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Minor league baseball is nothing if not resilient. It nurtures raw prospects into hot ones, and just when its fans have grown fond of a player, the orders arrive for restationing. It changes its logos, stadiums and even cities whenever interest wanes, because there has been and always will be another town, from Pocatello to Pawtucket, in need of a professional baseball season.

Minor league baseball moves right along, weather permitting. It benefited from the major league strike last year, drawing fans to sites where players and clubs seemed to care, and it will feel residual attention this summer as disenchanted fans flee major league parks for smaller outposts within reach. But life isn't perfect in the minors.

The major leaguers finally resume play April 25, ending a hiatus that has had various effects on minor league baseball, good and bad. Some of the ripple effects have been felt, and some are yet to come. Here are some of the farm teams and their inheritanes:

Bowie Baysox

In this resurgent decade for minor league baseball, there are at least a couple of teams each season that are considered industry darlings. This season's frontrunner: the Bowie Baysox. They are the Orioles' Double-A affiliate, and they will shatter the Eastern League attendance record and probably draw around a half-million fans.

There are two reasons. One is Prince George's County Stadium, a new facility that seats about 8,000 and has standing-only room for another 2,000 or so. The other is a market of some 3 million people. The Baysox are 45 minutes from Camden Yards, and they are likely to sell out most nights and then bump up to Triple A next year. Theirs is a Triple-A ballpark, and there are indications that Bowie might replace Rochester, the Orioles' current International League affiliate.

At the moment, though, there is just one little problem in Bowie. The Orioles were the only organization that didn't use replacement players, so their affiliates can't wait for the day that major league rosters are finalized and minor leaguers can trickle down to their expected destinations. Other clubs have exreplacements to help them get by. "There are about 15 minor leaguers who aren't in our system yet, so the talent in Bowie and probably in (Class-A) Frederick is spread pretty thin," Baysox General Manager Keith Lupton says. "When the major league camp breaks and those guys come back, we're going to be pretty tough."

The Baysox have been nomads the last two seasons, playing at old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore in 1993 and then spending their first 30 games last season on the road before moving into the partially built County Stadium later in the year. They sold 260,000 season tickets before the '95 schedule began, only 33,000 fewer than they drew all last season. "I think the strike helped us sell some tickets, but not many," Lupton says. "We sold out all our games during the strike last year."

Make no mistake: Baseball's epicenter this year is the Baltimore area, where you can watch Cal Ripken chase history in a wondrous park, join the crowds at Bowie and nearby Frederick, and celebrate the 100th-anniversary year of Babe Ruth's birth where it all began for him.

The only thing that would make it better for Baysox fans are a few more players.

Omaha Royals

Shortly after arriving in Omaha, Mike Jirschele had to tell seven players they were leaving. For Jirschele, The Sporting News 1994 Minor League Manager of the Year, it was not the ideal first day on the job as manager of the Royals' Triple-A Omaha affiliate.

"That first day was pretty tense in the clubhouse," Omaha pitcher Dennis Rasmussen says. "The fact that the releases came kind of unexpectedly didn't help matters. Guys were talking about who they wanted to room with on the road, where they were going to live. All of a sudden, things changed for a lot of guys. Normally, nothing changes after you break camp."

But this spring has been anything but normal for baseball. The strike. The replacement players. The uncertainty.

"I told my wife I wasn't looking forward to getting here," says Jirschele, who jumped up from Class-A Wilmington (Carolina). "This wasn't the way I wanted to start things off my first day."

When the Kansas City Royals decided to absorb more than dozen players from its replacement team into its minor league system, push came to shove for Jirschele. Twelve of the players were assigned to Omaha. They arrived in Omaha on April 4 -- two days after the team had broken training camp in Florida and two days before the Royals were to begin their American Association season.

In order to make room on the roster, Jirschele had to release seven players. Complicating matters was the fact that four of the released players were among a group of 12 Royals players who had refused to play exhibition games with replacements. The 12 left training camp for a week to 10 days before being invited back by the Royals. Rasmussen, Ed Pierce, Keith Miller and Keith Lockhart were others in that group who remained with the Omaha team.

Infielder Steve Hecht says he was released because of his pro-union sympathies, a charged denied by Bob Hegman, the Royals' director of minor league operations. "There is a correlation if you look for one," Hegman says, "but that wasn't a factor in the decisionmaking process."

Whatever the reasons, the decisions left the Omaha clubhouse a potential powder keg. Jirschele moved quickly to defuse the situation. At a team meeting the next day, he told the players he wouldn't tolerate any form of retaliation against the players from the replacement team.

"If that means sending guys home," he says, `that's what we'll do. The people who didn't cross the picket line have the right to feel the way that they want to, whether it's right or wrong. But I don't want to hear about it -- on the field, in the clubhouse, anywhere. If we do have problems, then I'll have to do something about it."

Several players spoke at the meeting. After the first week of the season, the mood in the Omaha clubhouse had stabilized. Getting back on the field, Jirschele says, helped ease that tension. In Omaha's first game, Jeff Grotewold, one of the 12 replacements sent to Omaha, hit a home run and drove in the trying run in the 13th inning. Keith Hughes, another ex-replacement, followed with the game-winning hit in an 8-7 victory over Iowa.

"A baseball season is like going to war," Grotewold says. "Guys need to know that their teammates are behind them 100 percent. I think that got that question out of the way right away."

Jirschele agrees. The come-from-behind victory helped put some of the turmoil of the preseason behind the Royals.

"I really didn't know what to expect, but what has happened is what I was hoping would happen," he says. "Some of the feelings still might be there, but these guys realize this is a team sport and they're going to do everything they can to help the club."

"That first game showed us that the guys were out there pulling for each other. Since then, I think the mood in the clubhouse has been great. I haven't seen any of the things I was worried about."

Buffalo Bisons

After suffering through their worst season in 29 years last summer, the Buffalo Bisons evicted the Pittsburgh Pirates and brought in Cleveland as their new parent. The Tribe scoured a market full of free agents wary of a lingering strike and spent the winter signing more than a dozen veteran free agents. Many might have waited for a big league offer had there been a big league to go to.

If the major league season had opened with replacement players, it's possible the best team in professional baseball would have been in Buffalo. For a Triple-A roster, there is an inordinate number of prominent names.

The infield includes Bill Ripken, Ernest Riles, Torey Lovullo and Luis Lopez, the MVP last year at Richmond. Carmelo Martinez is back from Mexico as designated hitter. Mike Humphreys has stopped runs on the Yankees-Columbus shuttle and patrols center field.

Rick Wrona is catching, and Jim Poole and Joe Klink are on the pitching staff. Soon they should be joined by former All-Star closer Gregg Olson, who is still on the disabled list recovering from shoulder trouble.

"There were a lot of free agents hanging out in limbo," says Ripken, who hit .309 last season for the Rangers and hasn't been in the minors since 1987. "They had to make a choice: `Can I hang out and afford to wait? Can I afford to do that? The answer for me was no.

"I think you'll find that with a lot of people. They'll start in Triple A and see what happens. You play here to get back to the big leagues and it's nice to know you're not in it by yourself."

The Bisons got even more experienced when Cleveland sent them sent six replacement players four days before the season opener. The list included former Houston utility man Eric Yelding and pitcher Joe Slusarski, a former teammate of Klink in Oakland. Slusarski pitched in replacement games with the Indians but had said he wouldn't stay if things began for real April 3.

The labor situation may have helped the Bisons on the field, but it cost Buffalo big-time at the box office. The Bisons' first four home games were against Nashville, and they had figured to sell about 70,000 tickets to watch the Triple-A initiation of a fledgling outfielder named Jordan. He didn't want to be part of replacement roulette and went back to his other passion. In his absence, Buffalo weathered two snowouts -- including its opener -- and sold fewer than 22,000 tickets for two games.

Memphis Chicks

Southern League teams will carry 25 players, two above last season's roster limit. The reason for the change is because of baseball's continuing labor strife, but that will present no problem for Jerry Royster, manager of the Double-A Memphis Chicks.

Originally, the 25-man roster was expected to have a short run, but it could last through the season. That could make things interesting for Royster, who likes to shift players regularly in and out of the lineup. Royster wasted no time getting all the position players some work. He changed lineups in three consecutive games.

"I don't like guys sitting around and not playing on a minor league team," Royster says. "I think that would be ridiculous."

Whatever his style, Royster probably needs to win to draw fans. This is the summer the Chicks will share with two new football teams, the Arena Football League's Pharaohs and the Canadian Football League's Mad Dogs. And Memphis swapped organizations with the Wichita Wranglers, meaning future Royals will go through Kansas. The Royals were perhaps the best organization last season; Chicks fans now get the Padres.

West Palm Beach Expos Phoenix Firebirds

The most obvious impact of the major league delay on the minors is the temporary coexistence of established and aspiring players in Arizona and Florida. Extended spring

There usually is something for rehabbing players, but in this case it is a place for the major leaguers to rush into shape while the minor leaguers play for real.

There are two ways to look at this coexistence: It is a baseball paradise, where fans can have the innocent charm of a Florida State League or Pacific Coast League game and also the opportunity to get autographs from All-Stars; two's a crowd.

"I guess people's attention may be split," says Doug Moore, a longtime season-ticket holder of the Class-A West Palm Beach Expos. "But I drink the true baseball fan will be at a game whenever he can, whatever the level. If you love the sport, it's hard to stay away."

West Palm Beach has the biggest crowd. The Braves and Expos usually share the facility for spring training, anyway, and now the Baby Expos are in the mix. The big leaguers work out by day and the FSL teams play there by night so there is less traffic. But the Baby Expos are bumped for now to the tiny clubhouse used in typical years by extended-spring players. The Baby Expos' opponents are forced to meet in the cramped coaches' locker room of the Braves' minor league complex, but there is no room for them to dress so they must suit up at their hotel.

Most everyone agrees that the time share is a better alternative than big leaguers still being on strike. Rob Rabenecker, the Expos' West Palm Beach operations director, says, "I apologized to (Port Charlotte Rangers Manager) Butch Wynegar for the cramped conditions the other night, and his comment to me was, The main thing is, the major leaguers are- playing ball.' I don't think anyone has had any major complaints."

At Scottsdale Stadium, the only real timeshare drawback has been at the gate of the Triple-A Phoenix Firebirds. They are the Giants' PCL affiliate, and some fans are more interested in seeing Barry Bonds by day than a rising player by night. Opening night's attendance for the Firebirds was down by 1,000 from last year's 4,408. The second night, a Friday and usually one of the bigger nights, drew 2,432 -- the smallest gathering in the Firebirds' four years in Scottsdale Stadium.

"Before the extended spring, we expected our attendance to be up," says Firebirds G.M. Craig Pletenik. "It might be that people are just down on baseball, but some might have decided just to wait a few days and see a major league game. Another downer is at this time of year we get some play from the local media, but that is drowned out by having big leaguers still in town. It's hard enough to generate interest in the Firebirds three days after normal spring training. People have got their baseball fix for a while.

"But all things pass."

For Firebirds Manager Keith Bodie, there has been at least one benefit of the time sharing. It has kept Giants Manager Dusty Baker in town, and he saw them win their opening series against Las Vegas. Says Bodie. "The guys seem to crank it up a notch when they know Dusty is watching."

Baker won't be watching much longer. But for now, Moore probably is not the only fan who hopes the minor leaguers are not getting lost in the shuffle. "I'm glad the major leaguers are back," Moore says. "But I don't want these guys to be overshadowed too much they work just as hard."

Mark Newman is a senior editor for The Sporting News. Mike Harrington, Victor Lee, Doug McConnell and Steve Pivovar contributed to this story.

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