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.

The Spokane Indians may be poised to become a full-season High-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to a report in the Orange County (Calif.) Register on Thursday.

The issue of Native American mascots and imagery in sports was thrust into the headlines again over the summer when the Washington, D.C., NFL team decided to change the name of its team from a dictionary-defined slang term and removed all Native American terms and imagery from its branding.

He had broken his left arm in a mishap at church camp and was shackled with the standard wrist-to-elbow cast.

In his retirement, fate sent Dave Vaughn into a second career: recovery.

In the days and weeks following the killing of George Floyd and subsequent resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement and the campaign to rid society of racist language and images, the use of Native American terms and imagery in sports has once again become a national headline.

For decades, certain sports teams – professional, college and high school – have resisted changing their nicknames and branding from Native American terms and imagery.But with the recent climate of change sweeping the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd and the resulting national protests against racism, a couple of the more prominent – and historically most resistant – professional teams have been pressured by activists and investors to reevaluate the situation.

On Tuesday, officials with Minor League Baseball confirmed the 2020 MiLB season has been officially canceled after a conference call between MLB’s board of trustees. 

With its scheduled opening day looming next week, the Northwest League issued a statement on Friday officially – and indefinitely – delaying the start of its season.