BNN Report
News from the CBO, Minors, CCBL, and CYL
by Nat Wright-Kawolski
2 January 2317
New Year, New Hopes
The BNN office took a day to recover from the celebration for the new year and 30 years of liberation. Now, in 2317, we are turning our attention to the impending baseball season, we have major breaking news.
The Quincy franchise sale has been announced, and a group led by prominent Minutemen general, Preston Garvey, is the new owner. Garvey announced that the Gunners name is no more since it is a bitter name in the minds of Minutemen who still remember 2287.
Garvey has bought the Granites name and introduced that name to the Quincy area where people have accepted it as the right choice for the defendding champions. The Quincy Quarries is an important area in rebuilding the Commonwealth, so the granite of the mines is symbolic of Quincy. The Granites name was purchased from Glowing Sea, whose Manchester Granites NEBL team will now be known as the Mammoths. Garvey has stated that he will retire the Gunners name and will not sell it to another franchise.
"All raider groups need to be deleted from our league," Garvey said. "They were a terror on citizens of the Commonwealth, and glorifying them in baseball makes that terror undermined. Settlements need our help. When I look at my map, I see hope and opportunity. When I see a baseball team called the Gunners or the Disciples, my heart breaks."
A stock photo of Garvey and two Quincy players modeling the new look uniforms.
The Commonwealth Collegiate Baseball League begins its regular season on March 11. Before that, we begin to feature the CBO in its annual Nuka Cup Tournament, a competition of all 28 CBO teams for preseason glory. Last season, the Lexington Synths took that crown, beating a surprising Southie team. As it turned out in the regular season, the Synths had a disappointing year and missed the playoffs. The Brews had the #1 overall pick, Ditcher Doyle Cobbler out of New Haven University.
This season, we see further expansion of the CCBL and Commonwealth Youth League, as well as several minor league teams changing locations for the 2317 season, including an influx of Connecticut teams in the Boston Minor Union. We spoke with BMU Vice Commissioner, Alexandra Watertower about those changes and her thoughts.
BNN: Can you tell us about the changes in the BMU?
AW: We had lots of changes to the structure, including a lot of the minor teams moving to Connecticut now that we have more operational rails going that way and have cleared off more roadways for travel. It is still quite dangerous, though the Brotherhood patrols have helped.
BNN: What are the new locations in Connecticut to know about?
AW: I have my list here. We do have two more changes that will be officially announced next week, but there is no doubt that the teams are out of their old facilities. In other words, ni surprises.
So, looking at my list, these are the Connecticut teams: The Hamden Lifegivers, the Stratford Pugilists, and the Bristol Blitz in the Cambridge Division. In the Glowing Sea Division, we also now have the Meriden Attack Dogs and West Haven Demos.
BNN: Could you also let us know where those teams played to give readers context?
AW: Oh, OK. Let's see. Hamden was in Union Hope in Cambridge. Stratford was at the Forest Grove settlement. Bristol was in Rocky Narrows. Um, Meriden is still in Scrap Palace but the offices have been cleared for their move to Al Niemiec. He played a long time ago but was Meriden's first ball player to make the major leagues and played for the Boston team. But that was almost 400 years ago. And finally, West Haven was known as the Coast Guard Pier Demolitionists. They shortened their name to the Demos. I guess t looks better on the jersey.
BNN: What are future changes in the league?
AW: We are laying out some plans for the league. Commissioner (Nate) Howard already gave us the warning that the CBO is expanding, so I guess they are recruiting new places to play when we have 32 teams. I don't think we will see teams in Bradbury, so I don't think the Nuka World League teams are coming into this league. I am not sure what the plans are. We are, however, preparing for the BMU to have teams from all six states of the Commonwealth.
BNN: Since the Boston Minor Union is no longer Boston-centric, at least for the majority of the league, are there any plans to change the name of the league or division?
AW: I know we have talked about the possibility of changing the minor league names to all reflect the CBO. Some proposals were to change the BMU to the CBO A League. I personally hate that name and think the BMU has a ring to it even if not every team is in or around Boston. Our offices will remain in Boston, so why not keep the name?
For the divisions, I am more open to change those names, but they are also personal instead of regional. I am not a fan of the directional division names, like the North Division. I am pretty sure one other league does that, maybe the GBRL. I think the unique division names remain memorable. The Dark Hollow Pond Division has to be the best division name in all of baseball, so my preference is not to change the division names. I'll let Commissioner Howard make that call, though.
BNN: Are there any other changes we might expect?
AW: Other than the league expanding its borders, I don't foresee anything else. We have good baseball here for CBO prospects with lots of the better high school and college players getting their starts in this league.
We have some of our recent stars playing and thriving in the CBO, like Josh Peerson, Hammer Longball, Tiny de Grande, Lance Tinter, World B Free, Huck McFarland, Hot Lips Houlihan, and Vault Boy Barnette. In other words, fans can continue to expect great baseball in the BMU. That part will never change for as long as we are the A-level league.
