Time For the Diamantes

The Florida Winter Baseball League will make its debut next week here in SoFla as the Miami Diamantes start a three-game series against the Seminole County Naturals at FIU University Park stadium next Friday. Along with the Naturals, the other two teams in the league (the Lake County Black Bears and the Space Coast Surge) are located in the central part of Florida, necessitating lots of long bus trips between Miami and the orange groves. The league's self-stated objective is to provide "a high visibility showcase for the unseasoned professional baseball player market, catering to not only rookie and Single A level ball players, but also to baseball managers, coaches, scouts, and umpires." They'll be marketing themselves as "the 'preferred US alternative' to Latin and Caribbean winter league baseball." Ken Griffey Sr. is the league commissioner. Who knows? This may actually be interesting.