it to the show,” but their existence provides fans with the “baseball experience” and keeps them interested in the game.

If Manfred’s plan is adopted, 22 states will lose minor league teams. With access to professional baseball reduced dramatically, it is estimated 14 million people will be at least 50 miles away from a MiLB team. This comes at a time when many families see MiLB as an affordable alternative to MLB games, giving their kids a chance to enjoy baseball and experience the game at an affordable cost.

The existence of the locally popular MLB/Little League Classic was born from the Commissioner’s desire to grow the game and connect with a younger audience. The recent announcement of the game’s extension in conjunction with Little League’s new eight-year contract with ESPN underlines that desire. Yet, this proposal would take away access for fans and families to see baseball games close up. Fewer minor league teams will also result in thousands of people losing their jobs and a source of income, significant negative economic impact on the communities losing teams, in addition to more than 1,000 young athletes losing their dream as professional baseball players.

The proposed plan would reduce the number of MiLB teams from 160 to 120. It’s time for a math lesson. With 30 MLB teams, that equals each team having four minor league affiliates. The Philadelphia Phillies minor league affiliates include: Lehigh Valley (AAA), Reading (AA), and Class A Clearwater (Florida State League) and Lakewood (South Atlantic League). Yep, that’s Williamsport standing alone with no chair to jump into.

Should the plan go through, each MLB team would have four full-season affiliates plus a Rookie-level team located at spring training complexes. This comes at a time when MLB made the move for 2020 to cut the annual player draft from 40 rounds to 5. (The draft will increase to 20-30 rounds next season). That writing on the wall seems pretty indelible.

When playing musical chairs, those who stand around and wait, lose. But that is the only option the Crosscutters and other minor league teams seem to have at the moment. There has been some speculation that Williamsport will have some type of baseball at Bowman Field next season. Still, even if they do, there is no identified definition as to what baseball in Williamsport might look like in 2021.

Regardless of the plan’s final outcome, the landscape of MiLB across the country will definitely be changing.