Every winter, MLB teams send some of their prospects to winter league teams in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and throughout the Caribbean.  For instance, the Cubs Jeff Samardjzia is playing in Mexico right now.  The spots in these leagues are limited because each league gives priority to their own home-grown talent, so a very limited number of Major League prospects can participate.

It has always seemed curious to me why there was no winter league in the U.S.  Weather is an obvious obstacle in most of the country, but there are places like Florida, Arizona, Southern California and Hawaii that have weather conducive to a winter baseball league.

I was excited early this year to find out that a new winter league was planned in Florida.  For their first year, the league had four teams.  They were located in Miami, Cocoa, Leesburg, and Sanford.  The league was looking forward to expansion to other areas throughout Florida in coming years.  They even recruited Ken Griffey, Sr. to be the commissioner of the league.

The Florida Winter Baseball League (FWBL) started with a lot of promise.  They followed a slightly different model than I would have expected.  Instead of working with MLB to staff their rosters (and pick up some/all of the payroll tab), the FWBL operated as an independent league, recruiting minor league players as well as players from summer independent leagues.

The FWBL season started on October 30 and teams were scheduled to play a 60 game schedule concluding on Janury 16, 2010.  However, after just 15 games, the league folded.  A press release issued by the league indicated that they would be recapitalizing to better accomodate the financial requirements needed to operate the league.  However, that sounds to me like one of those restaurants that close down and put out a sign that says they are closed for remodeling.  The truth is, the remodeling never takes place and the restaurant never re-opens.

It’s amazing to me that a league could shut down so soon after starting.  Officials with the league had indicated that they had enough working capital to carry them for two years.  Apparently they didn’t.  They also over-estimated the number of fans they would draw to each game.  The league predicted they would average 750 fans per game.  By the league’s own stats, they actually only averaged 367 tickets sold to each game and most observers indicated that far fewer fans actually attended the games.

But still, even with poor attendance, how could the league shut down after completing just one-quarter of their first season?  I don’t know any of the people involved, but this fiasco seems like a horribly mismanaged venture.  I had really high hopes for the league and it is stunning to me that it could end so quickly and so badly.

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Back to Cubs news…Bruce Levine of ESPN Chicago reports that the Cubs have erected a plywood billboard off the back of the left field bleachers.  The billboard blocks the view of a roof top across the street that is displaying a sign for the Horseshoe Casino.

Apparently, the Cubs tried to get the casino to purchase in-stadium advertising, but the casino declined.  The casino then made a deal to advertise atop a building on the corner of Kenmore and Waveland that is visible during Cubs broadcasts.

The construction of the new billboard in Wrigley not only provides the Cubs with the possibility of increased advertising revenue, but it also serves the purpose of obscuring the Horseshoe Casino ad and making the advertising space virtually worthless to the building owner, Tom Gramatis.

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The Cubs have announced that Wally Hayward has been hired to be the Cubs new Chief of Sales and Marketing Director.  Hayward was most recently involved in Chicago’s failed bid to host the 2016 Olympics.

At first glance, it may not seem like this is a very important move by the Cubs.  However, at least while they were owned by the Tribune Company, the marketing department has played a big role in the running of the organization.  You may recall that John McDonough held the same position Heyward is assuming before he was promoted to club president.  It was on McDonough’s watch that the Cubs really opened up the purse strings and started spending money to improve the on-field product.