MAJOR CHANGES IN THE MINORS : Wolff Had Experience Beating the Bushes : Baseball: He formulated independent idea after owning the Durham Bulls.

Miles Wolff did it first.

Can others do it better? Some are spending millions to find out.

Four years ago, Wolff began putting together the nation’s first independent minor league. There were plenty of teams without major-league affiliations dotting the baseball landscape, but none played exclusively in a league of their own.

Last summer, Wolff’s six-team Northern League kicked off its inaugural season with flying colors. Attendance was high, the caliber of play solid.

Folks were paying attention.

By this time next year, nine independent leagues could be in operation, including the proposed Valley-based Golden State League, which hopes to establish a franchise in the Antelope Valley.

Each of the independent leagues will attempt to duplicate Wolff’s heady success in the short-season Northern League, which includes teams in Canada, Minnesota, South Dakota and Iowa. Like a prairie fire, the independents are spreading in all directions.

Independent teams have no affiliation with big league clubs, the operational lifeline for most minor-league teams. Big league teams supply equipment, coaching and player salaries, an investment of $500,000 a year at the Class-A level, one farm director said. Rosters are filled with players selected in the annual June amateur draft.

Independents sign their own players and pay their own operational costs. Teams are composed of a potpourri of free agents, minor-league castoffs and washed-up big leaguers. By most accounts, the independent brand is roughly comparable to Class-A ball, minus a few frills.

It’s unique. It’s risky. Yet Wolff and others seem to have created quite a niche, judging by the volume of knockoffs on the market.

The Northern League fast became such a handful that Wolff was forced to retool his job description. Formerly publisher of Baseball America magazine, Wolff stepped aside last year and assumed the role as president of Baseball America, Inc.

“The league was taking up too much of my time,” Wolff said.

Wolff has a considerable background in conventional minor-league ball, yet in a manner of speaking, he now prefers the independent brand. Teams with major-league affiliations come with plenty of strings.

For instance, on affiliated teams, high-profile prospects are rarely with a club long enough to establish an identity within their host community. They routinely move up to the next level, often around playoff time.

What’s more, affiliated minor league teams don’t always put their best team on the field. Bonus babies play to justify the parent club’s contractual investment. All in the name of player development.

“Farm-system baseball has lots of problems,” Wolff said. “With the players, if they’re good, they’re gone. Players are there only to move up.”

Of course, the finances of minor league franchises with big league operating agreements are inextricably tied to the parent team. Minor league owners must stomach the demands of the big league clubs, which foot much of the operational bill.

Major league teams provide the coaching, players, equipment. . . . In short, as Wolff says minor league teams know only too well, the tail does not wag the dog.

“If you own a McDonald’s franchise and they tell you to sell horse meat,” Wolff said, “then you don’t have much choice.”

Wolff owned the Durham Bulls, a Class-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, for 11 years before he sold the club three years ago. The Bulls, featured in the movie “Bull Durham,” are perhaps the most famous minor league team.

Wolff started thinking about forming an independent league in 1990, when he was involved in negotiations to hammer out the Professional Baseball Agreement, which helped establish operational guidelines and standards for minor league clubs.

Wolff called the negotiations with representatives of big league clubs “acrimonious,” and said he didn’t particularly relish the company he’d been keeping at the bargaining table.

“I wasn’t sure I wanted to be associated with them anymore,” he said.

So he went solo.

Wolff first considered setting up an independent league in New England. There were plenty of available stadiums and the area is densely populated.

However, Wolff soon noticed a pattern: He was receiving dozens of phone calls from fans and city officials in the Northern Midwest. They all wanted to know how they could land minor league teams for their hometowns.

He took his first trip to the region four years ago and started the political ball rolling. Only one stadium needed to be erected, in Sioux City, Iowa. The Northern League also has teams in Duluth and St. Paul, Minn.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Thunder Bay, Ontario; and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

A crucial thread runs through the league, he said, and undoubtedly has contributed to its success. Northern League franchise owners all had backgrounds in minor league ball and several had experience running independents.

Northern League rosters are filled with players released by teams with big league affiliations, a plan that will be mirrored by the other independent leagues.

The Northern League boosted its profile--and its attendance--by signing former major leaguers such as Leon Durham, Pedro Guerrero and Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd.

Players have used the league as a springboard to opportunity. In 1993, 37 players in the Northern League either participated in spring training the following year or had their contracts purchased by big league organizations.

Attendance in last summer’s 72-game season averaged 3,300 per game. The Northern has experienced a 22% increase this season and last week officials announced the league had broken the short-season record.

More than ever, Wolff is convinced that independent baseball can work, but with one proviso: Organizers and team owners must know the business beforehand. Otherwise, they might stigmatize all independent leagues.

“You hope they do it right,” Wolff said. “My fear is that someone (starting a new league) won’t know what they’re doing.

“They’ll kill baseball in all of these little towns. They’ll poison the water.”

RELATED STORY: C13

INDEPENDENTS DAY

TODAY

Miles Wolff, who formerly published Baseball America magazine, last summer founded the first independent league--the highly successful Northern League. Attendance boomed and others took notice. Next summer, as many as nine independent leagues could be in operation.

SUN.

Independent leagues serve as a last chance for career minor leaguers and major league castoffs. One of the top hitters for the Sioux Falls (S.D.) Canaries of the Northern League is former Dodger Pedro Guerrero. Life at this rung in professional baseball is often unpredictable and humbling. Players are actually traded for bats and balls.