Lemonade League brings baseball back to Cooley Law School Stadium 

THURSDAY, July 23 — The Lemonade League, a two-team summer league with quirky rules and yellow baseballs, is bringing America’s pastime back to Cooley Law School Stadium. 

The 17-game season starts tonight at 7 and runs through Aug. 20. The opener is sold out. 

Attendance is limited to 100 fans, and attendees will be required to participate in a number of health precautions, including social distancing, temperature checks and, of course, wearing facemasks.  

While Major League Baseball returned today in a limited capacity, its player development pipeline, Minor League Baseball, has not. Rather than having the park continue to sit completely empty for the remainder of the season, Lansing Lugnuts ownership and management formulated the Lemonade League, a summer series of games featuring two teams of players from several Michigan colleges, such as MSU, LCC, Wayne State and Central Michigan.  

The league was the result of some clever brainstorming and phone calls made to a score of collegiate athletic departments.  

“General manager Tyler Parsons and I were sitting down trying to figure out what we would do with an empty ballpark if the Lugnuts were to get canceled,” said Greg Kigar, Lansing Lugnuts’ director of stadium events. “Both of us have worked with college athletes; we’ve done a summer collegiate league before. I was doing my due diligence and he let me run with it.”  

Each game is only seven-innings, and in the result of a tie, the victor will be decided with a one-on-one home run derby. Each team will select its best slugger to take on the do-or-die mashing contest. In spirit of the lemonade moniker, the balls are a distinct shade of yellow.  

Chad Roskelly, head coach of the Oakland University Golden Grizzlies, will head the league as its director of baseball. One team will don the Lugnuts’ white, black and red jerseys, while the other team will wear the alternate Locos’ uniform, which is gemstone blue and marigold. Riley McCauley, Pete Romsek and Cullen Turner are assistant coaches. 

Kigar asked various college baseball coaches if they had players interested in participating in a one-off summer league if the Lugnuts season remained shut down for 2020.  

“It was a resounding yes. I just kept on going until Tyler said stop. Within the first two weeks of reaching out, we had over a dozen guys. It took off from there. By the time the owner put his seal of approval on it, I already 30 guys.”  

The contracted players must follow new safety rules to accommodate the pandemic. Players will be tested for the coronavirus and are expected to keep themselves isolated from high-risk means of exposure, such as visiting bars (whenever they reopen) or attending large gatherings. 

“We made sure everyone had a negative test coming into it. Staff is required to wear masks. Only five players at a time go into the locker rooms. We sanitize everything when they leave to go out to the field, and we sanitize everything again when they come back in after the game,” Kigar said. “We keep everyone socially distancing, and we do our best due diligence in providing a good experience and keeping everyone healthy.” 

Fans will sit in tables placed across the outfield concourse and spread six feet apart. Attendees are required to wear masks until they are seated. Tickets are purchased online on a first-come, first-serve basis and are scanned upon entry. There are no walk-up sales. Each attendee is also subject to a temperature check and a health-screening questionnaire.  

Even with the restrictions, Kigar believes the Lemonade League will still be a great time for the players and the fans. 

“People want some sort of normalcy, but our new normal isn’t anywhere close to our old normal — I don’t think we’ll ever see that again. But I do think people are excited to get baseball back into their lives. This area is starving for it,” Kigar said. 

To follow the Lemonade League, visit www.milb.com/lansing.