Builds Into the First True Worldwide Baseball Association

November 18, 2019: PEBA Headquarters — Sometimes it’s difficult to remember that a bit more than a decade ago there was actually concern that baseball would fade away as a major, professional sport. At that time, the MLB had crumbled, and the fledgling circus act associations the players tried to patch together had floundered and dispersed.  Into this mix stepped one John Rodriguez and a band of hard-working executives determined to bring baseball back to place it belonged.

Today the sporting world was set ablaze by the announcement that the Planetary Extreme Baseball Association and the League of the Rising Sun have committed to a long-term agreement that will take the league several long steps toward fulfilling that very lofty name.  The LRS will play its 2020 season in a contracted 8-team format, but 2021 will see those franchises become full partners in the most expansive baseball league the world has ever seen–some remaining behind in a Japanese division, and others relocating across the globe.

Yes, Havana, it appears that you will have a baseball club on the big stage.  And yes, you too, Amsterdam.  And while we’re at it, let’s throw in Dayton as a destination, too.

The news was delivered by PEBA Community Manager Matt Higgins during a Skype broadcast held at 1:00 PM GMT.

“Sometimes the greatest things come from tragedy,” Higgins said. “and this is one of those times.  As everyone is aware, the League of the Rising Sun has recently undergone great changes as a result of an attack on their financial security.  But the management of that league is so strong that it was able to retire into a very strong core.  So strong that it has opened an opportunity that just cannot be ignored.  So we are incredibly excited to announce our plans for restructuring the entire face of baseball across the world.”

JAPANESE FANS REACT

LRS spokesman Kevin Vail took the podium after Higgins and added that “Matt and the PEBA board have been working on this with great energy, and you can tell from fan reaction everywhere that the world is ready for this step.  We in the LRS are totally juiced to be able to bring baseball of this quality to the people of Japan.”  Apparently, the entertainment industry is sniffing a gold mine in the effort, also, as Vail announced the LRS would be signing a new Asian television and internet broadcasting contract that would bring $15M (US) to each of the exiting 8 teams–a shade under $4M more than the existing deal had provided.  In addition, he noted that the existing teams have been getting good traction in efforts to increase revenue from local media contracts.  “The reaction of our fans to this process has been outstanding, and that obvious demand has created an environment where I think every team in the LRS has been able to renegotiate stronger deals this year, and the news that we’re going to be in PEBA will almost certainly help us increase those next year.”

Indeed, Japanese fans are going crazy in ways only Japanese fans can.  Overnight, one group in Shin Seiki painted an exposed wall of Genesis Park (the team’s field) with a replica of the Planetary Extreme Championship trophy, draped in a Shin Seiki flag.  In Lupin, fans paraded in Cliff Hanger yellow, pink, and red, and sang the team’s fight song.  Several Naha fans took to the Twitter streams, posting play-by-play of imagined games.

And, while each fan base had their own reactions, the one thing that’s been common is that they are all rushing to their favorite stores to swoop up hats and shirts and banners.  “We understand the shops are having a hard time keeping up with demand,” Vail said.  “So we hope fans will be a little patient.  Things are moving pretty fast.”

THE STRUCTURE

 Higgins announced that the 2020 season would run as designed, and that all planning is pointed at 2021 and beyond.  “I want to thank every owner we worked with in this process.  It took a lot of coordination across the board, from the LRS teams all the way through the PEBA.  We have some of the best people in the world in this organization, and I think the results prove that.”

Higgins also noted that the PEBA had been planning expansion for well over a year, and that the timing of the unfortunate scandal that rocked the LRS was actually just about perfect.  “Certainly the idea of absorbing existing teams changes things a lot, but the core ideas were already in place.”

Here is the expected structure that the league will be in as they head to the Winter Meetings prior to the 2021 season:

Dixie Division

• San Antonio
• New Orleans
• Florida
• Kentucky
• Rio Grande Valley

The big news in Dixie will be the addition of the Kawaguchi Transmitters, who will relocate from Japan and settle in the Rio Grande Valley.  As part of this process, Transmitter GM Jonas Pine and Calzone’s GM Higgins will be swapping seats, with Higgins taking over the squad in Rio Grande Valley.

Intercontinental Division

• Havana
• London
• Amsterdam
• Dayton
• West Virginia

Not surprisingly, the PEBA will alter the existing Pan-Atlantic Division, and convert it into a new Intercontinental Division.  Two current LRS teams will relocate, Edo has already committed to its new home in Havana, and Fushigi Yugi will be in Dayton.  In addition, the PEBA’s storied Connecticut Nutmegger’s franchise has decided to leave the US Northeast and will take Amsterdam as its new home town.  Higgins noted with great excitement that the PEBA wanted to expand its international footprint, particularly in Europe.  The original thought was to move LRS teams into European cities, but those squads were more interested in other locations (hence Havana and Dayton). The board was at an end-road as to how to proceed when the Nutmeggers management shocked their world by suggesting that they liked the look of the Amsterdam market and took the opportunity to move to Europe.

“The Nutmeggers have had four straight seasons of growth on the field, and we know it is unusual for a successful franchise to consider relocation,” Higgins said.  “But both (owner) Paul Woodward, and (General Manager) Frank Esselink were excited about the opportunity to serve a new and growing segment of baseball fans.

This puts ID teams on three continents and in four countries.  Yes, it’s a world-wide game now.

Seaboard Division

•  Gloucester
• New Jersey
• Manchester
• Arlington
• Charleston
• Hartford

The Seaboard division will be made up of the remains of the Pan-Atlantic division, and will see the Omaha Cyclones move into Hartford.  This bit will not come as a shock to those who have been listening to the grapevine, as Omaha/Hartford management have been holding radio contests to name the franchise in the Hartford listening zones.

Higgins had little to say about rumors of legal issues during these discussions.  Insiders had apparently leaked that the PEBA offices had actually pressed the Cyclones to relocate to the US Eastern seaboard further south (North Carolina even possibly Maryland), but the Omaha leadership is rumored to have had its heart set on the Connecticut market. When you add this information to the news in local Connecticut outlets that suggested lawsuits were in the works from various state agencies to block the departure of the Nutmeggers, it is not hard to see the league quickly brokering the deal that included some tax incentives and land swaps in exchange for a relocation of the Cyclones to Hartford.

Is any of it true?  No one knows for sure, but one can be reasonably certain that deals like this don’t happen without some hardball happening behind closed doors.

Desert Hills Division

• Aurora
• Reno
• Bakersfield
• Palm Springs
• Yuma
• Tempe

Alas and alack!  No changes here?  What is the world coming to when nothing is changing?  Perhaps these guys are just the fuddy-duddy traditionalists, eh?  There was, apparently, some discussion of Tempe moving, but the once-proud Knights show no interest in finding other locations.  “I like the sun in Arizona,” said GM Rory Collins.

Great Lakes Division

•  Fargo
• Kalamazoo
• Canton
• Duluth
• Crystal Lake

The Great Lakes changes only in that they lose Omaha.  Some fans of other GL franchises have been tweeting since the news of the Cyclone relocation leaked, suggesting that this will be addition by subtraction, something owner Grey Davidson, III responded to by suggesting those fans might be better  served to go do anatomically difficult things and that he would be certain to send them a fruit basket the next time a GL team actually makes it out of the SL championship series.

Rising Sun Division

• Naha
• Shin Seki
• Neo Tokyo
• Ghosts
• Lupin

The league’s second new division will be comprised of the remaining five LRS teams, and will be (obviously) located in Japan.  Insiders say that it was important to LRS leadership and to the PEBA as a whole, that a division be kept in Japan if at all possible in order to ease the cultural shift of the fanbase from being a national league that the fans were (justifiably) proud of, into being a member of a larger entity.  “All of our work during this contraction period has been done with the fans clearly in mind,” Vail said.  “And this was no different.  We wanted Japanese fans to have an identity that they can build on.”

THE FUTURE OF THE PEBA

When asked about whether this would be the end of expansion, Higgins left the gate open.

“We currently don’t have any plans at this level of detail to expand.  We want to be very smart about how we manage our league.  This is a big shake-up, and everyone is just ecstatic about the strength of all of our organizations.  But, you look at the league structure and see obvious places for two or four more teams, and we’ve had thoughts about several other cities.  Our goal is to fill the globe with great baseball for our fans everywhere.  So we’ll let these changes settle for a season or so, and see where we’re at.  We always want to be moving forward from a position of strength.”

Yes, given the heady nature of this press conference, it’s hard to remember that just a dozen years ago it appeared baseball might be dead.  And it’s hard to adequately define the swings of emotion that have gone through the hearts of Japanese baseball fans over the past three weeks as they’ve watched their beloved league stagger to its knees only to rise like a prize-fighter at the 15th bell, to stand tall and proud and ready to go another fifteen.  But with this announcement, the PEBA has made its case.  Get prepared, ladies and gentlemen, baseball is now on a path to take its place as the world’s biggest international sport.