News

The Spokane Indians dugout will have a decidedly veteran presence this season.

Major League Baseball announced the 2021 Minor League Baseball schedule in full on Thursday, with Triple-A starting on April 6, while Double-A and Single-A – including the High-A Spokane Indians – are scheduled to launch 2021 campaigns on May 4.

For the better part of 18 months, minor league baseball has been in turmoil.

There has been plenty of uncertainty across minor league baseball over the past 18 months. Much of that uncertainty – for now, anyway – has finally been put to rest.

Before the grand old sports banquet was consigned to Spokane's reliquary, Tommy Lasorda returned in February 1992 to regale the adults with a few gags in the evening and proselytize education to the teens at the afternoon.

Tommy Lasorda, the fiery Hall of Fame manager who guided the Los Angeles Dodgers to two World Series titles after managing a 1970 Spokane Indians team often called the greatest in minor league history, has died. He was 93.

According to a report by Baseball America, Major League Baseball sent a memo to minor league teams on Monday informing them that the 2021 minor league season at Double-A and the Class A levels will be delayed.

Wednesday was a big day across minor league baseball, as franchises across the country received their formal invitations from Major League Baseball to continue to participate as an affiliate in the reorganization of Minor League Baseball.

It’s been a nervous year for everyone in the minor leagues, including the Spokane Indians and the rest of the Northwest League, as Major League Baseball has contemplated changes in the organization and structure of its feeder system.

The Spokane Indians will be featured by the National Baseball Hall of Fame at 11 a.m. Thursday as part of an event called Virtual Voices of the Game.

As part of Major League Baseball’s reorganization of the minor leagues after the expiration of the Professional Baseball Agreement earlier this fall, things will look a little different for the eight-team Pioneer League – headquartered in Spokane with teams in Idaho, Montana, Utah and Colorado – when baseball can safely resume during or after the pandemic.