Get to Know Joliet Slammers

Read about this business, whose owner just claimed their listing on Joliet Patch.

We would like to welcome the Joliet Slammers to the Patch community! When a local business interacts with Patch by claiming its listing, we like to say thank you with a short question-and-answer session to help community members get to know the business. Contact us if you're interested in having your business featured here. Today, Patch features Aaron Morse, Director of Broadcasting & Media Relations for the Joliet Slammers What do the Joliet Slammers offer? The Slammers offer affordable entertainment for the people of Will County and the surrounding areas. Our tickets start at only $5. We have fireworks after every Friday night home game during our season. Every Monday-Wednesday home game we offer the "Blue Collar Buffet" which is an all-…

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Joliet Slammers Looking for a Few Good Homes to House Their Players

Anyone who provides a comfortable place for a team member to stay during the season is rewarded with tickets to every home game and other perks.

Here's a question for you: Do you have a spare bedroom or finished basement that's not being used? Here's another: Would you love to have free tickets to every Joliet Slammers home game this summer, discounts on Slammers gear and VIP treatment at special Slammers events? Hand, meet glove -- have we got a deal for you. The Frontier League team needs "host" families willing to house one or more players on Slammers 2013 team and, in exchange, the aforementioned perks will be yours. The only obligation, said Kelli Drechsel, Slammers assistant general manager for promotions, is you provide a comfortable place for a player to spend the night and his hours away from the ballpark. Families don't have to cook meals, do laundry or provide …

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The Sports Report

Kremer: New Slammers Score with Breyman, Community Outreach

Watch: General manager Chris Franklin introduces Mike Breyman as the new manager of the Slammers during a news conference at ATI Physical Therapy in Bolingbrook.

Mike Breyman was fumbling with the buttons on his Joliet Slammers jersey, preparing to pose for a photograph during a news conference Tuesday at ATI Physical Theraphy’s headquarters in Bolingbrook. An awkward moment quickly turned into a bit of light-hearted humor when an onlooker alerted him that one of his buttons was misaligned. No wonder the new manager’s jersey wasn’t fitting him properly. No worries, either. “That’s what we call a ‘Breyman-ism’—I may make words up, just so you know,” he said. Breyman, 31, was introduced as the new Slammers manager during a get-acquainted shindig that served notice the news Slammers ownership team headed by CEO Josh Schaub already is on the ball on several fronts. No doubt, Schaub picked the location …

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Hitting Coach New Slammers Field Manager

Mike Breyman was the Frontier League's coach of the year in 2011 and worked with new Slammers GM when both were with the River City Rascals.

Mike Breyman, hitting coach for the Gateway Grizzlies and the Frontier League's 2011 coach of the year, has been tapped to be the Joliet Slammers new field manager. Breyman worked with the Slammers newly appointed general manager Chris Franklin in 2010 and '11 when Franklin was manager of the River City Rascals, Breyman was hitting coach and the team won the 2010 Frontier League Championship. “This is a great day for our organization,” Franklin said in a release announcing Breyman's hiring. “Mike Breyman is a great leader and an even better person. We have enjoyed success together in the past and I look forward to working with Mike once again.” Prior to his tenure with the Rascals, Breyman, 31, was the Grizzlies’ bench coach in 2009 and …

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The Sports Report

Kremer: Fate of Slammers Hangs on Quality of Experience

Watch: CEO Josh Schaub, GM Chris Franklin, Frontier League commissioner Bill Lee and Joliet city manager Tom Thanas talk Slammers baseball and downtown revitalization in a Patch video.

Whether the new Joliet Slammers ownership team is more successful than the old remains to be seen. What I learned during Tuesday’s media day shindig in the Hall of Fame Room at Silver Cross Field is CEO Josh Schaub is going to step up to the plate ready to swing at almost any pitch. Schaub promised to hire a new manager that he hopes one day will become the face of the Slammers’ baseball team, if not the entire organization. An announcement on the hire could come before Christmas. He also promised to make Silver Cross Field an entertainment destination site and that means you can expect to see a variety of different shows on the field, the list ranging from concerts to weddings. Yes, very soon you will be able to tie the knot at home plate…

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Slammers Holding Holiday Open House Saturday

The event will feature free Milano baked goods, raffles, pictures with "Santa" Spikes and a present for each child.

If you've been looking for a chance to check out Joliet's Silver Cross Field when it isn't filled with people, vendors and baseball players, Saturday's the day. The Joliet Slammers are holding a Holiday Open House from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the stadium's "Hal of Fame" room. It's the first team event since the Slammer were sold to new owners this fall. At the open house, fans can meet with team administrators -- including new General Manager Chris Franklin -- and rub elbows with mascot "Santa Spikes," who will present each child with a gift. Pastries from Milano Bakery will be served, raffles of Slammers prizes will be held throughout and all merchandise will be 20 percent off. Holiday packs, season tickets and mini plans will also be sold…

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Joliet Native Chosen as Slammers GM

Chris Franklin has been involved in professional minor league baseball for seven years, including four as GM of the River City Rascals in Missouri.

Chris Franklin, Joliet native and general manager of the River City Rascals, has been tapped to helm the Joliet Slammers. Franklin, 31, has more than seven years of professional baseball experience, including four as general manager, according to a news release issued Tuesday announcing his hiring. During his GM tenure with the Rascals, based in O'Fallon, Mo., the Frontier League team went to the championship series three times in three years and won in 2010. He has worked with former Joliet General Manager Steve Malliet in Joliet and River City.  Franklin's first task here, the release said, is to hire a coaching staff and ticket sales representatives. Interestingly, Franklin held the latter job himself in 2006 for the then-Joliet …

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Joliet Slammers Still Waiting for Frontier Approval

The team's new co-owner, Josh Schaub, said there have been loose ends to tie up and approval will likely come during league meetings on Nov. 7 and 8.

The final hurdle the new Joliet Slammers owners need to clear -- approval to be part of the Frontier League -- is taking longer than originally anticipated. Josh Schaub, co-owner of the Joliet Community Baseball and Entertainment group, initially told the Joliet City Council that there would be an answer from the league within about seven days of the city approving the team's lease for Silver Cross Field in downtown Joliet on Oct. 15. Since then, however, there have been several loose ends to tie up, such as having background checks done on the owners, and providing additional paperwork, including a copy of the finalized lease, Schaub said. That lease is valid only if the new owners continue to be part of the Frontier League, which is what…

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City OKs Silver Cross Field Lease for New Slammers Owners; Sale Near Complete

Joliet Community Baseball and Entertainment LLC needs only Frontier League approval for the deal to be finalized.

The Joliet City Council approved leasing Silver Cross Field to the prospective new owners of the Joliet Slammers Monday, leaving just the authorization of the Frontier League for the team's sale to be complete. That OK is expected in the next week, giving the Joliet Community Baseball and Entertainment LLC the ability to start preparing for the next minor league season, which begins less than eight months from now. Josh Schaub, a spokesman for the investor group of which he is a member, assured the council that the group has deep enough pockets to spend what's needed to rebuild the Joliet baseball audience, which has dropped off significantly in the last few years. "We don't want this to fail," said Schaub, a Minneapolis lawyer who works …

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City Drops Slammers Lease Price to $50,000

The proposed deal, which also calls for a head tax should the team pass certain attendance number, goes to the Joliet City Council Monday.

The new owners of the Joliet Slammers will be paying a third of what the previous owners paid to lease Silver Cross Field for the next two years. Under the terms of a proposed lease that will go to the Joliet City Council Monday, it's proposed that Joliet Community Baseball and Entertainment LLC pay $50,000 for use of the field in 2013 and 2014 and $75,000 for the three years that follow. However, should the group of investors -- which includes Jim Haller, a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers for seven years and pitching coach for the minor league Lincoln (Neb.) Salt Dogs -- fill more than 105,000 seats in any of the first three years, they will pay an additional head tax to the city. That threshhold gets lower in the last two years, when…

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