Low A

Dear Mr. Will:

I am a big fan of your baseball stories, such as the one that appeared in our local paper the Times Union (Albany, NY) this week. We too have a team that plays in a stadium called the Joe, named for Joseph Bruno, the Majority Leader of the State Senate.

The team is the Tri-City Valley Cats in the New York-Penn League, playing out of Troy, NY. This is a single A , short season (roughly Father’s Day to Labor Day) . In our league, there is the Staten Island Yankees, an affiliate, of course, of the NYY.

You described your team as “low A”. I inferred (and I think others will as well) that it is the “lowest A”, which I don’t believe it is. The short season A I believe to be on the lowest rung. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Thank you.
Roger Green

Dear Mr. Green,

Thank you for contacting the office of George F. Will. Mr. Will is thankful to have actively engaged readers like yourself. In single-A ball, there is class A-advanced, class A and class A-short season. The column used class A low (also used by minor league officials and the RiverDogs staff) to distinguish the level from class A-advanced. You may access a list of all the minor league teams by classification via [this site] Thank you for your readership and have a nice day.

Best Wishes,
Office of George F. Will

I learn something new every day. I suppose I should note that I agree with George Will on most baseball things, but not usually political things.
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And re: the Little League World Series final, it was a great game. Since I wasn't going to be home Sunday, I taped the ABC broadcast and watched it later, making sure not to hear the score.
It was a great game. The Curacao pitcher walked the first three Hawai'i batters, and then the relief pitcher struck out two and got another out without giving up a run. The scoring went back and forth. Hawai'i was down by three in the bottom of the sixth (the last scheduled inning), but rallied to score three to force the first extra innings game in about 35 years.
ABC then sent the game to ESPN2. Since I wasn't home, I missed the dramatic 7th-inning home run that won the game for Hawai'i. Sigh.