Is Rockford the 12th team?

Let's face it, the Kalamazoo Kings have no plans to play in the Frontier League in 2011.

Never did.

That much became obvious when the Kings let their employees go last fall, closed the office, didn't sell season sponsorships for 2011 or sign coaches and players. Who knows what Kings owner Bill Wright was trying to accomplish when he told the Kalamazoo Gazette in mid-February "I’m not leaning towards playing."

Wright knows he's not going to field a team. The rest of the Frontier League knows the Kings won't be around for spring training in May. Commissioner Bill Lee knows it, too.

So why is Kalamazoo still on the schedule? How can a baseball league go ahead with an odd number of teams? Why didn't Lee give Kalamazoo a drop-dead date to announce it's intention to play or "go dark" this season? Will the Frontier League revive the Midwest Sliders and have a travel team as its 12th club?

That's a lot of questions. And because I asked 'em, I'll get the first crack at playing Answer Man. Here goes:

Kalamazoo is still on the schedule because, well, you need a 12th team. Some team is going to play Kalamazoo's schedule. It just won't be the Kings. That Kalamazoo was even on the schedule in the first place, without a commitment from its owner to field a team, makes no sense. Those at the league office must have felt having a schedule with a bogus team at least helped the other 11 clubs in their efforts to start selling tickets and securing ballpark dates.

Obviously, the Frontier League can't have a season with 11 teams. There are two alternatives: the traveling Midwest Sliders or bring in a team from another league.

That leads us to a story by ballparkdigest.com. The website reported Thursday that a group with ties to the Prospect League's Chillicothe Paints (formerly of the Frontier League) is negotiating to purchase the Rockford RiverHawks (formerly of the Frontier League) and move them from the North American Baseball League back to the Frontier.

A quick background: Rockford joined the Frontier League in 2002 and played through 2009. Last year, the RiverHawks defected and joined the Northern League, with its no-age-limit rule and higher salary cap. Though the switch helped both leagues -- each had an odd number of teams before the move -- there were some hard feelings among Frontier League owners toward Rockford's ownership.

To make a long story short, Rockford was one of the three remaining Northern League teams that joined forces several months ago with the struggling Golden League and struggling United League to form the NABL. One of those former NL teams (the cash-strapped Schaumburg Flyers) are no more. The other, the Lake County Fielders, don't have a completed stadium.

The NABL has problems and they are great. It has teams ranging from Calgary to Maui to San Angelo, Texas. Only Rockford and Lake County (Ill.) are in the midwest. Travel is going to be wildly costly for Rockford, if the league even makes it to opening day. Selling the club solves many potential problems for Rockford's owners.

According to ballparkdigest.com, the NAL recently circulated a new 10-team schedule that does not include Rockford. The RiverHawks were supposed to have a news conference last Thursday to discuss their schedule in the NABL. I was told that event was postponed until Monday.

Expect that news conference to either be scrapped again or held to announce the RiverHawks are being sold and moving back to the Frontier League. Let's assume the latter happens. It would create some minor problems and solve many big ones.

Rockford, of course, would inherit Kalamazoo's schedule and play in the East Division. The RiverHawks also would have to trade or release many of its players because they're over the FL's age limit. According to the RiverHawks' website, Rockford has 23 players signed. They would have to get rid of 11 because of the Frontier League's age rules.

That leaves the problem of what to do with the 20 players whose options were exercised during the winter by Kalamazoo. The scenarios that make the most sense would be to declare those players free agents or hold a dispersal draft. Transferring them to Rockford makes no sense.

Then again, what has made sense this offseason in the Frontier League?