Chris Franklin, new general manager of the Slammers, at Silver Cross Field in Joliet, Illinois, Tuesday, December 4, 2012. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun Times Media
Chris Franklin, new general manager of the Slammers, at Silver Cross Field in Joliet, Illinois, Tuesday, December 4, 2012. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun Times Media
Chris Franklin, new general manager of the Slammers, at Silver Cross Field in Joliet, Illinois, Tuesday, December 4, 2012. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun Times Media
Chris Franklin, new general manager of the Slammers, at Silver Cross Field in Joliet, Illinois, Tuesday, December 4, 2012. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun Times Media
Chris Franklin, new general manager of the Slammers, at Silver Cross Field in Joliet, Illinois, Tuesday, December 4, 2012. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun Times Media
Independent baseball debuted in Joliet in 2002. Everything was rosy. The JackHammers qualified for the Northern League playoffs, and attendance topped 200,000. But Joliet did not appear in the playoffs again until 2010. By then, attendance had significantly slipped, and other problems had arisen. The …
