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Owner of DuPage's newest baseball franchise sets the course for a winner

At the halfway mark of their first season in the Prospect League, featuring some of the top collegiate baseball talent in the country, the DuPage Drones are 16-16.

But owner and CEO Josh Schaub says his team, which plays its home games at the Village of Lisle-Benedictine University Sports Complex, is poised to make a run at the wooden bat league's West Division championship for years to come.

Schaub, a Minnesota-based sports attorney and former CEO of the Joliet Slammers Frontier League team, sat down with the Daily Herald before a home game against the Hannibal Cavemen to talk about the team's inaugural season and the future of the organization.

Q. The Drones follow the DuPage County Hounds, a wooden bat team that played at Benedictine in 2012, and the DuPage Dragons, who played there for several seasons beginning in 2005. Why is Lisle a good fit for the Drones?

A. The demographics are perfect. We have a large cluster of people in a small area, with great discretionary income and great metrics across the board. We also have a great facility. Obviously we have a great playing field here, a nice stadium that fits 1,000 people, which is perfect for this league, so it all fits.

Q. So you'll be here a while?

A. We are here for the next few years, at least, and we expect to grow our fan base, make some improvements to the ballpark and really grow the popularity of this franchise.

Q. You're a longtime baseball guy and former owner of the Frontier League Joliet Slammers. What is it about this wooden bat league collegiate level that you love?

A. The players, themselves, are absolutely amazing because they're young, they're hungry, and they're passionate. They're chasing a dream and that's really cool to watch every day coming out here working on their game and getting ready for the Rule 4 amateur draft. We were fortunate enough to have one of our players get drafted two weeks ago by Major League Baseball. It's something to see these dreams come to fruition.

Q. It's happened before, right?

A. The Prospect League is ranked by “Baseball America” as the fourth highest in terms of player

talent. That's out of 50 leagues, so we are very talented in terms of what you see coming out of here. Players who have come out of this league include Mike Schmidt, Jonathon Papelbon and Neal Cotts off the top of my head. This is the level prior to the minor leagues. The same players you see at the (Kane County) Cougars are coming through this league.

Q. You've currently got an infielder in the Top 5 in batting average and a pitcher in the Top 5 in strikeouts in the league. What's the talent level of this team?

A. Every owner I talk to says we're the best talent on the field. Talentwise there's not even a doubt about it. We've had some up and down nights from our pitching staff, and some nights our bats have just gone cold. It's been an up and down battle, but as we learn our players, we're going to pick it up, and I believe we're still going to win the division championship.

Q. Is this all local talent?

A. We've got a local flavor, but these guys are from all over. We've got guys from the University of Illinois, University of Alabama and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and they will stay with local host families.

Q. We're seeing the Cubs, at the major league level, developing quite a unique personality. What's the personality of this team?

A. It's interesting. It's developing. We had a big red pirate flag in our dugout last weekend. And then they had catcher masks with the rake runner on them. This is minor league high jinks at its finest. These guys are having a great time. They're developing. I think you're seeing we're a pretty hard-nosed baseball team too. We've had some other teams challenge us on the field, and we don't back down. It's great to see that.

Q. Is that personality important as you work to build a fan base in your first year?

A. I've been in baseball for quite a few years, and I've seen this work. It's really organic. It takes a fun team with great promotions that appeal to a large group of people, whether it be

  Aidan Linton, 7, front and his brother Andrew, 10, of Naperville keep an eye on the DuPage Drones. The team plays its home games at the Village of Lisle-Bendictine University Sports Complex. Paul Michna/pmichna@dailyherald.com

young or the elderly. There's fireworks, Thirsty Thursday for the older crowd who like to have some libations with their baseball, and then it's kids' nights. Those things draw crowds.

That is really what brings us all together, and how we're going to grow our fan base. If not-for-profits put groups together for our games, they receive half of the face value of the ticket. So essentially, they get to go to a baseball game and raise money for charity with very little work. It's a great set up.

Q. How hands-on are you as an owner?

A. I don't get involved with the on-field stuff besides making sure our team shows up, they hustle and are playing the game the right way. The one thing that separates us from pro baseball is the access to the players. These guys live with host families. For kids, there's no difference between these guys and the Cubs, so it's really a cool thing to watch.

Q. So baseball is a passion, not just a hobby for you?

A. Absolutely. Baseball is a passion. I've been playing since I was young. I would say I was a good high school player, a horrible college player. After college, I became a scout for the Milwaukee Brewers and ever since then my passion for baseball has really blossomed.

Harvey Kuenn is a very popular figure in Milwaukee. He's been scouting for 25 years. His dad was a major league manager and one of the best hitters of all time. When you start traveling with someone with that lineage of baseball and you start peeling away the onion of what baseball is and you start to understand the chess match underneath it all, that's where my love affair with baseball begins.

Couple that with my law degree and owning a couple other businesses, we end up here.

Q. With a few pit stops along the way?

A. I was an undergrad at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, and I went to the Milwaukee Brewers and started as an intern in the scouting department. I did a little of the analytics work that is so popular today. I was doing that in 2005.

I left the Brewers front

  Josh Schaub, owner and CEO of the DuPage Drones, says Lisle is the perfect fit for his wooden bat league team of college players from across the country. Paul Michna/pmichna@dailyherald.com

office and went to law school but stayed on as an associate scout for them. While in law school, I worked for the Edmonton Cracker-Cats as director of player development for them. I clerked for the Northern League and then, as I started to practice law, I began to represent buyers and sellers of sports teams.

A client came to me in 2012, and he was interested in buying the Joliet Slammers. He backed out of the deal, and I decided I wanted to do it, so I found a group of partners and bought the Slammers.

In three years we turned them around and then I determined I wanted to do another venture. This obviously is right up the road. We came up and bought this team, and here we are today.

Q. Will you be back in the big leagues one day?

A. I do have future aspirations, and I hope to someday be back in Major League Baseball in a larger capacity, but we have to do what we have in front of us now. And that's turn the Drones into a winner.

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