Baseball sporting goods factory to move from Minnesota town to China - Entrepreneur Generations

Caledonia, Minnesota
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Major League Baseball's playoffs kicked off Tuesday, but the residents of Caledonia, Minnesota may feel a little soured on the sport. That's because a nearby baseball equipment factory is shutting down and moving most of its jobs to China, The Caledonia Argus reports.

The Miken Sports plant, which makes baseball helmets and bats, has operated in Caledonia since 1999. It provides about 80 jobs in the community of 2,800, and is partly owned by Rawlings Sporting Goods and MLB. But Miken announced over the summer that the factory will close down over the next 18 to 24 months, and 59 of the jobs will go to China (the rest will go to Missouri), John Reinan reports for the StarTribune in Minneapolis.

An MLB spokesperson told Reinan that it owns less than 20% of the factory, and that Rawlings made the decision independently. The spokesperson also noted that batting helmets will continued to be made in the U.S.

"We'll miss the jobs," Caledonia resident Nick Stadtler told Reinan. He added that baseball "will lose their fans in this area. That's for sure."

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