A major interest in minor leagues
Written by Rick Dandes
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If you are one of thousands of fans who revel in the intimacy and unmitigated charm of minor league baseball, you've plenty to choose from this summer in the Central Susquehanna Valley, where three teams play a full slate of games in Harrisburg (Senators),
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State College (Spikes) and Williamsport (Crosscutters).
At this level of play, there is a purity that is lost in the bigs. Here, it's not about the money, because so few of the players are bonus babies. It's mostly about the game itself.
"Seeing guys at the beginning of their careers, that's also a part of the appeal of minor league baseball," said Chuck Greenberg, president and managing partner of the State College Spikes, the Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate in the N.Y. Penn League. "At least that is one of the things that first attracted me to minor league games. We really can't 'sell' the players. At this level, players are barely out of college so they are basically unknowns."
Before becoming an owner of the Spikes, Greenberg remembers "seeing Yankee star Derek Jeter when he was just starting out. That's something I'll always remember.
"People who come to our games generally don't know these young players," he continued. "But some of them will make it to the big leagues. Others might even be stars. That's very appealing."
By day, Greenberg is a lawyer who is perhaps best known for helping to put a deal together that landed National Hockey League Hall-of-Fame player Mario Lemieux ownership of the then bankrupt Pittsburgh Penguins in 1999, thereby saving the franchise.
"One day in 2001, I got a call from one of the owners of the Altoona Curve, a minor league team," Greenberg said. "They had two owners who did not get along, and as a lawyer, I suppose they wanted me to intervene. Instead, I was asked if I wanted to buy the team.
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