Rumors...

Unfortunately the end of the season brings with it rumors from all over the place...In my usual search of ballparkdigest I came across this tidbit...Having just left Chillicothe I'll say that if this is true they will be missed...I loved visiting Chillicothe...

Paints likely to leave Frontier League; owners looking at launching wood-bat league
Posted Sept. 1, 2008 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
The owners of the Chillicothe Paints (independent; Frontier League) are planning to leave the world of independent baseball and launch their own summer-collegiate league. The future of the Paints in the Frontier League has tenuous this season: the team draws only 1,302 a game -- dead last in the indy circuit -- but the owners seem to do a better job of managing the facility, hosting many events unrelated to Paints baseball. There are some economic advantages to summer-collegiate ball -- you can take away player payroll and workers-comp (depending on the state; some states, like Wisconsin, do require workers-comp insurance to be paid on summer-collegiate-league players) off the ledger books. But you can also take some revenue off, as summer-collegiate-league seasons are much shorter than indy leagues. And forming a league is a formidable challenge, to say the least. But there are probably a few other cities that should look at shifting from indy ball to summer-collegiate ball, and we expect more movement in this direction in the next few years.