The San Antonio Missions will not play ball in 2020.
Major League Baseball has informed Minor League Baseball that it will not provide players to affiliated teams this season.
It’s the first time since the formation of the league in 1901 that there will be a summer without minor league baseball, according to MiLB President and CEO Pat O’Connor.
The Alamo City has been home to minor league baseball since 1888.
Missions President Burl Yarbrough isn’t shocked by the confirmation that San Antonio’s Triple-A Pacific Coast League team won’t play a game in 2020. He was in Arizona in March to catch some MLB spring training games when one professional sports league after another began postponing play due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.
“It was a depressing day,” Yarbrough told me a few weeks later. “It’s really hit home what’s going on.”
The Missions acquired a Texas Collegiate League team and let it borrow the PCL team’s alter ego nickname — the Flying Chanclas — to ensure the organization had an opportunity to generate some revenue this summer.
“The toughest part is not being in control and not knowing what’s going to happen,” said Yarbrough as the Missions waited on MLB officials to decide the fate of the minor leagues’ 2020 schedule. “We want to still have a presence in this market.”
PCL President Branch Rickey said on Tuesday that this will be the first cancellation of a season in the league’s 118-year history.
He said the verdict from MLB officials came as a “vivid jolt.”