This past weekend, the Rockford Rivets had approximately $50,000 worth of baseball equipment stolen from the team bus, while the team was staying overnight in Battle Creek.
It's not quite the shocking change as when the Detroit Tigers moved from venerable Tiger Stadium to new Comerica Park, but change nonetheless is coming to baseball in Battle Creek this summer. The Battle Creek Battle Jacks announced Monday a naming rights deal with Marshall Community Credit Union
An empty C.O. Brown Stadium will be filled again with the familiar sounds of baseball this summer as the Battle Creek Bombers are set to return home for the first time since 2019.
After a shortened season that involved shifting a current team to play at Homer Stryker Field, turning a one-game promotion into a third team and scheduling shorter five inning contests with double-headers (and some triple-headers), the Kalamazoo Growlers will be back to normal in 2021.
The Northwoods League season may be shorter in 2020 and the restrictions to playing two Kalamazoo teams will be a given. The good news is that all but two games at C.O. Brown Stadium will have something going on.
Baseball in "The Mitten" in 2020 has been silent with the contention between owners and players in the Majors, Minor League Baseball on hold, and the lone Michigan team in the Great Lakes Collegiate Summer League from Muskegon waiting another year due to its cancellation.
The summer collegiate baseball leagues all across the nation have struggled to find a start time during the pandemic's lifespan. For the largest league in the nation, it will have to wait longer.