The Gateway Grizzlies will open their 2022 Frontier League baseball season with a home game at GCS Credit Union Ballpark in Sauget, Ill., on Friday, May 13, 2022. (Photo: Nathan Assata)
by Cedric Williams
Senior Editor
The Gateway Grizzlies announced their 96-game 2022 Frontier League baseball schedule, Tuesday afternoon, from the team office’s in Sauget, Ill.
After having the 2020 season shut down due to the covid pandemic, Gateway returned to action this past summer, and will do so again next summer, with a full 96-game slate beginning in May.
The Grizzlies, who will play 51 home games at GCS Credit Union Ballpark in Sauget, will begin the season with a three-game weekend series beginning on Friday, May 13, against the Frontier Greys.
The season opener will mark the debut of new manager Steve Brook, who took over as skipper of the Grizzlies in October, following the departure of former manager, Cameron Roth, who left Gateway to take over as manager of the Lake Erie Crushers.
Brook should be a familiar face to Grizzlie fans, who saw him manage the crosstown rival River City Rascals for 10 seasons, and lead that club to two Frontier League championships, before it folded in 2019.
The former Rascals skipper led that club to nine winning seasons and reached the Frontier League playoffs six times in his 10 years there.
Gateway’s 2022 schedule has a number of exciting features for fans to look forward to, including a season-long nine-game homestand in June, a four-game home series over 4th of July weekend, and of course, the club’s “Greatest Night in Baseball” celebration, which will occur during the regular season finale on Sunday, September 4.
The 2022 season will also feature first-time visits for new opponents for the Grizzlies.
After the 2020 season was wiped out, the Frontier League and Can-Am League merged into one. That meant several new teams would be new opponents for Gateway to face, but last year, league safety measures and protocols kept some clubs from playing one another.
This year, even though safety remains a concern, covid protocol that force some teams from playing each other won’t be one of them.
That means, the Grizzlies will face all 15 other clubs in the Frontier League this season, including three clubs – the Trois-Rivieres Aigles, the Sussex County Miners, and the New York Boulders — that have never played at GCS Credit Union Ballpark before.
The annual Frontier League Draft will be in March and spring training will begin in April.
Until then, the Grizzlies will be working out and signing players throughout the winter as they get ready for the new season.