Welcome, St. Lucie Adult Baseball League: Frank Brown, League President
By Steve LaMontia-Carlentini, MSBL Director of Communications
The Florida MSBL/MABL presence in the state of Florida has become a baseball monster that needs to be fed. A brand-new MSBL chapter in the saga of this 12-month mecca of baseball has just been announced. Welcome, St. Lucie Adult Baseball League!
Frank Brown is the head of the most recent MSBL/MABL Florida addition, as he follows in the footsteps of league presidents and pioneers, Aaron Eberhardt, Joe Hellett, Geoff Gonzalez, Dave Salley, Roman Katynski, Vincent Zuardi, and Ryan Potter.
We caught up with the 42-year-old Brown recently and asked him how it all came about.
“We had a local league here that wasn’t managed very well,” started Frank. “We played in the league, too, and saw firsthand some of the issues. Managers would complain to me, as I was a manager, too, and I saw that something needed to be done.
It would be hard and unethical to advertise a new league and go after them, but three teams told me candidly that they would come play in a new league, and our team would make four right off the bat. I could no longer brush aside the idea of starting something new.”
The St. Lucie MABL entry is headquartered in St. Lucie County, and also provides a home for players in Okeechobee County to the West, Martin County to the southwest, and Indian River County to the north. Beginning on October 12th, they currently stand at six teams in the league, but see expansion soon.
“The Palm Beach MABL is maybe an hour and a quarter away, which makes for some decision-making between players who play within MSBL. Which league? My philosophy is to embrace many of the rules and guidelines that Dave Salley has in place in the Palm Beach MABL and make everything unified. We’re all in this together.
We have designed a 15-game schedule, not including playoffs, and just playing on Sundays. We’ll hopefully conclude in January with the February playoffs. We hope to start a March, April, and May session next year. We’ll see how it goes.”
What do you do to recruit new teams and players?
“We’ll crank up the advertising as we get more toward the end of this season. I wouldn’t be surprised if we expand, but it depends on how many players or teams want to drive a little bit to play. A lot of teams are looking for a quality baseball experience and are willing to drive to get it.”
Florida is a unique landscape for amateur baseball, as many college programs exist on all levels. The 12-month climate is a magnet for the younger adult divisions, regardless of the level of your collegiate experience. I asked Frank how he rates the level of play in the new St. Lucie MABL.
“We are a pretty competitive league, which can make it hard for a high school graduate just looking to stay in the game. We have guys who played Indy ball or are ex-pros. Nobody likes a 22-0 game. But I ultimately can see a division that is more recreational, like some of the other MABL leagues have across the state.
The complexion of our league just happened to go in that direction, but our intent is to allow people to play baseball again if they want. We need to grow to get there, but we will. For now, we are thinking of breaking up our playoffs into competitive and recreational divisions.”
Where did you play ball prior to taking over this role?
“I’ve been playing men’s league baseball for 15 years in the Palm Beach area. I have also played in tournaments, as well as in a league in Fort Lauderdale. I also played in Tennessee while living there. When I moved back to the St. Lucie area, that’s when I came across the league I was talking about earlier. That sort of lit the pilot light in my mind.”
At the age of 42 in a younger baseball environment, do you hold your own in the league?
“The Palm Beach MABL has at least one guy who can hit the high-80s or low 90s on each team, but not quite yet in our league. The younger guys have the big arms, but I can still hold my own. I manage the team but also get on the field.
Ironically, our first-place team, the Sharks, has an average age of I think 47. They have good pitching and don’t make mistakes. It’s just good, quality baseball, at any age.”
Ironically, Frank stopped playing baseball after his freshman year in high school. He concentrated on football and went on to play for a small college in Decatur, Illinois. Then he returned to baseball in his 20s.
“I guess you could say I was a baseball child star, but I wasn’t very good when I returned to the game. Early on, it was tough, but it finally came around in the outfield. Dave Sally in Palm Beach picked me up as a free agent.”
Now that the league is up and running, reflect on what your biggest challenge was when putting everything together.
“The challenging part was bringing teams to us from the old league. Many people were still loyal to the old league, so our objective was to show them a quality alternative, and they would then hopefully follow suit in their next baseball chapter. We didn’t want to create any animosity. We’ll amp up the advertising and marketing and try to get as many players as we can as time progresses.
Is obtaining fields a problem in Florida?
“There are a million quality fields in Florida, but with the tournaments from around the country, spring training for colleges, and all of the travel ball, it becomes very limited. But we finally found a great field in a not-so-great area that was little used. Younger leagues and their parents didn’t want to play there, but with a men’s league full of guys with bats, it was a perfect fit!”
To read more about the St. Lucie Adult Baseball League, click HERE to visit their website.