More than two dozen mayors – and counting – had signed on to a task force to save minor league baseball in their communities in the first 24 hours since the group was created, Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke said Wednesday.
“It’s because all of us understand that this plan is a major league error,” Berke said of a proposal to cut 42 minor league teams, including the Chattanooga Lookouts. “There is a huge following of Major League Baseball fans who also love minor league baseball in all of our cities.”
Berke was joined by the mayors of Dayton, Ohio; Akron, Ohio; Lansing, Michigan; and Grand Rapids, Michigan, to kick off the task force in Washington, D.C., where about 300 mayors have gathered for a conference.
The goal of the task force is to represent the interests of communities that have not been involved in a proposal by Major League Baseball to cut teams that are an essential part of the culture of many mid-sized cities, Berke said.
“I learned from a New York Times article that the Chattanooga Lookouts were on the chopping block,” he said. “We’ve been nowhere in these discussions before today.”