Believe it or not, the boys of summer are here.

The Quincy Gems and Hannibal Cavemen expect their players to start trickling in today for what's going to be the longest season of baseball we've ever seen. The 54-game Prospect League schedule starts this week with the Gems and Cavemen playing their first games at home on Thursday.

This is really the best of times for baseball fans. Whether you live in the Gem City or America's Hometown, you can mosey on over to your local diamond, shell out a few bucks and watch some quality baseball.

With the price of Major League Baseball games going through the roof (not to mention the rising-again gas prices), you can't do the Cardinals, Cubs, White Sox or Royals on the cheap. However, your average family of four should be able to take in a game, get a hot dog and soda and candy for less than $30 or so. Good luck in trying to get one of you into a decent seat at Busch Stadium for that price.

I'd expect the newly refurbished Clemens Field to look a lot like QU-Stadium in 1996 when the Quincy Gems joined the Central Illinois Collegiate League. It was obvious that the area was starved for some summer fun and the Gems delivered. Playing to packed houses nearly every night, the Gems won the CICL title in their first year.

It's way too early to tell if the Cavemen will have a similar first-year experience on the field, but I'd have to think they will be a success off of it. After a couple of misses with summer baseball, the city of Hannibal has found a solid group to work with in Bob Hemond and Larry Owens.

Since they originally trotted out guys like Walt Jocketty and Frank White at their first press conference, it's been obvious that this group means business.

Cavemen director of player personnel and manager Jay Hemond has assembled a coaching staff that includes four major leaguers including a near Hall of Famer in pitching coordinator Jim Kaat.

In addition to getting used to having a team in Hannibal, Gems fans will have to get familiar with a new league since the CICL is no more. The Gems and Cavemen are part of the Prospect League, an 11-team league that has absorbed the old CICL teams and added new teams from as far away as Pennsylvania.

Hannibal and Quincy are with the old CICL teams -- Springfield, DuPage County, Dubois County and Danville -- in the Prospect's West Division. Meanwhile, five new teams will make the up the Prospect League's East Division -- Butler (Pa.), Chillicothe (Ohio), Richmond (Ind.), Slippery Rock (Pa.) and North Coast, which is located in Lorain, Ohio.

Instead of trying to play a balanced schedule, the Prospect League did the right thing by playing very few crossover games. As a result, Gembird will get to know Rascal and Shoo-Less Joe -- the Cavemen's mascots -- pretty well by the end of the season. The Gems and Cavemen are scheduled to play a dozen times -- six at each park -- starting with a June 9 date at QU-Stadium.

Over the next 21/2 months, there are only 23 dates that neither Quincy nor Hannibal has a home game, meaning there is a game close by nearly six times a week.

Get out and enjoy it.

-- dobrien@whig.com/221-3365