ICYMI: Yankees To Add Third Rookie Ball Affiliate

The New York Yankees have made an agreement with Pulaski County and the Appalachian League to field a third rookie ball affiliate in 2015. The Yankees will replace the Seattle Mariners affiliate in the league after the M's backed out of their agreement.

The Pulaski Yankees would be a more advanced league than your run of the mill rookie ball affiliates. In the GCL teams don't play in their own stadiums and fields like they will in this new league. Think of this league as a halfway point from the GCL to the short season Staten Island Yankees.

The Pulaski Yankees will play their home games in Virginia at Calfee Park in Pulaski. The stadium is a historic monument in Virginia and was built way back in 1935. The stadium is actually built in the middle of a residential neighborhood believe it or not. The Yankees are reportedly going to pump $3 million - $3.5 million into the stadium in renovations before the team moves in next season.

Here's the quote from Roanake.com about the renovations:

Calfee Park will get a $2 million facelift that will include adding new seating, upgrading parking and concession areas, and replacing clubhouses and the press box. The old shelter above the third-baseline seating, which dates to the park's 1935 construction and is designated as the family section, is to remain. The overall feel of the park should remain small-town and downhome, Hagan said last week.

Another $1 million to $1.5 million is to be spent building an extended stay facility so ballplayers can live in downtown Pulaski during the season. In recent years, Mariners players stayed in a motel in Wytheville.