Joliet Slammers To Participate In 27-Game City Of Champions Cup

JOLIET, IL — Just as Mayor League Baseball is making plans to resume its season, the Frontier League that the Joliet Slammers belong to announced on Wednesday it has suspended the remainder of its season due to ongoing travel and operating restrictions because of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, that doesn’t mean baseball won’t be played this summer in Joliet.

The Slammers announced they will participate in the inaugural City of Champions Cup at DuPage Medical Group Field beginning July 16. Four teams will play a 27-game schedule in Joliet that will conclude on Sept. 2. Teams will be made up of players drafted from Frontier League players that are unable to play for their current independent teams or players from minor league baseball affiliated teams.

“We are expecting a very high level of talent to be on the field for the Slammers and the other three teams,” Nick Semaca, Slammers majority owner, said in a news release on Wednesday.

In an email to Patch on Wednesday, Slammers General Manager Heather Mills said team officials were aware of the Frontier League's decision to suspend the season and had been meeting virtually with the league for weeks to discuss alternatives. While it was not feasible to travel across multiple states and into Canada under current circumstances, Mills wrote, the league wanted to allow teams to continue to pursue any options they might have in their own market.

That led to the decision to announce the four-game tournament, Mills wrote. The names and details on the three new teams, all of which will be based in Joliet, will be released in the coming days. Each team will play three or four home games per week in a schedule that generally will include night games on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with additional ticketed day games on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the Slammers announced.

Under the recently released guidelines from the State of Illinois regarding spectator sports, fans will be allowed to attend the games. The Slammers will be the first baseball team in the entire state to host professional baseball games with fans in the stands this year.

Major League Baseball spring training will be resumed July 1 with games beginning in late July according to a plan that the Players Association agreed to on Tuesday.

As part of the Joliet-based tournament announced Wednesday, a number of operating changes and new protocols will be implemented at DuPage Medical Center Field to minimize any potential risks from the spread of COVID-19, team officials said.

“We are proud and excited to be able to bring the baseball fans of the entire Chicagoland area an opportunity to see the sport we all dearly love, to enjoy a hot dog and cold beer on a summer night,” Semaca said in the news release. “We can’t wait to see our fans back in the stadium.”

Under Stage 4 guidelines of J.B. Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan, sporting events are limited to crowds at a 20% capacity, which means tickets for games in Joliet will be extremely limited. 27-game “Cup Pass” tickets are available now by calling 815-722-2287 and individual game tickets will be available for sale to the general public at a later date, if any remain, after the Cup Pass sales window has ended.