Bats crack. Occasionally, the Louisville Sluggers wielded at ballparks in the Quad Cities and Kane County, in Rockford and Peoria break and splinter. But when wood connects with horsehide, the sound isn't a pop or snap or crackle. It's a crack. Like thunder and lightning.

Lightning has struck Illinois in the form of electrifying minor league baseball, which remains a hot sport as well as a thriving business.

Still rooted in remnants of the sand-lot game, baseball in the Midwest League features athletics and show business sufficiently sophisticated, skilled and professional to attract hundreds of thousands of fans who follow the Rockford Cubbies, the Quad City River Bandits, the Kane County Cougars and the Peoria Chiefs.

For Illinoisans within a comfortable drive of these teams, they're premium commodities that offer communities flashes of economic gain, but real power for an area's quality of life. From planning and budgeting to licensing and retail operations, minor league baseball may be big business, but few claim solid economic boosts because of jobs or extra commerce. Instead, minor league baseball is a plus for residents who enjoy spectator sports in particular and entertainment in general.

"Baseball isn't a driving economic development force," comments J.C. DeLass of the River Bandits, a Houston Astros affiliate. "We're more of a part of the cultural infrastructure."

Rocky Vonachen agrees. He's the 36-year-old general manager of the Chiefs, the St. Louis Cardinals' Class-A team in Peoria. "Pro sports, even at the minor league level, adds to the 'livability' of a community," Vonachen says. "People or companies looking to move somewhere look at references like Places Rated and notice sports. No question." Leaning back in his office chair before a night game against the Beloit Snappers, Vonachen smiles and adds, "From baseball and ballet to boating and the symphony orchestra, it's all part of the package small cities offer — better places to live."

In fact, Places Rated and similar books — The Rating Guide to Life in America's Small Cities and Facts about

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Baseball's minor leagues have experienced a resurgence in popularity. Some operators trace the minors' comeback to the strike in 1981 when more fans turned to the only baseball professionals still playing. But higher attendance is also due to aggressive promotions and marketing.

the Cities — equate sports, diversions or recreation with housing, taxes and groceries in category listings.

Besides such acknowledgment and its implied respectability, baseball's minor leagues have experienced a resurgence in popularity. Some operators trace the minors' comeback to the strike in 1981, when more fans turned to the only baseball professionals still playing. "Sometimes I think the baseball strike was the best thing to ever happen to the minor leagues," Vonachen says. "Last season, we drew 195,000 people, and we've drawn more than 170,000 a season nine out of the last 10 years."

The Rockford Cubbies drew 110,000 last summer, but the Quad City River Bandits totaled 257,000 and the Kane County Cougars in Geneva brought in a whopping 460,000 — all due not only to Major League Baseball's contract dispute, but also to aggressive promotions and marketing, and an affordable entertainment value.

The upswing has continued. For instance, in a single season, 1993, minors' attendance increased 10 percent — to 30 million people. With increasing popularity has come greater value.

"I'll tell you this much," Vonachen continues. "When my dad bought this franchise in the early '80s, he paid $140,000. When he bought it again in '94, [we] paid $2 million."

Despite apparent inflation, most franchises are stable, according to DeLass. "We're an integral part of the Quad Cities community," says DeLass, the River Bandits' director of broadcasting and media relations. "Not only do we get corporate sponsors like Alcoa and John Deere to take part, but fans. We offer an important service: entertainment."

Peoria's Vonachen shares a sense of assurance, as his Chiefs are getting more entertaining on the field. In an early May matchup with Beloit, the Peoria squad recovers from yielding a towering home run to the Snappers' Mike Kinkade to score four runs in what becomes a half-hour first inning. Everybody's smiling.

"Even though there's some talk of Major League Baseball cutting costs and renegotiating the basic agreement with the minors, we're pretty confi-

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dent," Vonachen says. "In the history of this franchise, it's been affiliated with the Indians, the Angels, the Cubs and the Cardinals, and it's stable. Plus, the Cardinals are still as committed to funding the development of ballplayers as they've ever been, dating back to Branch Rickey."

Rickey — the Cardinals and Dodgers baseball executive who broke baseball's color line by signing Jackie Robinson — also pioneered spring training and the farm system. Under that system, Major League Baseball clubs would own or control minor league franchises to develop their own talent rather than buying minor leaguers' contracts from local owner/operators, a system favored by baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

He criticized Rickey's scheme as "chain-store baseball" and punished him when he found out Rickey controlled entire leagues of minor league teams. In the 1930s Landis declared more than 100 minor leaguers free agents after learning Rickey improperly moved them between teams he controlled.

The Peoria franchise has been affiliated with the Indians, the Angels, the Cubs and the Cardinals. This shot was taken before 1992.

By the 1950s, some 10,000 ballplayers were in hundreds of teams in dozens of leagues throughout the United States. Now, about 3,400 athletes play in baseball's minors, from Class-AAA, just below the majors, down to Class-AA, and further down to Class-A and the Rookie League. The Midwest League is a Class-A level with 14 teams in three divisions from Burlington, Iowa, to South Bend, Ind. Most Major League Baseball teams now have five to eight affiliate clubs. Half of the major leagues' 28 clubs have affiliates in the Midwest League. Besides the Cubs in Rockford, the Cards in Peoria and the Astros in the Quads, the Florida Marlins have an agreement with Kane County.

Major League Baseball has floated trial balloons ranging from eliminating the minors in favor of using collegiate training (like the NFL and the NBA), to MLB clubs cutting back to only one Class-AAA, one Class-AA and two Class-A teams, Vonachen says. "I just don't think it's going to change that much," he says. "It's popular with fans, and it's cost-effective for the majors."

The current pact between Major League Baseball and the minors — extended through 1997 while negotiations continue with the Major League Baseball Players Association for a new basic agreement — provides minor league teams with about 5 percent of their total revenues, which include not just gate receipts, but concessions and

Baseball is a habit that operates in the marketplace The business of baseball is business That's the argument in a handful of recent books analyzing the sport's history and current operations in an economic context. "The innocence that was so much a part of the game has been lost," writes John Feinstein in his Play Ball! The Life and Troubled Times of Major League Baseball. John Helyar agrees in his Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball. "Before it was ever a business it was a game," writes Helyar, who also recounts Cubs owner Phil Wrigley's remark, "Baseball is too much of a business to be a sport and too much of a sport to be a business." Union leader Marvin Miller, in his A Whole Different Ballgame: The Inside Story of Baseball's New Deal, adds reflection and perspective to a revealing autobiography detailing ballplayers' fight to escape wage slavery. But more objective (if less readable) is Coming Apart at the Seams: How Baseball Owners, Players and Television Executives Have Led Our National Pastime to the Brink of Disaster, by Jack Sands and Peter Gammons. Quoting Giants Manager Bill Terry upon his 1941 retirement, they write, "Baseball must be a great game to survive the fools who run it." Although small civil wars seem to erupt among cities competing for franchises from Major League Baseball (or other pro sports), David Whitford in Playing Hardball: The High-Stakes Battle for Baseball's New Franchises writes that the conflicts largely remain at the city level. Pro sports don't need to go looking for Denver or Phoenix, because they — and St. Petersburg and New Orleans and others — come looking for them. Andrew Zimbalist, in his Baseball and Billions: A Probing Look Inside the Big Business of Our National Pastime argues that as long as government chooses not to moderate or mediate the business side of baseball, the game side of the sport will suffer: "The commercial imperative has defined Major League Baseball's path until now and, without a concerted political effort, it is likely to do so in the future." Bill Knight

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merchandise and licensing income.

Midwest League team revenue figures were unavailable, but Major League Baseball pays for equipment and meals and for some transportation, plus players', coaches' and trainers' salaries. Players earn about $1,000 per month during a five-month, 140-game season, with only token health insurance.

In return for their investment in minor league affiliates — an average of about $5.5 million per major league club — Major League Baseball gets a 42-month exclusive right to sign drafted players, who get training and experience away from top-market limelights. And unlike 50 years ago, when Major League Baseball owned most of its own minor league teams, most today are owned by entrepreneurs or communities, who arrange affiliations with Major League Baseball. And rearrange them.

In Peoria, the offices at Meinen Field's Vonachen Stadium — named for Rocky's father Pete — look out over a 6,200-seat facility the team leases from the Peoria Park District, which spent $2.5 million renovating it three years ago. Local businessmen Mike Murtaugh, Mike Woleben and Al Gordon own the Kane County Cougars and lease Elfstrom Stadium from the Kane County Forest Preserve. The Chicago Tribune owns the Rockford Cubbies and leases Marinelli Field from the local park district. Chicago businessman Richard Holtzman owns the Quad City River Bandits, as well as a Class-AAA team in Tucson, Ariz., and leases O'Donnell Stadium from the city of Davenport.

Midwest League attendance
• 14 teams in five states make up the Midwest League. • The Midwest League attracted 2.8 million in 1995. • Midwest League cities include Chicago and the suburbs, the Quad Cities, Grand Rapids, Peoria, South Bend, Fort Wayne, Appleton, Cedar Rapids, Burlington, Clinton, Rockford, Beloit, Battle Creek and Lansing. Source: Facts at a Glance, Washington Urban Institute

In Springfield, the Cardinals couldn't come to terms on renting the stadium for its Class-A Redbirds three years ago and moved to Madison, Wis. From there, they went to Lansing, Mich., where a $13 million stadium was built for the team — now called the Lugnuts and affiliated with the Royals. The Lugnuts expect to draw 500,000 people this year — 10 times the attendance the Redbirds drew in their last year in Springfield, Vonachen says.

"It's most definitely still a game — it's more fun than the majors, I think — but it's getting a little complicated, too," Vonachen says. "Our group's purchase of the Chiefs took months, compared to minutes 10, 12 years ago. And even at the minor league level, I've heard of seminars for city managers and economic development staff on how to approach a pro team."

Financing private enterprise with public money isn't always a good idea. Or right. But when professional sports are the enterprises, passions run as hot as a screaming grounder to third base. After all, sports are more than just business, right?

No. And yes.

The Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau in one brochure promotes the Chiefs alongside five area theaters, a museum, the gambling boat and the zoo. "It's definitely a whole new ballgame," adds Vonachen. "The presence of the Chiefs adds something to the Peoria area — like the Bradley [University] Braves, like the Festival of Lights. Our absence would hurt the area."

Of course, Vonachen's claim may not satisfy critics of the White Sox' new Comiskey Park on Chicago's South Side, nor sideline the threats and promises linked to the Bears' desire for a new stadium. To many, private enterprise should remain separate.

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"The recent orgy of forcing taxpayers to subsidize the multimillionaire owners of sports corporations shows no signs of abating, as cities grovel to outbid one another," writes consumer advocate Ralph Nader. ''The [major league] bids normally range between $200 million to $400 million packages, and the giveaway contracts do not require any share of profits or any other kind of payback to the taxpayers."

But at Illinois' minor league level, baseball fans show that professional sports can be much more than loans and tax abatements, labor-management disputes and ever-increasing prices. For here, at the grass roots, respectable attendance figures don't just reflect revenues, but interest. Here, citizens are "voting" with their box seats and beer, their peanuts and pennants.

"And don't forget," Vonachen adds, "a team can create construction work, office positions and concession jobs that pay a little better than minimum wage. And we pay sales tax and hotel, restaurant and amusement taxes."

Nader and others discount claims of job gains, though. "Always, mayors and governors justify these forms of corporate welfare as producing jobs," he writes. "But the cost to the taxpayers of producing a few jobs is tremendously inefficient. The same money, if it is to be spent, could be spent to much better uses and paybacks."

Vonachen, whose operation got no direct public financing, doesn't disagree, but he thinks such criticism misses the point. "At our level, baseball is still fun, fan-friendly and close," he says. "And it's available in an affordable, convenient way. Like our marketing says, 'It's more than a game.'"

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Outside, of course, it is very much a game, and after defeating Beloit 6-1, Peoria has outscored its foes 27-3 in a four-game winning streak. Afterward, fans seem to mill about the stadium, relishing a moment of victory as much as checking their stubs for free prizes or listening to recorded rock 'n' roll.

Besides games, the Chiefs have brought in Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller and the San Diego Chicken, featured live music and skydivers, fireworks and giveaways. The freebies range from baseball equipment (balls from banks, fielder's gloves from Caterpillar and bats from the FBI) to distinctive variations on the tote bag (pillowcases, umbrellas, even boxer shorts).

DeLass, of the River Bandits, adds, "The minor leagues are more than baseball; we don't just roll out a ball and sit back. People want more — a fun night out."

The minors offer attractions unavailable elsewhere, according to Baseball Weekly, which lists such positives as affordable food and drinks, easy parking, nice views from all seats, quick rainouts, frequent doubleheaders, a level of play that's professional yet recognizable to Little Leaguers, front-office folks who work in everything from the grounds crew to the souvenir shop, and access to players.

And the price is inexpensive, according to the 1996 Team Marketing Reports, an industry trade publication. It compared costs for two adults and two children to buy midpriced tickets, pay for parking, have a hot dog and drink each and get a program and a souvenir at Major League Baseball, National Football League, National Hockey League and National Basketball Association games. The NHL was $203, the NFL $198, the NBA $198 and Major League Baseball $102.

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Minor league games run closer to $70.

"For $5 you can sit behind home plate and heckle the umps, who can hear you," says Matt Johnson, a 21-year-old minor league fan from the DeKalb area. "Or at Kane County you can pay $2 and sit out on the lawn with your family. The quality is comparable to the major leagues, but cheaper."

Midwest League ticket prices generally range from $3 to $6, frequently with free parking and discounts.

If baseball and its minor leagues prosper, reasons include income innovations. Besides gate receipts and broadcast fees, and the benefits of such business devices as depreciation, writeoffs and tax/lease deals, minor league teams receive significant licensing revenue, Vonachen says.

"You can't just flood your market with free tickets and make money on concessions," he says. "You need the ticket revenue — and more. That's why merchandising has become so active. In 1990, when logos and names and things were first licensed, the minor leagues made $5 million. Now it's 11 times that amount."

The facilities are important, too, adds a 32-year-old mother of two who follows the Rockford Cubbies.

"Here, Marinelli Field itself is beautiful, well-lit, clean," says Tammy Diehl. "As a parent, that's important. Rockford's staff, from the vendors to the souvenir salespeople, are nice and clean-cut — not like Wrigley, where there's a kind of carnival presence. Here, it's wholesome, a real family atmosphere."

Fans may be happy, but other observers inside and outside the game have misgivings about the minor league experience. Former Cardinals Manager Whitey Herzog criticized the value of what a typical minor leaguer endures. "He'll get a crappy little apartment with a couple of other guys, eat nothing but greasy hamburgers and fries, and try to have a good time," he said. "A lot of them will drink too much, and I have to believe that's where a lot of drug problems get started."

But at the 65-year-old John O'Donnell Stadium, a rambling red brick structure in Davenport, such real-world woes are lost in a green oasis growing out of the gravel-and-asphalt-topped industrialized area along the Mississippi River. Elements of baseball's rural, pastoral past echo with infield practice chatter, athletes playing pepper and hitters in the batting cage.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels are in town to challenge the division-leading River Bandits, who have won 13 out of the last 18 games — six by one run. More than 1,000 people are in the stands, where pleasant scents of warm peanuts and hot dogs, perfume and tobacco mingle with the heavy air and light sweat from humidity or anxiety. As the game begins, the River Bandits haven't scored in eight consecutive innings. Peering closely, spectators can easily see resolve on young players' faces.

There's something not just close at a minor league ballpark, but pure: innocent and unspoiled.

"It's fun to see the improvement," Johnson says. "At the beginning of a season, there'll be a lot of errors, but players get better. The Marlins' starting catcher, Charles Johnson, started here at Kane County only a couple of years ago."

Some of the innocence is in the untapped potential and emerging power of the players. Past Midwest League stars include Braves pitcher Greg Maddux, Cubs infielder Mark Grace and Rangers outfielder Rafael Palmeiro. Future stars are likely to come from the ranks of the Cougars (third baseman Josh Booty), the Chiefs (shortstop Jason Wolf) and the River Bandits (catcher Ramon Castro).

Besides new generations of athletes, there are new generations of fans, helped by almost nonstop activities in the stands and on the field between innings. "The minors are more fan-friendly," Vonachen says. "A lot more attention is paid to the fans — the personal touch. In fact, there's so much going on, you don't even have to be a fan to have a good time."

Johnson, who attends Western Illinois University in Macomb, likes seeing younger audience members. "Kids enjoy some of the gimmicks, even though sometimes it can get irritating," he says. "But I'm amazed how much attention kids pay to the game. The minors are building an awareness of professional baseball that wouldn't happen otherwise."

Such cultivation of future fans is vital for Major League Baseball, which is limping not only from the strike, but from rising prices, lack of independent leadership, an unhealthy reliance on TV revenue, allegations of racism and accusations of arrogance and greed in dealing with cities, fans and players.

"I'm not objective," says Diehl, a part-time teacher. "I grew up in a family where baseball is life. But when my girls — Loren and Lindsay, 8 and 6 — got a foul ball at a Cubbies game and then got some of the guys to autograph it, I was as thrilled as they were, I swear."

Other fans simply embrace baseball as the National Pastime. "Listen up," writes conservative commentator George Will, "professional football and basketball are spectacles; baseball is a habit."

But it's a habit that operates in the marketplace, he concedes. "Sure, baseball is a business," Will writes. "But in the relationship between fans and baseball, as in other love affairs, realism need not mean the end of romance."

Back in Davenport, the River Bandits have scrapped and scraped together a couple of runs, handing a slim lead to pitcher Brock Steinke. Steinke proceeds to pitch two innings without a hit, striking out two in the eighth and retiring the side in order to end the game in victory, 2-1.

In Rockford, Diehl summarizes the Cubbies' charm. "You can walk in and get a front-row seat, see all the action in detail, and, if you want, just kick back," she says. "This is like the Big Leagues without the hassle, one of the most beneficial aspects of Rockford."

Somewhere, a crowd's mild murmur is punctuated with a crack of a bat. People shout and laugh and clap like thunder.

Bill Knight, a former reporter for the Peoria Journal Star, teaches journalism at Western Illinois University in Macomb.

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