By Woodrow Carroll
Three games into the Frontier League season, the Joliet Slammers held a 1-2 won-loss record through Sunday. The Slammers, an independent professional minor league team, had given up only five run, but, scored only four runs!
Up against the Sussex County (the most northern of all New Jersey counties) Miners, the Slammers opened at home. What followed were 1-0 and 3-2 defeats.
Although minor league baseball has been in the Joliet area for more than 100 years, the Slammers are a logical continuation of the Joliet JackHammers who played in the Northern League, 2002-2010.
Although the JackHammers had a loyal coterie of fans, there were financial problems! After the 2010 campaign, the JackHammers did not exist.
The JackHammers played their home games at the then-called Silver Cross Field in downtown Joliet. Naming rights changed and, for a time, the edifice was called Joliet Route 66 Field. Today, is Duly Health and Care Field which seats slightly in excess of 6,000.
The Frontier League is comprised of 16 teams, three in Canada, The Trois Rivières Aigles (Eagles), Ottawa Titans, and Quebec Capitales. Quebec is the defending League champion. Ottawa and Quebec (Quebec City) will be in Joliet for six games, June 13-18.
Four clubs in the Frontier League are Illinois-based, Joliet, the Gateway Grizzlies (Sauget near St. Louis), Schaumburg Boomers and Windy City Thunderbolts in Crestwood.
The League may call itself the Frontier League, however, a more accurate description would be the eastern and northern frontier.
Every team in the Frontier League is east of the Mississippi River, although the Gateway Grizzlies in Sauget, Ill. are within sight of the St. Louis’ Gateway Arch which is the gateway to the western frontier. Geographically, the Evansville Otters are the most southern team in the League and the Florence, Ky. Y’alls have a southern feel.
Evansville is far and away the senior member of the Frontier League. The Otters joined the League in 1995. and the Windy City franchise started in 1995, even though Windy City did not join the Frontier League until 1999.
The Otters play their home games at Bosse Field. Named for Evansville Mayor Benjamin Bosse, the field opened in 1915 and trails only Fenway Park (1912) and Wrigley Field (1914) in seniority among parks still in use. As you might imagine, Bosse Field has seen a wealth of baseball and other sporting events through the years.
For the second successive season, the Frontier League will feature the traveling Empire State Greys.
The Frontier League is comprised of 16 teams with the Slammers a part of the Western Division. To give the league numerical balance with eight clubs in each division, the Empire State Greys, are members of the League’s Eastern Division. They play a strictly road schedule, has its drawbacks. Last season, the Greys finished with a 6-90 record. Quebec, the League champion, had a 62-34 final regular-season record.
The Empire State Greys will play the Slammers Friday through Sunday.
League balance: After the first week in the Frontier League, no team is undefeated, nor without a victory. Even the Greys picked up a victory in their opening series of the season and every team started the week with a record of either 2-1 or 1-2.