Schaumburg Boomers: Minor League Club Trying To Stand Out In A Major Market

Coop, the Schaumburg Boomers' mascotPhoto byDoD News

By Paul M. Banks

It's imperative, when you're a Minor League Baseball franchise, to go way outside the box with your promotions. With over 200 Minor League Baseball teams in the United States, you've got to make major waves by being original in order to get noticed by the media and publicity industries.

Media-wise, the Schaumburg Boomers, then known as the Schaumburg Flyers, allowed this reporter to sit in the dugout with them during a game in 2009.

Promotionally, the Boomers excel in having zany and wacky promotional nights, appealing to the themes of wrestling, superheroes, Star Wars (in numerous forms) and even Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

From the dugout experience, I learned just how much the games matter to the players in the independent leagues, versus the Major League-affiliated clubs, which are all about development, first and foremost.

In the Indy leagues, it's less about trying to get right individually in order to make it to the show. It's just pretty much all about wins and losses here.

In the Chicago area, there is much more baseball than just the Cubs and White Sox. In addition to the Boomers, you have four more unaffiliated teams: Chicago Dogs (Rosemont), Gary SouthShore RailCats, Joliet Slammers and the Windy City Thunderbolts (Crestwood).

You also have a club in an MLB partner league, the Kane County Cougars (Geneva) who lost their affiliation to the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2020. They had previously been affiliated with the Cubs, Baltimore Orioles, Florida Marlins, Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals. Obviously, it is a very crowded baseball marketplace. I checked back in with the Schaumburg franchise this week, to see what has changed and what has stayed the same.

The ballpark setup is very reminiscent of the New York Mets' old Shea Stadium, with airplanes consistently flying low on final approach to the adjacent airport. In Queens, it's the bigger jets, coming into LaGuardia. Here it's Schaumburg Regional Airport, and you have small prop planes, with the occasional helicopter, consistently streaming in over first base and right field. The Flyers were the perfect name for this franchise who plays ball in Alexian, now known as Wintrust Field.

The Boomers wear black and orange, with an owl for a mascot, giving this ballpark a bit of an Orioles/Camden Yards feel. With owl imagery and orange the primary color, the foul pole is, naturally, sponsored by Hooters.

The Boomers are four-time Frontier League champions (2013, 2014, 2017, 2021), but they might be most known for having former White Sox player Ron Kittle (the 1983 American League Rookie of the Year) as the franchise’s original manager.

The Flyers boast a famous former player in “Leon” from the popular Budweiser advertisements of the 2000s, although he was known around here as “a pitcher who couldn’t get anybody out.” Turns out Leon’s contributions to the team were more promotional in nature.

The Boomers' most famous alum is current New York Yankee Jake Cousins, who is literally the cousin of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins. The word "cousin" was obviously overused in that last sentence.

Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”