1. History
    2019 experimental rules 

2. Teams
    Current franchises  Team map  League timeline  Former teams 

3. Championship series

4. All-Star games

5. League records

6. See also

7. References

8. External links

The Atlantic League of Professional Baseball is a professional, independent baseball league located primarily in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, especially the greater metropolitan areas of the Northeast megalopolis, with one team located in Texas. League offices are located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

The Atlantic League operates in cities not served by Major or Minor League Baseball teams and is not affiliated with either; 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 AAA standards.^[1] When Atlantic League professionals are signed by MLB clubs, they usually start in their Double-A or Triple-A affiliates.^[2] The league uses a pitch clock of 12 seconds and a maximum time between innings of two minutes, five seconds in an effort to speed up the game.^[3] In 2019, the Atlantic League will begin 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.^[4]

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.^[5] 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.^[6] 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.^[7] 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.^[8]

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.^{[9][10][11][12]} 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.^[13] The team was replaced by the New Britain Bees for the 2016 season.^[14] 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.^[15]

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.^[16] 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.^[17]

The Atlantic League is generally regarded as the most successful and highest level of baseball among independent leagues.^[18][19] 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, Rich Hill, 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.^{[20][21][22][23]}

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.^[24]

2019 experimental rules

The Atlantic League and Major League Baseball reached agreement to test multiple rule changes during the 2019 season:^[25]

• 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 {{convert|15|in|cm}} to {{convert|18|in|cm}}
  • The size of home plate is not altered
• Moving the pitching rubber on the pitcher's mound back {{convert|24|in|cm}}
  • This change will take effect in the second half of the season

Teams

Current franchises

Team map

        {{Location map~ |United States |lat=40.0379|long=-76.3055|label='''Lancaster''' |position=right |mark=Blue pog.svg}}        {{Location map~ |United States |lat=38.6265|long=-76.9105|label='''Southern Maryland''' |position=right |mark=Blue pog.svg}}        {{Location map~ |United States |lat=29.6197|long=-95.6349|label='''Sugar Land''' |position=right |mark=Blue pog.svg}}        {{Location map~ |United States |lat=39.9626|long=-76.7277|label='''York''' |position=left |mark=Blue pog.svg}}        {{Location map~ |United States |lat=40.7907|long=-73.2018|label='''Long Island''' |position=right |mark=Red pog.svg}}        {{Location map~ |United States |lat=41.6612|long=-72.7795|label='''New Britain''' |position=right |mark=Red pog.svg}}        {{Location map~ |United States |lat=40.5940|long=-74.6049|label='''Somerset''' |position=left |mark=Red pog.svg}}        {{Location map~ |United States |lat=35.9557|long=-80.0053|label='''High Point''' |position=right |mark=Red pog.svg}}

League timeline

 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

   width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s  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: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: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:Road Warriors (2006–2007, 2011, 2018) bar:6 color:Full from:01/01/2011 till:12/31/2011 bar:6 color:Full from:01/01/2018 till:12/31/2018

• Barnham station
• Barnham Windmill
• Barnham Windmill, Suffolk
• Barnham Windmill, West Sussex
• Barnhart Brothers & Spindler
• Barnhart Town, Indiana
• Barnhartvale, British Columbia
• Barnhill (disambiguation)
• Barnhill, Illinois
• Barnhill, Jura
• Barnhill & McGee Airways
• Barn Hill Meadows
• Barnhill Primary School
• Barnhill station
• Barnhill (surname)
• Barn hip
• Barnhouse
• Barnhusviken
• Barnidipine
• Barnie frank
• Barniewice
• Barniewice, Kartuzy County
• Barnik
• Barnikow
• Barników