In the ever changing landscape of Minor League Baseball, a new move is about to come.
The Batavia MuckDogs are about to move to Waldorf MD for the 2017 season.
The MuckDogs are operated by the Rochester Redwings but without much of a profit. So the team has been for sale for a couple of years now.
An investor group has signed a contract to buy the MuckDogs, now a Miami Marlins affiliate. Notable detail about this deal is that if the deal is approved by several parties, the MuckDogs (or whatever they will be called after the move) will be the first club with a majority shareholder who is from African-American descent.
Next to Major League baseball, and the New York-Penn League, the Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles will have a say in this move, the latter two because of their territorial rights.
The reason for the move may not be hard to guess as the MuckDogs are drawing the least fans by far for several years. A bit less than 33,000 fans passed the turnstiles last year. The second worst drawing team, the Auburn DoubleDays welcomed about 50,000 fans last year.
I always have some mixed feelings about the move of a team, but one thing is for sure, we can expect a new set of minor league merchandise for the next season.
If the team will move, it will play at Regency Furniture Stadium, currently home of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the independent Atlantic League. That team will have to look for a new location. But there is still a vacancy in Camden New Jersey, where the RiverSharks played until they moved to New Britain after last season. At least that can be a temporary solution because there are several minor league clubs interested to move into that stadium.
Dutch Baseball Hangout 
So they better call it the Opening Day Partners League. 😉
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Yeah, they own half the league. Long Island, Somerset, and Bridgeport are the only ones not owned by them.
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I did not know that both teams had the same owner.
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Both the (now defunct) Camden Riversharks and Southern Maryland Blue Crabs are owned by Opening Day Partners. I doubt Opening Day Partners would move the Blue Crabs to a city they just left. That said, I hope Batavia moves to Camden and Southern Maryland gets to keep the Blue Crabs (I’m from Waldorf and have been a fan of the Crabs since day one).
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Me neither Daniel. But it looks like that Camden is fine with moving elsewhere.
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Washington can always make the team an affiliate if it moves to Waldorf.
I still think Batavia should become a Phillies farm team & move to Camden. I don’t understand why they would move to a ballpark that is occupied by another team
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