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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Brooks Kieschnick is the only baseball player of the last half-century to both pitch and play a position on a regular basis.
Unfortunately he didn't do either well enough to become a star. So, like many struggling players before him, he's found himself back in the minors this season.
Unlike any of those others, however, Kieschnick is a part owner of the teams he played for.
"The other players like to joke to me, saying 'Kiesch we need this, we need that,'" he said. "It was all in good fun."
What amazes Kieschnick more than the fact that he's a part owner is how much the minors have changed since he began playing at that level in 1993.
"When I first started, the fields weren't as nice as they are now, the stands were empty," he said. "Now it seems like we've got a packed house every night."
What Kieschnick is discovering is not unique – more and more current and retired players are deciding to invest in the leagues where they were once paid peanuts.
It's not just relative no-names, either. Superstars like Cal Ripken, Roger Clemens, and Nolan Ryan are all involved with minor league teams.
All-star owners
A few years ago, Ryan put together an ownership group to form the Round Rock Express, who play in an Austin, Tex., suburb. This year, he added the Corpus Christi Hooks, both affiliates of the Houston Astros.
The ownership group includes current players such as Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Jeff Kent, as well as Kieschnick, who owns what he describes as "very small stake" of the teams.
"We do it both as a business and out of love of the game of baseball," said Reid Ryan, Nolan Ryan's son, who was on the University of Texas team with Kieschnick. "Our investors, the majority of them have either played or been associated with baseball.
"It's hard for some of them to just walk away," said Ryan, who first brought the idea of owning a minor league team to his dad in 1997. "For most of the investors it is a small investment for them. But whether it's large or small, it's a fun investment."
Ripken has owned the Aberdeen IronBirds for the last five years in his native Maryland, and just purchased the Augusta Green Jackets in Georgia.
He and his brother Billy hope to add a team a year until they own a group of 10 teams within the next 10 years.
Wins on the bottom line
Current or former owners looking at the minors are finding plenty of opportunity. The players salaries are covered the major league teams that hold their contracts, while the ticket revenue and merchandise sales pretty much stay with the minor league team owners.
Minor League Baseball saw attendance cracked 36.7 million last year, not counting the postseason, for 160 teams, an average of 3,910 per playing date. That's up 2 percent from the previous season and up 62 percent since 1990, far outpacing any gains in the majors.
Through the end of July, attendance is up by about million fans from last year. And all that growth doesn't even include the addition of a number of unaffiliated leagues in recent years, where the players aren't tied to a major league franchise.
"Before 1990, minor league teams received actual cash payments from the majors in addition to the salaries being covered," said Dave Kaval, CEO and founder of the unaffiliated Golden Baseball League. "There were teams going bankrupt right and left in the 60's and 70's and the major leagues had to make sure there was a minor league to develop talent. No more. Now, they know the minor league teams are making money."
Kaval's California-based league doesn't get any players -- or salaries -- from the majors, but it's still able to make money because expenses are low and the league doesn't have to contribute almost 5 percent of ticket revenue to the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, the umbrella organization that oversees the minors.
Kaval's league's one star is future Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, who continues to play in the independent leagues almost two years after his last big-league game.
Henderson inquired about an ownership stake in his league before signing on, but ultimately decided not to do so. But Kaval said he's had inquiries from other active and retired players about buying into the group, which has joint ownership of the franchises in the eight-team league.
The Ripken brothers weren't looking to buy a minor league team before they got involved. Instead, they were looking to start Ripken Youth Baseball Academy in their hometown, and expected someone else to own the team that would play on the same grounds.
When the team owners pulled out, the brothers ended up buying a Utica, N.Y., team for $3 million and moving it to Aberdeen.
"When he was a kid growing up around minor league teams, it wasn't a good business model," said John Maroon, spokesman for Ripken Baseball. "It was old rickety stands, empty seats. When it's run properly in the right market, today it's a great business model."
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