The Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB) is a professional baseball league based in the United States.
It is an official MLB Partner League based in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States.
The Atlantic League's corporate headquarters is located at Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
The Atlantic League operates in cities not served by Major League Baseball (MLB) or Minor League Baseball (MiLB) teams; most of its teams are within suburbs and exurbs too close to other teams in the organized baseball system to have minor league franchises of their own.
The Atlantic League requires cities to have the market for a 4,000 to 7,500-seat ballpark and for the facility to be maintained at or above Triple-A standards.
When Atlantic League professionals are signed by MLB clubs, they usually start in their Double-A or Triple-A affiliates.
The league uses a pitch clock and limits the time between innings in an effort to speed up the game.
In 2019, the Atlantic League began a three-year partnership with Major League Baseball allowing MLB to implement changes to Atlantic League playing rules, in order to observe the effects of potential future rule changes and equipment.
In 2020, the Atlantic League, together with the American Association, the Frontier League, and the Pioneer League, expanded this agreement to become an official MLB Partner League.
History
In 1998, the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball played its inaugural season, with teams in Bridgewater, Newark, and Atlantic City, New Jersey; Nashua, New Hampshire; Newburgh, New York; and Bridgeport, Connecticut.
The creation of the league was the result of the New York Mets' objection to Frank Boulton's proposal to move the former Albany-Colonie Yankees because of its territorial rights to the region.
Boulton, a Long Island native, decided to create a new league that would have a higher salary cap for its players and a longer season than most of the other independent baseball organizations.
He modeled the Atlantic League after the older Pacific Coast League, with facilities that exceed AAA-level standards.
Boulton also emphasized signing players of Major League Baseball experience for all Atlantic League teams, raising the level of play above other independent leagues.
In 2010, the league announced that it would be expanding to Sugar Land, Texas and adding its first franchise not located in an Atlantic coast state.
The Sugar Land Skeeters began play in 2012.
In 2010, amid financial struggles, the Newark Bears moved from the Atlantic League to the Can-Am League, leaving the Bridgeport Bluefish and Somerset Patriots as the only teams remaining from the league's inaugural season.
In the summer of 2013, then-ALPB President Frank Boulton announced that he would be resigning so that he could devote more time to operating the Long Island Ducks.
He was replaced by longtime high-ranking Major League Baseball executive Rick White.
On July 8, 2015, the Atlantic League began using Rawlings baseballs with red and blue seams, virtually unused in the sport since the American League swapped the blue in their seams for red in 1934.
On September 1, 2015, the Atlantic League announced conditional approval for an expansion team or a relocated team to play in New Britain, Connecticut for the 2016 season.
On October 21, 2015, the Camden Riversharks announced they would cease operations immediately due to the inability to reach an agreement on lease terms with the owner of Campbell's Field, the Camden County Improvement Authority.
The team was replaced by the New Britain Bees for the 2016 season.
On May 29, 2016, Jennie Finch was the guest manager for the league's Bridgeport Bluefish, thus becoming the first woman to manage a professional baseball team.
Shortly before the conclusion of the 2017 season, the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut voted to not continue with professional baseball in the city and announced plans to convert The Ballpark at Harbor Yard into a music amphitheater; the Bridgeport Bluefish announced plans to relocate to High Point, North Carolina in 2019 when the construction of a new multipurpose facility in High Point is completed.
League officials announced the return of the Pennsylvania Road Warriors, an all road game team, to keep the league at an even eight teams while the Bluefish go inactive for the 2018 season.
The Atlantic League is generally regarded as the most successful and highest level of baseball among independent leagues.
Two former Atlantic League players have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame: Tim Raines and Rickey Henderson.
Other notable former and future Major League ballplayers who have played in the league include Roger Clemens, Scott Kazmir, Dontrelle Willis, Juan González, Francisco Rodríguez, John Rocker and José Canseco, and several others have coached or managed, including Gary Carter, Tommy John, Bud Harrelson, Gary Gaetti and Sparky Lyle.
The Atlantic League has consistently posted higher per game and per season attendance numbers than other independent circuits including the American Association, Can-Am League, and Frontier League.
In 2015, the Atlantic League experienced a watershed moment for independent baseball when it signed a formal agreement with Major League Baseball which put into writing the rules which the ALPB would follow in selling its players' contracts to MLB clubs and their affiliates.
This marked the first time that MLB, which has enjoyed a U.S. Supreme Court-granted antitrust exemption since 1922, had made any formal agreement with or acknowledgment of an independent baseball league.
2020s
In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the league announced that it would be unable to operate for the 2020 season with the current 8 member ballclubs, thereby canceling its season.
Several teams (Somerset, York, and Lancaster) did not gain necessary approval from governmental and health officials to open their ballparks to the capacity level necessary for competition.
They used their stadiums to host recreational and community-based events, as well as local baseball activities where allowed.
Meanwhile, the Long Island Ducks, High Point Rockers, and Southern Maryland Blue Crabs initially attempted to partner with teams from other leagues in order to play a 70-game season from mid-July through the end of September.
However, due to ongoing restrictions and capacity limitations, they ultimately decided to suspend all baseball activities for the 2020 season.
The only teams that played in 2020 was the Sugar Land Skeeters, who would create a new 4-team independent league in Texas, with all 60 games played at Constellation Field, and the Somerset Patriots, who played weekend games with a second squad called the New Jersey Blasters.
In July 2020, the league announced the addition of a new franchise in Gastonia, North Carolina beginning in 2021; it is the league's second team based in North Carolina.
In November 2020, the Atlantic League lost its last charter franchise and its westernmost franchise when both teams became official minor league affiliates.
On November 7, the Somerset Patriots announced that they were leaving the league to join the MLB-affiliated Eastern League, where they will replace the Trenton Thunder as the Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees.
Approximately two weeks later, the Houston Astros announced that they had purchased a controlling stake in the Sugar Land Skeeters and, as a result, the Skeeters would become the Astros' Triple-A affiliate and join the Pacific Coast League.
On February 18, 2021, the league announced the addition of the Lexington Legends, previously the Class A South Atlantic League affiliate of the Kansas City Royals, for the 2021 season.
The Charleston Dirty Birds, formerly the West Virginia Power of the Class A South Atlantic League, announced their move to the league on February 24, 2021.
Experimental rules
2019
In March 2019, the Atlantic League and Major League Baseball reached agreement to test multiple rule changes during the 2019 Atlantic League season:
Use of a radar tracking system to assist umpires in calling balls and strikes
Reducing the time between half innings by 20 seconds, from 2 minutes 5 seconds to 1:45
Requiring pitchers to face at least three batters
Exceptions: side is retired or injury
Banning mound visits
Exceptions: pitching change or for medical issues
Restricting infield shifts
Two infielders must be positioned on each side of second base
Increasing the size of bases from  to
The size of home plate is not altered
Moving the pitching rubber on the pitcher's mound back
This change would have taken effect in the second half of the season
In April 2019, implementation of two of the changes was delayed:
The tracking system for calling balls and strikes "will be implemented gradually over the course of the 2019 season"
Moving the pitching rubber back will not occur until the second half of the 2020 Atlantic League season; this rule change was never implemented.
The tracking system for calling balls and strikes was introduced at the league's all-star game on July 10.
In addition to rule changes noted above, additional changes being implemented for the second half of the league's 2019 season are:
Pitchers required to step off rubber to attempt pickoff
One foul bunt permitted with two strikes
Batters may "steal" first base
"Any pitched ball not caught by the catcher shall be subject to the same baserunning rules for the batter as an uncaught third strike, with the exception of the first base occupied with less than two out exclusion."
"Check swings" more batter-friendly
"In making his ruling, the base umpire should determine whether the batter's wrists 'rolled over' during an attempt to strike at the ball and, if not, call the pitch a ball."
2021
The Atlantic League and MLB jointly announced that the former would adopt several additional experimental rules for the 2021 season:
The automated ball-strike calling system introduced for 2019 remains in use, but has been tweaked.
The strike zone, which had been a three-dimensional space above home plate in 2019, changed to a two-dimensional space measured at the front of home plate.
A "double-hook" rule is in force for the entire season.
Under this rule, once a team removes its starting pitcher, it loses the right to use a designated hitter for the rest of the game.
During the second half of the season (starting on August 3), the pitcher's rubber was moved back , making the distance between the front edge of the rubber to the rear point of home plate .
Teams
League timeline
DateFormat  = mm/dd/yyyy ImageSize =  width:1200 height:auto barincrement:20 Period =  from:01/01/1998 till:12/31/2025 TimeAxis =  orientation:horizontal PlotArea    = right:20 left:20 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph,  use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<# Colors =  id:barcolor  id:line  value:pink  id:bg  value:white           id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a current league member           id:Other value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another current league           id:Future value:rgb(0.565,0.933,0.565) # Use color for a proposed new team/relocation
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bar:1  color:Full from:01/01/1998 till:12/31/2006 text:[[Atlantic City Surf]] (1998–2006)  bar:1  color:Other from:01/01/2007 till:12/31/2008
bar:2  color:Full from:01/01/1998 till:01/01/2018 text:[[Bridgeport Bluefish]] (1998–2017)
bar:3  color:Full from:01/01/1998 till:12/31/2005 text:[[Nashua Pride]] (1998–2005)  bar:3  color:Other from:01/01/2006 till:12/31/2011
bar:4  color:Full from:01/01/1998 till:12/31/2010 text:[[Newark Bears]] (1998–2010)  bar:4  color:Other from:01/01/2011 till:12/31/2013
bar:5  color:Full from:01/01/1998 till:12/31/2001 text:[[Newburgh Black Diamonds|Newburgh/Lehigh Valley Black Diamonds]] (1998–2001)
bar:6 color:Full from:01/01/2002 till:12/31/2004 text:[[Pennsylvania Road Warriors]] (2002–2004)  bar:6 color:Full from:01/01/2006 till:12/31/2007 shift: 50 text:[[Pennsylvania Road Warriors|Road Warriors]] (2006–2007, 2011, 2018, 2020)  bar:6 color:Full from:01/01/2011 till:12/31/2011  bar:6 color:Full from:01/01/2018 till:12/31/2018  bar:6 color:Full from:01/01/2020 till:12/31/2020
bar:7 color:Full from:01/01/1998 till:12/31/2020 text:[[Somerset Patriots]] (1998–2020)  bar:7 color:Other from:01/01/2021 till:end
bar:8 color:Full from:01/01/2000 till:12/31/2000 text:[[Aberdeen Arsenal]] (2000)
bar:9 color:Full from:01/01/2000 till:end text:[[Long Island Ducks]] (2000–present)
bar:10 color:Full from:01/01/2001 till:10/21/2015 text:[[Camden Riversharks]] (2001–2015)
bar:11 color:Full from:01/01/2005 till:end text:[[Lancaster Barnstormers]] (2005–present)
bar:12 color:Full from:01/01/2007 till:end text:[[York Revolution]] (2007–present)
bar:13 color:Full from:01/01/2008 till:end text:[[Southern Maryland Blue Crabs]] (2008–present)
bar:14 color:Full from:01/01/2012 till:12/31/2020 text:[[Sugar Land Skeeters]] (2012–2020)  bar:14 color:Other from:01/01/2021 till:end
bar:15 color:Full from:01/01/2016 till:10/28/2019 text:[[New Britain Bees]] (2016–2019)  bar:15 color:Other from:10/29/2019 till:end
bar:16 color:Full from:01/01/2019 till:end text:[[High Point Rockers]] (2019–present)
bar:17 color:Full from:01/01/2021 till:end text:[[Gastonia Honey Hunters]] (2021–present)
bar:18 color:Full from:01/01/2021 till:end text:[[Lexington Legends]] (2021–present)
bar:19 color:Full from:01/01/2021 till:end text:[[Charleston Dirty Birds]] (2021–present)
bar:20 color:Full from:01/01/2022 till:end text:[[Staten Island FerryHawks]] (2022–future)
bar:21 color:Full from:01/01/2023 till:end text:Hagerstown (2023–future)
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{{Font color||{{RGB|190|186|218}}|League members}} {{Font color||{{RGB|255|255|179}}|Moved to another league}} <# Former teams
Proposed teams that never played
Championship Series
The ALPB Championship Series is played as a best-of-five.
Numbers in parenthesis denote the number of championships won by a team to that point, when more than one.
All-Star Games
Freedom Division won the 2019 game in a "homer-off" after the teams were tied at the end of nine innings.
League records
Major League Baseball players
Some Atlantic League players have come from, or advanced to, the higher ranks of Major League Baseball.
Some have resurrected their careers and returned to the majors, while others played in the independent league during the start or end of their careers.
The following is a list of some of those players:
Ruben Sierra - Played for the Atlantic City Surf in 1999 after more than a decade in MLB.
Returned to the Texas Rangers in 2000 and named American League Comeback Player of the Year in 2001.
Jose Canseco - Played for the Newark Bears in 2001 after a long MLB career.
Returned to a minor league team in 2002 but did not play in the majors again.
Tim Raines - Played for the Somerset Patriots briefly in 2000.
Returned to the Montreal Expos in 2001.
Carlos Baerga - Played for the Long Island Ducks in 2001.
Returned to the Boston Red Sox in 2002.
Rickey Henderson - Played for the Newark Bears in 2003 before signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Henderson then returned to the Newark Bears in 2004, his final season in the Atlantic League.
Stephen Drew - Drafted in the first round in 2004 by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Played for the Camden Riversharks in 2005 while working out his rookie MLB contract.
Then played for the Diamondbacks and several other teams, winning a World Series with the Red Sox in 2013.
Ross Detwiler - Drafted in the first round in 2007 by the Washington Nationals.
Became a key member of Nationals' pitching staff in 2011 and 2012 and pitched well in the franchise's first playoff series since moving from Montreal.
Bounced around several teams, then signed with the York Revolution in 2018.
Called back to several MLB teams, including the Miami Marlins in 2021.
Steve Lombardozzi Jr. - Drafted in the 19th round in 2008 by the Washington Nationals.
Bounced around several teams, then signed with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs in 2016.
Advanced back to MLB later that year but did not play much and signed with the Long Island Ducks in 2019.
Brandon Phillips - Drafted by the Cleveland Indians in 2002.
He went on to play 10 seasons with the Cincinnati Reds.
In 2021, it was announced that he would join the Lexington Legends as a player and part-owner.
See also
Baseball awards#U.S. independent professional leagues
References
Further reading
External links
