NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — There were Bees and Ducks on the field at New Britain Stadium last week, but all of them were really a different species.
“We’re lab rats, which is fine,” said Wally Backman, the manager of the Long Island Ducks, in his office Tuesday night. “I don’t mind it. The game is still 27 outs.”
It is, but many other parts of the game are different now in the independent Atlantic League, the testing ground for M.L.B.’s efforts to inject more action into a sport increasingly dominated by strikeouts, home runs and walks.