Post by davidsf on Mar 26, 2019 8:42:16 GMT -8
I’ve been waiting for awhile, wanting to start this thread.
here in Normal, IL (yes, that really is our town’s name, after “Illinois Normal University” a teachers college that is now Illinois State College, of the Missouri Conference), we have a Baseball Stadium named The Corn Crib, because Corn is our major agricultural contribution to the U.S. economy.
the Corn Crib used to be home field to the Cornbelters, a Professional Baseball team, part of the Frontier League (not affiliated with any MLB franchise, and not a minor league, anything). This year, however, the Cornbelters left the Frontier League and joined the Prospect League, a wood bat College Summer League, which, to the team, means players are college players (cannot have graduated yet), and they don’t get paid to play because that would violate NCAA rules.
obvioulsy, they need a place to stay while they play (May - August is the season), so the Prospect League has a “Host Family” program in which we have participated the last three years and intend to participate this year as well.
Host Families provide room and board for players when they are in town (about half the season, on average), and in return, get some season tickets, a lot of food and team store discounts, and even a few free seats at some nearby away games. A side benefit this year could also be, one or more of the guys who lived in our house get picked up in the bigs and have long, productive Hall of Fame careers and we can say we knew him when.
i know California has Summer leagues, but I do not know if they use (or if any of you have been) Host Families.
here in Normal, IL (yes, that really is our town’s name, after “Illinois Normal University” a teachers college that is now Illinois State College, of the Missouri Conference), we have a Baseball Stadium named The Corn Crib, because Corn is our major agricultural contribution to the U.S. economy.
the Corn Crib used to be home field to the Cornbelters, a Professional Baseball team, part of the Frontier League (not affiliated with any MLB franchise, and not a minor league, anything). This year, however, the Cornbelters left the Frontier League and joined the Prospect League, a wood bat College Summer League, which, to the team, means players are college players (cannot have graduated yet), and they don’t get paid to play because that would violate NCAA rules.
obvioulsy, they need a place to stay while they play (May - August is the season), so the Prospect League has a “Host Family” program in which we have participated the last three years and intend to participate this year as well.
Host Families provide room and board for players when they are in town (about half the season, on average), and in return, get some season tickets, a lot of food and team store discounts, and even a few free seats at some nearby away games. A side benefit this year could also be, one or more of the guys who lived in our house get picked up in the bigs and have long, productive Hall of Fame careers and we can say we knew him when.
i know California has Summer leagues, but I do not know if they use (or if any of you have been) Host Families.
