Sep 11, 2024 By Chris Dugan 3 min read

At 16 teams, and with a footprint that spreads over two countries, the Frontier League is the largest independent baseball league.

And it will be even bigger in 2025.

The league announced Monday the addition of a franchise in Pearl, Miss., for next year.

The Pearl team will play in 8,480-seat Trustmark Park, the former home of the Mississippi Braves, who were the Class AA affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. The opportunity for expansion to Pearl came when it was announced that the Mississippi Braves would be moving to Columbus, Ga., in 2025. The Braves had been in Pearl since 2005.

Pearl will be the southernmost city in the Frontier League and extends the footprint of the league, which now runs from Quebec City in Canada to Mississippi.

When asked if there was any concern that the league’s map is extending too far, Frontier League commissioner Steve Tahsler said he is looking toward the future and what a southern market can do for the league.

“There is always that concern, but as we look at the distance to Pearl from some of our western teams, and more importantly as we look at the markets that are most likely to become available – and we’re having very solid conversations – over the next two or three years, Pearl would no longer be an outlier. And for the opportunity for us to be involved in a market in that region and establish ourselves will make the conversations with other communities in the southeast go much smoother. We will already have a southern community that is familiar with us and willing to vouch for us.

“So Pearl is a strategic move. We feel the southeast is an area of growth for us and there is going to be a good bit of opportunity.”

The closest Frontier League franchises to Pearl are located in Sauget, Ill., and Evansville, Ind., both almost 500 miles away. That could change as soon as next week.

Tahsler, who was in Mississippi on Monday, was back in Washington for Game 1 of the league championship series. He said that the league’s 18th franchise will be announced Tuesday. It had been rumored that the 18th team would be a southern city, but Tahsler told the O-R that it will be a city south of the Ohio River. In other words, south of Pittsburgh.

Rumors have circulated this year that multiple Atlantic League teams – Staten Island, N.Y., and Charleston, W.Va., the most-often mentioned – could be switching to the Frontier League. There also have been rumors that the Frontier League will expand into the Carolinas.

The Clarion-Ledger speculated that Alabama could be a fit for the Frontier League. There are former minor league stadiums in Mobile and Hoover that are currently not being used for professional baseball.

The Pearl team will be owned by Joseph Eng, who also owns the Gary SouthShore RailCats of the independent American Association. The team’s name will be chosen by a fan vote. The finalists are Mississippi Mud Monsters, Mississippi Grits and Mississippi Soul Shakers.

Tahsler said the league will go to four divisions next year and that Washington, which is the current geographic center of the league, will remain in the West and play in a four-team division with Lake Erie, Florence and Evansville. The Pearl team will play in a division with Gateway, Joliet, Schaumburg and Windy City. Those nine teams will comprise the Western Conference.

One of the difficulties of having two 9-team conferences is scheduling. There must be an interconference series every day of the season.