The Muckdogs will bark again.
True, no longer will the team be comprised of players affiliated with a Major League Baseball team but the majority of players in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League are legitimate professional baseball prospects.
As many as 30 current major league players have passed through the league previously, said Robbie Nichols, the former professional hockey player who already owns a PGCBL team in Elmira and will own the expansion PGCBL Muckdogs in Batavia.
The Genesee County Community Baseball Club, which owns the Muckdogs trademark, has agreed to let Nichols use the team name.
PGCBL is a "wooden bat league" -- a league comprised of amateur players who play or will play Division I or Division II college baseball.
A couple of advantages of collegiate ball over low-level minor league ball, Nichols said, is that the players with a team tend to spend the entire season with a team, so fans get to know them and Nichols said his organization -- CAN-USA Sports -- is committed to fielding a team with about four players from the local area.
The PGCBL regular season consists of 60 games from late May until the end of July. The playoffs and championship are in the first week of August.
Season tickets are on sale now and start at $99. There is also a VP ticket package for $199. Existing Muckdogs season ticket holders will have priority to retain the seats they had in previous seasons.
