The Chillicothe Paints (Frontier League) will never again have to drag an infield or chalk the baselines.

The Chillicothe Paints have gone to a completely turf field

Looking for dirt? You won't find it anywhere on the field.

"All we have to do now is roll the ball out and play," Chillicothe (Ohio) general manager Bryan Wickline said.

The new turf cost just under $1 million, but Wickline said that it should pay for itself in three years because of reduced costs for drying compounds, chalk and the manpower associated with keeping a field up. But probably most importantly, rainouts will be thing of the past.

"You can play 10 minutes after it rains," Wickline said. "It is a no-brainer. I can't even imagine the people that are living around Seattle where it rains all the time. This is just great. Now 95 percent of my worries about the weather are gone. You don't have to have a tarp . . . Unless it's raining so hard we can't start a game, that's the only reason we won't play."

The field can drain 12 inches of water in an hour, meaning that even in a steady rain, the field will stay relatively dry.

The Paints have yet to play a game on the new field, but high school teams have, and they have given it a thumbs up. And some of the Paints pitchers have tried out the new turf mound.

"You can still get in there in front of the (rubber)," Wickline said. "It's been fine. I've had some Paints players in and they love pitching on it. Eventually it will likely be a home field advantage psychologically."

While the Paints have a new field, the Rockford (Ill.) RiverHawks and the new Traverse City (Mich.) Beach Bums will open new parks this season. It marks a pretty impressive transition for the Frontier League, which used to be willing to play just about anywhere.

"Without a doubt, getting the stadiums up to snuff has been a priority," Frontier League commissioner Bill Lee said. "My first year with the league, back in 1994, we were kicking and clawing to play anywhere, whether it was a high school field or Legion field. Now the league has evolved to such a degree that nice facilities are being built for our clubs."

Rickey To Return?

Although they don't have a signed contract yet, the Golden Baseball League believes Rickey Henderson will return for a second season with the San Diego Surf Dawgs.

Henderson, 46, would be entering his fourth season in the independent leagues, although he would remain only the second oldest player in baseball, behind Mets first baseman Julio Franco.

"He's looking at playing another year," Golden Baseball League commissioner Kevin Outcalt said. "We don't have a contract signed yet, but we talked to his agent last week. From discussions we had with him, he wants to play another year."

Outcalt said the league is looking at giving Henderson a player-coach role, as Henderson enjoyed working with baserunners in Mets camp during spring training. And next year, when the league expands into the San Francisco area, Outcalt said Henderson could be a player-manager for one of the new teams.

Last year, Henderson hit .270-5-29 with 16 stolen bases for the league champion Surf Dawgs.

A Wider Talent Pool

After two seasons where a lack of visas thinned out the talent pool for independent leagues, the situation is returning to normal this season. Tweaks to the visa rules have allowed teams to acquire more foreign players this year, after two seasons where visas were nearly unattainable.

That has helped in two different ways. Teams have been able to sign Dominican, Venezuelan and Canadian players again, but maybe more importantly, the loosening of the visa rules also meant affiliated clubs were more willing to release players at the end of spring training. Last year, affiliated teams kept more veterans on rosters or in extended spring training, worried that injuries would leave them unable to fill roster holes later in the season.

"I think it was more normal this year than last year," Joliet manager Hal Lanier said. "More people were released (by affiliated teams) this year."

INDEPENDENTS' DAY

• In addition to the arrival of two new leagues--the United League, a six-team league based largely in Texas, and the American Association, an amalgamation of Central League and ex-Northern League clubs--the Can-Am League has picked up the Nashua Pride, which had been a member of the Atlantic League. Because of the different eligibility and salary cap rules, the Pride have very few players back from last year's Atlantic League club, although outfielder Glen Murray has returned.

• The Golden League has already had one trade this offseason where the Fullerton Flyers sent 60 cases of Budweiser to the Northern League's Schaumburg Flyers for the rights to righthander Nigel Thatch, better known for playing "Leon" on a series of Budweiser commercials. The Flyers almost had another bizarre deal, as the Dodgers offered 10,000 baseballs for the right to make Charlie Hough the pitching coach for one of the short-season clubs. Hough decided to stay with the Flyers as the team's pitching coach.

• Two independent leagues were still fighting over which one should have a team in Edinburg, Texas. The United League has moved part of the league office to the south Texas town to help get the Coyotes ready for the season. However, the Edinburgh Roadrunners, formerly of the Central League, have filed suit, claiming their lease for Edinburg Baseball Stadium was improperly terminated while the club is in bankruptcy proceedings.