Fort Smith Marshals a development league for college baseball players

The Fort Smith (Ark.) Marshals is a development league for college players, as the team’s general manager, Greg Kigar, told those in attendance at the Sallisaw Chamber of Commerce’s March Membership Meeting, which took place Wednesday at Indian Capital Technology Center.

“The Fort Smith Marshals is a summer wood-bat collegiate team,” Kigar said. “It’s almost easier to tell you what we aren’t. Those of you have gone to Tulsa Drillers games or the Northwest Arkansas Naturals games, our kids hope to get to that level. We’re a developmental league underneath that (Double A baseball). We are primarily there for college-age players who want to play through the summer, and get 60 or more games under their belts. There’s more scouts, more umpires and more competition. We have a good manager (Buddy Mercado) and really good hitting and pitching coaches to give them (players) more time to develop. Then, they’ll go back to their colleges in the fall, which is typically why we play from late May to early August. That allows our guys to finish their college seasons.”

Kigar said that the team’s roster is primarily of players from Texas and Oklahoma, with a few from Arkansas. Mercado not only coaches the players, but does so much more with them.

“One great thing about our manager, as guys are coming in between schools, he’s trying to not only develop them but find other college baseball opportunities at other schools,” Kigar said.

He said that he wants to give area fans the best minor league baseball experience possible.

“As far as the Fort Smith Marshals, we’re a River Valley team,” he said. “I visited some of the communities in Oklahoma, and one of the people I ran into was (Sallisaw Chamber of Commerce executive director) Marty (Green). I appreciate him reaching back out to me, and giving me this opportunity to tell people who we are. We are an amateur franchise, and we want to do as much as we can to give you a minor league baseball experience.”

The Marshals currently play at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith’s Crowder Field, the home of the Lions. However, a new home field may be in the works as a new multiple-use stadium could be built along the Arkansas River front.

“I think these types of things bring communities together because you can do so many other things other than play baseball,” Kigar said.

Since the players basically are college players, there’s the NIL issue — name, image and likeness — that Kigar likeness — that Kigar and the Marshals have to deal with somewhat frequently.

“It’s become a nightmare,” the Fort Smith Marshals GM said. “Our team tries to do that kind of thing to allow use of NIL, but our guys have to do something in order to build money, which is what (NIL) is intended for. It was intended for the kids to get paid for the name, image and likeness. For those sets of things our players do, they get paid $25, $50 or $100 depending upon their amount of time and what they’re doing, which is what the NIL program is supposed to do. It wasn’t supposed to be to entice somebody else from another school to pay them a $1 millionplus to be their new quarterback. Right now, quarterbacks run like $5 million to $7 million — which is ridiculous. We’re using that model, but we’re using it the right way. We’re paying guys $50 for doing two or three hours of service.”

Obviously, the pay scale for the players is not anything like those of true professional athletes.

“We give them a per diem when they’re out on the road,” Kigar said. “We do bussing and hotels. We treat them very well. At the end of their season, they actually make more money just in their per diem than the actual money they’re paid.”

The Mid-America League currently has six teams — The Fort Smith Marshals, the Abilene (Texas) Flying Bison, the Joplin (Mo.) Outlaws, the Piney Woods Timberhogs based out of White Oak, Texas, the Sherman (Texas) Shadowcats and the Texarkana (Texas) Rhinos. Kigar said that league expansion is on the horizon as Fort Scott, Kan., will get a franchise, and that Oklahoma and Louisiana likely will each get a franchise. Texas also is expected to get a fifth franchise.

“We’ll probably go from six to 10 to 12 teams for the 2026 season,” Kigar said.

All games will be night games, with Tuesday through Saturday games beginning at 7:05 p.m., and the Sunday contests at 6:05 p.m. The entire league takes off on Mondays.

The Marshals will begin their season at 7:05 p.m. May 22 at Joplin for a three-game series, then will have their home opener at 7:05 p.m. May 27 against Sherman at Crowder Field.

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In other business at Wednesday’s meeting, Sallisaw Public Schools Superintendent Steve Barrett told those in attendance that while a little more work is needed on the new turf at the baseball field, the first game took place Tuesday evening, and that the new turf can expect to see more than Black Diamonds baseball games played on it.

“This field is a multiuse field,” Barrett said. “We’ll be able to play all the way from little league to fast-pitch (softball) to high school baseball. We’ll be able to play college baseball on this field. This is great progress for us. It was a long time coming. We’re planning on a ribboncutting night for it with a full event. We’ll do hot dogs and other fun stuff (on that night).”

Barrett said that the new turf will allow games to resume in about a half hour after a rain delay.