Oestrike Stadium, home to Eastern Michigan University’s defending Mid-American Conference Baseball Tournament champion Eagles, will also be home for the 2009 season to the Midwest Sliders, an independent professional baseball club competing in the Frontier League.  The announcement was made jointly by EMU Athletics Director Dr. Derrick Gragg and Midwest Sliders President & Director of Team Personnel Rob Hilliard.

The Sliders, purchased last January by Baseball Heroes of Oakland County, LP, operated in 2008 as a travel squad, playing all 96 games on the road.  The Oakland County-based ownership group plans to start construction on a 3,900-seat stadium next spring in Waterford Township.  After the ball park’s completion, the club will be renamed the Oakland County Cruisers.  “For the upcoming Frontier League season, we want to bring the club as close as possible to Oakland County while playing in a first-class facility,” explained Hilliard.

“We’re extremely pleased to call EMU ‘home’ for the ’09 season and look forward to bringing this affordable, family entertainment activity to the greater Ypsilanti-Ann Arbor area,” Hilliard said, adding that he, Vice President & General Manager Bill Terlecky and Manager & Player Development Director Eric Coleman were anxious to meet with Ypsilanti officials, members of the local business community and area residents.

“We’ve had a long and rich baseball tradition here at EMU and have always prided ourselves on putting our best foot forward,” said Dr. Gragg.  “We believe Rob and his staff are knowledgeable baseball people and good folks who will fit in well, both on campus and in the surrounding community.”  According to Hilliard, the club will be called the Midwest Sliders of Ypsilanti for 2009, taking a page from MLB’s Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  The cap will include a ‘Y’ in its design.

The ball club is releasing its 2009 Frontier League schedule and will soon begin to offer promotional packages to area businesses.  Plans are also underway to add portable food & beverage carts, souvenirstands and other fan-friendly amenities.  Together with an in-game entertainment program, Midwest Sliders games at Oestrike Stadium will take on all of the trappings of a typical Minor League ball game.