If you don't build it, they will leave

In its 20 or so years of existence, independent baseball has had its share of success stories (see places like Lincoln, Neb., or some of the franchises and leagues that have been around for a decade or more). However, without ties to major league organizations to help pay the bills, indy baseball is crapshoot at best. At its worst, it's a mess for all involved. An example of the latter can be found in Zion, Ill., home of the Lake County Fielders of the North American Baseball League.

How the Fielders' situation is tied to the Wild Things and ends up on this blog is this: Steve Grife, a relief pitcher who re-joined the Wild Things Friday, spent the first half of the season with Lake County after being traded there by Washington late in spring training. The Fielders' story and Grife's recounting of his experience with the team makes you appreciate the Wild Things and the Frontier League.

A little background on the Fielders: The team was an expansion outfit last year, billing itself as having actor Kevin Costner as one of its owners. The primary owner, however, is a guy named Rich Ehrenrich, who left a trail of unpaid bills after owning the Northern League team in Schaumburg, Ill.

The Fielders lured Fran Riordan away from the Frontier League to manage the team last season. They played much of the season's first half on the road while a "temporary" ballpark was being built. Riordan got out of Lake County after the season and returned the Frontier League as the Florence Freedom's manager. It was the best move Riordan has ever made.

This year, Lake County joined the new North American Baseball League and was put in a division with teams in Calgary, Edmonton and Hawaii (can you see how money is going to be a problem?). The Fielders and the league, from what I can gather, were told that their temporary ballpark would be completed by midseason. So the NABL scheduled the Fielders to start the season with a 31-game road trip.

That's right, 31 consecutive games on the road. Two trips to Hawaii, trips to Canada, Arizona and California. The team flew from city to city, except for a bus trip from Edmonton to Calgary.

"The flights were hectic," Grife said Saturday. "We didn't always have the players and coaches on the same flight. One time, when we went to Hawaii, we were split, on two flights. By game time, we had only half the team there and no coaches. All the position players were there plus two or three relievers. The players made out the lineup. The manager got there sometime in the first inning. We ended up winning the game in 14 or 15 innings."

Throughout their seven weeks on the road, there was one serious problem: a lack of money. In part because they were on the road and not generating revenue from home games, and in part because of lousy ownership, the Fielders were rarely getting paid or their $20 meal money per day.

According to Grife, sometimes the money was there, sometimes the paychecks bounced. Meal money was always a problem.

At one point, the Fielders held a team meeting and discussed whether they should play that night's game or not, and whether they should quit or continue the season. But as Grife pointed out, how would the players get home if they decided enough was enough and they were quitting? After all, they weren't getting paid.

"Our coaches were phenomenal," Grife said. 'They were behind us 100 percent. They paid for some of our meals out of their own pockets. They kept us afloat."

So the Fielders marched on, hoping that things would change when they returned to Zion for their home opener July 3 against the Yuma Scorpions and their player/manager Jose Canseco.

Through all the troubles, the amazing part of the Fielders' story is they returned home in first place in the NABL's East Division.

"We took an attitude of us against the world," Grife said. "The team was awesome. We knew we were going to win. We would hit three or four home runs a night, steal some bases and our starting pitchers would go eight or nine innings."

The Fielders finally made it to Illinois and found that their ballpark was still a "temporary" facility. But, the home opener drew approximately 5,000 fans. And, during one game in the middle of the seven-game homestand with Yuma, Grife capped a Fielders victory by striking out Canseco to end the game.

"I kept throwing him fastballs and he kept nipping 'em and fouling 'em off," Grife recalled. "I know a younger version of (Canseco) would have hit a couple of those fastballs out of the park. I finally got him on a fastball up and in. I think he he got tired from swinging and fouling off so many pitches. He got worn out."

Still, though they were playing at home, the Fielders weren't getting paid. Shortly before the July 9 against Yuma (the next-to-last of the series), Fielders manager Tim Johnson quit. It was reported that Johnson, the former manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, hadn't been paid since May.

Out of protest, 11 Lake County players refused to play that night.

Hiting coach Pete LaCock, a former Chicago Cubs player (and son of longtime Hollywood Squares host Peter Marshall) ran the team that night. With a limited roster, he put pitchers in the field. Grife played five innings at shortstop. Some non-pitchers pitched.

To level the playing field, Canseco decided to let some of his pitchers play the field. Canseco even pitched six innings, throwing fastballs and knuckleballs. Grife had one hit off Canseco.

LaCock quit after the game but was fined $2,500 by the league for "making a farce of the game."

Earlier that day, the Fielders players had filed for free agency because they were not being paid. By Monday (two days later), 13 of them became free agents. Nine others were traded. Grife was among those released.

In all, the Fielders had four managers in less than a week and either released or traded 23 players in three days.

"It came down to a lot of promises that weren't kept," Grife said. "When we became free agents, you should have heard the cell phones ringing. A lot of teams were looking for players. We had two pitchers go to Windy City, one to Normal."

Grife called Washington manager Darin Everson, who offered the right-hander another shot with the Wild Things and, yes, a regular paycheck.

Here are a few links to stories about the Fielders' fiasco:

Read the story here.

Read the story here.