The Minors

IF MY DAD'S idea of father-son bonding had been taking me to local minor league games instead of beating me with sticks, we would've seen throes of future All-Stars before they made it to "the Show." The Durham Bulls, formerly a class-A farm team for the Atlanta Bills, uh, Braves, were stops on the minor league ladder for John Smoltz, Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones and Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh, among others. I think we're all in agreement that Nuke would've been better off sticking to the lines Crash fed him than going all antiwar on us, but that's a discussion for a different time and place.

The real story here is that greater New York has a rich reserve of minor league teams that you can see in action for roughly the cost of a Miller Lite at Yankee Stadium. Long Island's Ducks and Newark's Bears are rivals in the independent Atlantic League, as are the Staten Island Yankees and the Brooklyn Cyclones in the class-A New York-Penn League.

Ageless wonder Rickey Henderson is beginning his season with the Bears for the second year in a row. Five years over the hill and still going strong, Henderson feasted on Atlantic League pitching for 56 games in 2003, hitting .339 with a .493 OBP, before signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers at mid-summer. Rickey holds Major League records for most career stolen bases, leadoff home runs, walks and runs scored, and is tied with Bobby Bonilla for most card games played in the clubhouse while his team lost a playoff series.

Henderson and the rest of the Bears have struggled to break out of their winter slumber, as they dropped all four games of their season-opening series to the crosstown Ducks. The Ducks outscored the Bears 29-8 in the series, punctuated by a 5-0 shutout victory on May 9. Henderson went 2-for-8 with one home run, leading off the third game.

Rickey is hardly the first big-leaguer to use the Atlantic League as a kind of final proving ground. Jose Canseco and Carlos Baerga played for the 2001 versions of Newark and Long Island, respectively, and other recognizable names to play in the league have included Ruben Sierra, Tim Raines, Jose Lima and Curtis Pride. The first deaf player ever in the majors, Pride briefly donned pinstripes for the Yankees in 2003, homering in his first game up and later recording a game-winning RBI against Boston.

Another interesting Atlantic League note: Butch Hobson will manage the Nashua Pride for the fifth year in a row. Hobson managed the Red Sox for a brief stint in the 90s and was at the helm of the Red Sox's AAA affiliate in '96 when he was busted for possession of cocaine. In one of the all-time worst strokes of luck, some klutz at FedEx reportedly spilled coffee on a package intended for Hobson. When the packet was opened to ensure the contents hadn't been damaged, Hobson's hopes of managing in the bigs again went up in?coke. Note to area groundskeepers: Keep plenty of extra foul line chalk on hand when Nashua comes to town.

If you'd rather be able to say, "I saw ______ before he was on (steroids/Viagra/cocaine/all of the above)" then the New York-Penn League might be more your speed. The short season begins in the middle of June and lasts through the summer. The Staten Island Yanks' home opener is slated for June 21 against the Williamsport Crosscutters; the Cyclones, a feeder team for the Amazin's, host their first game of the season under new manager Tony Tijerina the following night when the Hudson Valley Renegades come downriver and out to Coney Island.

Unfortunately for Mets fans, the New York-Penn League is about the only place their team gets the better of the Yankees. The Cyclones won the McNamara Division last year and had the second best record in the league, while the Yanks finished last in the division. July 9 to 11 will see the first series between these two rivals this season. In a home-away-home series the likes of which are seen only at this level of pro ball, Brooklyn's Keyspan Park will be the site for the first and third games. The second game will be played at Richmond County Bank Ballpark adjacent to the ferry landing on Staten Island.

Tickets will run you anywhere from $5 (general admission bleacher seats at Brooklyn's Keyspan Park) to $13 (club seats at Long Island's Citibank Park). For transportation and more ticketing information, visit brooklyncyclones.com, liducks.com, www.newarkbears.com or siyanks.com.

And if you can't get enough Jersey baseball, the New Jersey Jackals open their season May 27. They play at Yogi Berra Stadium in Montclair as part of the independent Northeast League. Check out their site at jackals.com.

This article appears courtesy New York Sports Express. Thanks, fellas!