Hoosier fields of dreams.

• Author: Morrison, Pat
• Position: Baseball industry in Indiana

Fort Wayne joins Indianapolis, South Bend in chase for baseball bucks.

It's Friday, May 7, one of the first warm, clear nights of spring -- perfect for shorts, T-shirts and baseball. On West 16th Street in Indianapolis, fans are streaming into comfortable old Bush Stadium to watch the home-town Indians play the Buffalo Bisons. By 7:30, 15 minutes after the first pitch, most of the 6,111 fans are settled into seats watching fastballs and hearing the crack of the bat while vendors hawk popcorn, peanuts, beer and pop.

A glance at the stands leaves a striking impression. While major-league baseball is hampered by escalating costs that threaten to make its product too expensive for some families, that's not a problem for the Indians.

People of all ages are out at the ballpark tonight. High up along the third-base side, 38-year-old Tom Hannon and his sons, Taylor, 7, and Kendall, 5, are out for their first game of the year. In other parts of the park, teenagers and college-age adults catch the action. The crowd has its share of seniors and yuppies, too.

Throughout the country, similar crowds are attending games at another 170 or so sites scattered from Portland, Ore., to Tampa, Fla. Minor-league outposts include such places as Harrisburg, Pa., (the Senators of the Eastern League) and Peoria, Ill., (the Chiefs of the Midwest League).

Indeed, minor-league baseball continues its decade-long resurgence.

While many Indiana baseball fans were hoping that Indianapolis would be included in the major-league team expansion this year -- once a real possibility -- the state does have a new team.

Fort Wayne is now on the minor-league baseball map. Playing in a new ballpark, the community helped name the team -- Wizards -- and fans are turning the turnstiles.

Team officials got immediate community buy-in by holding the contest to name the club. There were more than 20,000 entries. The Wizards followed up by offering special group price nights and a "Wiz Kidz" program for children under 13. Wiz Kidz members get into any of the 11 Wednesday night home games free and receive a quarterly newsletter. Other evidence that the Wizards have become a part of the community is their slick inaugural year-book crammed with ads from Fort Wayne-area businesses.

Wizards players are in demand to appear at local schools and businesses and ticket sales are brisk. "We've sold out of season box seat tickets," says Nancy Murphy, 56, a secretary for the team who doubles as a landlord for two of the Wizards players who are staying at her home during the season. Attendance has been good, even during the iffy weather of early spring. "We had 2,500 on a very cold night May 12," she says.

Two other Indiana areas enjoy minor-league baseball. A couple hours west of Fort Wayne, South Bend's White Sox drew 213,000 people during 1992, the second-highest attendance in the Class A Midwest League. Southern Indiana fans were among the 680,000 people who attended Louisville Redbird games last year.

Louisville is one of the brightest minor-league success stories. Ten years ago, the Redbirds were the first club in minor-league history to draw 1 million fans. In comparison, the Indians, also a success, draw about 350,000 annually.

So what's behind the good news from this professional baseball industry? When minor-league executives talk, there are phrases that offer clues: Wholesome, family entertainment at reasonable prices and family entertainment that has appeal to Middle America.

Minor-league baseball teams identify...