So, now you’re hooked on minor league sports.  You have gone to the game, following the various tips I gave you in the “How-To Attend a Minor League Baseball Game” article, and enjoyed yourself.  Your family had a great time.  You were amazed by the quality of the play.  You looked in your wallet and saw there was still some money left in it after the game.

The problem?  Well, just like the major leagues, half of the season the teams are away from their home stadium.  Of course, if you live in this area, sometimes you don’t really need to go much further to catch a game.  The Thunderbolts may travel to Rockford, or the Riverhawks to Crestwood, but that really isn’t THAT much longer a drive.  When it’s the Railcats facing the Jackhammers or either of them facing the Flyers, you have the same thing.

Still, sometimes the last thing you want to do is travel to Indiana and spend and evening in Gary.  Rockford is about 90 miles away, so maybe that’s a drive too far for you.  Also, there are Frontier League games throughout central and southern Illinois and Missouri.  The Northern League has teams in Minnesota and Canada.  You just can’t act like “Dead-Heads” and pack up the car and travel.

Of course, coming to this website is probably the best way.  Granted, this is a one-man operation right now.  I would love to tell you that you will have all of the latest scores and information about all of your favorite minor league teams early in the morning.  However, it is not always possible to do that. Still, I will do my best to get that information to you right here and now.  Let me worry about it, so you don’t have to.

The first thing you need to do is get over any aversion you have to the internet.  Since you are reading this on this website, I am assuming you are already fearless when it comes to the World Wide Web.  However, if you have any fear there, get over it.  The best way to follow your favorite minor league sports teams is on the web.

Each and every team website has a link that provides information about where to listen to the team when they are either home or away.  In addition, each website also releases a press release or news story after each game.  It is a little old-school just to read about the prior day’s sporting activities, but this is a way to do it.  Just like with your big league teams you cannot watch or listen to every game.  However, these teams are small enough they are not likely to be covered on the local news report.  So, visit the team website and get caught up.  Some teams, like the Kane County Cougars, even have a kind of scoreboard that gets updated during the game and keeps the last game’s scores listed there.

Get to know the name “Sportsjuice.”  I mentioned them in the article “Some Definitions” but it deserves its own entry right here.  Once again, this had nothing to do with the use of steroids.  This is a website totally dedicated to providing a method for minor league teams to broadcast their games online.

Now, once again, you need to be prepared to listen to sports on the radio.  For the most part, these teams do not have the budget or the means to broadcast their games on television.  Also, get over any aversion you have to listening to media online.  You can listen while doing work or your banking.  With modern computers, you can hook your computer up to your speakers and broadcast the entire game through your house speakers.

You will need some software like the Windows Media Player.  I believe that Sportsjuice uses this.  Sometimes the team requires you download something called a “Plug In” which is a quick download that will let you listen to the game online.

If you click on the link listed on the team home page that says “Listen Live” or something of that nature, more than likely you will find yourself on Sportsjuice.com.  Sometimes you need to look down a list of games being broadcast and find your team’s name.  Most times, however, the website designer for the team will link you right to the game link.  Just click on the link and the Windows Media Player will open by itself and start listening.

What will you hear?  Well, it will not be like Harry Carray resurrected.  It is usually one guy broadcasting from a booth at the stadium.  Most of these teams do not have the budget to hire an announcer and color commentator.  So, be prepared for just one voice during the entire game.  However, with Sportsjuice, there are no FCC restrictions.  While the broadcasters keep the game family friendly, it can be fun to listen to.

What you will not hear a lot of is commercials.  Again, these are smaller teams in smaller markets, so the advertisers there tend to advertise on the walls of the stadium.  They also sell most ads in their programs.  They know their audience online is smaller than a normal broadcast medium, so often there are few, if any ads.  This means you may hear silence between innings, or people in the booth talking to one another, or just crowd noises out the window.

There are exceptions, of course.  For a time the Schaumburg Flyers were broadcast on North Central College’s campus radio station.  The Thunderbolts were broadcast on a station out of Indiana.  However, these stations were small, and impossible to get in your home.  So, you still ended up having to visit a website and listen online.

Local newspapers sometimes cover these teams, but it is often localized.  For example, the Flyers and Cougars may get mention, briefly, in the Daily Herald.  The Thunderbolts may get mentioned in the Daily Southtown.  The Railcats might get a mention in an Indiana newspaper.  Getting them all together in one spot is nearly impossible (hence the inspiration for this website).

Now, if you live in and around Rockford, what you have is the minor league team in place of a major league team.   This means there is no competition in the local radio, television and newspaper media for the coverage.  While Rockford does cover Chicago and Wisconsin sports, they save the bulk of their coverage for the Riverhawks, Icehogs and Raptors.

The Icehogs even have streaming television coverage online.  I am assuming they also broadcast on a local television station.  The Raptors get their games covered and broadcast live on a local ESPN radio station.  The Riverhawks also get local TV coverage.  All of them get mentioned daily in their local newspaper and on the local television news.

In the Chicago area, much depends on which team you want to follow.  For example, almost none of the local minor league baseball teams get any kind of coverage on the local radio and television.  However, the Chicago Wolves have their home and away games shown on a local cable station.  They also often have their games broadcast on various sports radio stations.

The Chicago Rush, with its connection to the NFL, gets probably the widest coverage of any of the teams.  For a while, each of their games was broadcast on NBC.  Their games still show up on the local television news and get regular coverage in the local newspaper.  Plus, their are still broadcast on local radio stations.  Check out their website for details.

If you are a Kane County Eagles fan, you may just have to check this site and their website.  They seem to have yet to get set up to broadcast online.  Perhaps that will change in the future, maybe if the team gains popularity.

So, that’s it.  Granted, it can take more work to follow a minor league team than the major league counterpart.  It often means listening to games sitting in front of your computer.  It isn’t just turning on your radio or television, like with the  big guys.

I think, however, if you try it, you will find it can be a lot of fun.  So, don’t give up.  Stick with your team.  Tune in and enjoy!

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