Archives: Aug. 27-Sept. 2, 2006
Springdale leaders feel ballpark-contract pressure
Posted Sept. 2, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
Springdale’s mayor and aldermen say they’re feeling the pressure to complete a contract that would bring the Wichita Wranglers (Class AA; Texas League) to the city’s planned ballpark. For Springdale Mayor Jerre Van Hoose, the pressure comes from looming deadlines. The sooner the city and the franchise agree on a lease, the sooner the city can start work on the 6,500-seat ballpark voters approved in July.
Milwaukee extends PDCs with Huntsville, Brevard County, Helena
Posted Sept. 2, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
The Milwaukee Brewers announced extensions of player-development deals with three existing affiliates: the Huntsville Stars (Class AA; Southern League) through 2008, the Brevard County Manatees (High Class A; Florida State League) through 2010 and the Helena Brewers (rookie; Pioneer League) through 2008. "We are very excited to extend the relationship we have with these three clubs," said Brewers Executive Vice President and General Manager Doug Melvin. "Huntsville, Brevard County and Helena have all provided the critical resources and environment needed to continue developing and preparing our young players for our organization."
Spokane, Texas extend affiliation
Posted Sept. 2, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
The Spokane Indians (short season; Northwest League) and the Texas Rangers announced today that they have signed a two-year extension of their Player Development Contract, which will now run through the 2008 season. Since first affiliating with the Rangers in 2003, Spokane has produced two Northwest League championships, fielded four first-round draft picks and had two Northwest League MVPs on their roster. The current Player Development Contract was set to expire next month. "The Texas Rangers are great partners," said Bobby Brett, managing partner of the Spokane Indians. "And they’ve rewarded our fans for their terrific support by providing championship teams and quality players and coaches."
Connecticut to host 2007 EL All-Star Game
Posted Sept. 2, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
The Connecticut Defenders will be hosting the 2007 Eastern League All-Star Game at Dodd Stadium Wednesday, July 11, 2007. The 2007 Eastern League All-Star Game will feature a collection of the top players from the Southern Division taking on a roster of All-Stars from the Northern Division. Each All-Star roster will consist of 24 players, with each Eastern League franchise being represented by at least one pitcher and one position player and a maximum of six players total. The All-Star rosters for each team will be selected through a combination of fan balloting and selections from media, managers, team and Eastern League front office personnel.
Burlington switches affiliation from Indians to Royals
Posted Sept. 1, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
The Kansas City Royals will replace the Cleveland Indians as the Major League parent club of the Burlington franchise in the Appalachian League, according to Burlington team president Miles Wolff.
The newly re-named Burlington Royals will retain the same local management company that operated the Burlington Indians since their entry into the Appalachian League in 1986. General Manager Mark Cryan and Assistant General Manager Ryan Snodgrass will remain with the team in the same positions.
"We are delighted to welcome the Royals to Burlington," Wolff said. "We know that with Dayton Moore as General Manager, Kansas City will be a fantastic partner with a strong commitment to player development."
Moore, recently hired as the Kansas City Royals general manager, previously oversaw minor league operations for the Atlanta Braves. The Braves are generally considered among baseball’s best organizations at developing talent through their minor league system.
Wolff also thanked Cleveland for their twenty-one years in Burlington. "The Indians have always been wonderful to work to with, and we are sorry to see them go. We understand, though, that they have had a shift in developmental philosophy that doesn’t fit with having a team in the Appalachian League."
The new Burlington Royals will retain the former B-Tribe’s commitment to the community, according to GM Mark Cryan. This is an exciting time for us, with a new parent club, but we want to assure people that this team will remain committed to providing the people of Alamance County a great night of family entertainment."
Bakersfield, Rangers extend PDC for four more years
Posted Sept. 1, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
The Texas Rangers and the Bakersfield Blaze (High Class A; Californian League) announced an extension of their working agreement through the 2010 season. The four year extension of the Player Development Contract (PDC) will make the Rangers the longest tenured affiliate in Bakersfield since the Los Angeles Dodgers left after the 1994 season. It also marks the first time the team has signed a four year agreement with any Major League affiliate since the team became known as the Blaze in 1995. The affiliations with the San Francisco Giants and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were both signed as consecutive two year agreements.
Owner gives up on moving A’s to San Jose
Posted Aug. 31, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
Oakland A’s owner Lew Wolff delivered a sobering message Wednesday to boosters of professional sports in San Jose: The A’s aren’t coming. "It is not an option," Wolff declared of the prospects of moving the A’s to San Jose, using his most blunt public language to date in a city that has pursued Major League Baseball for more than two decades. He is exploring a home for the team in Fremont. Wolff had been trying to buy the territorial rights to San Jose, currently held by the San Francisco Giants, bug his offers apparently have rebuffed. This is not a surprise: regular readers of this site read consistent warnings about how seriously Major League Baseball takes its territorial rules, and there’s no way MLB was just going to take Silicon Valley away from the Giants.
International League approves sale of Lynx
Posted Aug. 31, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
The International League board of directors voted Monday to approve the partial sale of the Ottawa Lynx to Joseph Finley and Craig Stein, clearing the way for the team to be moved to a new ballpark in the Lehigh Valley in 2008. The Lynx will remain in Ottawa next season while a 7,000-seat ballpark is built in Allentown. Ray Pecor, the current owner of the Lynx, will retain a minority ownership in the franchise. The official groundbreaking for the new Allentown ballpark will take place on Sept. 6, according to the office of Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham. Finley hopes the project will be completed by December 2007, giving plenty of time to finish the park before it opens the following April. When the Lynx move, Lynx Stadium will be without its main tenant, and although the independent Can-Am Association is keenly interested in placing a team there in 2008, the city is looking at several alternatives regarding its future.
Hennepin County Board approves ballpark sales tax
Posted Aug. 31, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
On a predictable 4-3 vote, the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners formally agreed to use a sales tax stretching over as many as three decades to help pay for a new ballpark for the Minnesota Twins. The vote, which was greeted with applause, does not require a referendum and opens the way for the team and the county to move forcefully toward building the $522 million open-air ballpark in downtown Minneapolis in time for a 2010 opening. The final 4-3 vote calls for a 0.15 percent sales tax generating $392 million for the project; the Twins will pay $130 million. Nick Coleman, predictably, doesn’t like the deal.
Wranglers tell city to back off, agreement firm
Posted Aug. 31, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
The Wichita Wranglers (class AA; Texas League) are finished negotiating a lease contract with Springdale, team President Jon Dandes said Wednesday. The move comes after the council decided to send a revised contract to the Wranglers ownership for their input, with the biggest change calling for the city to keep control of and revenues from any naming-rights deal — a change that could cost the Wranglers upwards of $250,000, if recent naming-rights deals in Class AA are any indication. (Then again, there really haven’t been many naming-rights deals in Class AA: by our count there have been just eight, ranting from the $84,000 First American Bank is paying in Midland to the reported $250,000 paid for the ballpark in Manchester, N.H.) More from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Wichita Eagle.
Tribe has sights on one of two spring sites
Posted Aug. 31, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
The Cleveland Indians are still working on a new spring-training site for either 2008 or 2009, and their top two locations are Orlando’s Disney World or Goodyear, Az. Both have complications. At Disney World, the Indians would train at a new facility owned by either the Reedy River Improvement District or Osceola County and then share The Ballpark at Wide World of Sports with the Atlanta Braves; no one seems to be stepping forward with an application for $15 million in state funds. At Bonita Springs (located in the greater Fort Myers area), city officials want to move forward but need to acquire 80 acres of land — something that’s not easy in the fast-growing area. In Goodyear, officials have the land and the political will, but they don’t have two teams, and unless the Baltimore Orioles are planning on leaving Fort Lauderdale soon, the Indians can’t move on their own to Arizona if MLB hews to tradition. More on the situation in Bonita Springs.
Proposal links new Knights ballpark, arts tax
Posted Aug. 31, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners chairman Parker Helms says he’s willing to stall a county board vote on a new car-rental tax — essential to more than $150 million in funding for museums and theaters — until the City Council says it will look at the proposal for a new Charlotte Knights (Class AAA; International League) uptown ballpark he backs. Baseball hasn’t been a huge priority for the county — it sounds like the board is waiting for others to get going on a complicated land swap to get the necessary uptown land — so Helms is really just shaking things up to get the ball rolling.
Beavers, Padres extend player-development deal
Posted Aug. 31, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
The Portland Beavers (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League) and San Diego Padres have signed a two-year Player Development Contract (PDC) extension through the 2008 season. "We are very pleased about extending our Player Development Contract with Portland," said Padres Vice President of Scouting and Player Development Grady Fuson. "The 2007-08 seasons will be our seventh and eighth years with Portland, and the organization has become part of the Padres family. The ownership group in Portland, along with the staff in San Diego, has stepped up to make this a successful and fruitful affiliation for all parties involved." The two-year extension continues a partnership that was established in 2001, Portland’s first year back in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. The clubs signed a two-year extension to their original working agreement following the 2004 season.
Omaha, Kansas City re-up for two more years
Posted Aug. 31, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
One of the longest-running affiliation partnerships in professional baseball will continue for at least two more years. The Kansas City Royals and Omaha Royals (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League) have finalized the standard Player Development Contract, extending Omaha’s relationship as Kansas City’s top affiliate through the 2008 season. Omaha has been the top-level farm club for Kansas City ever since the Royals entered the American League as an expansion franchise in the 1969 season. The partnership, which will reach 40 years at the end of the new PDC extension, is tied for the second-longest affiliation at the Triple-A level and is tied for the fourth-longest in all of Minor League Baseball.
Grizzlies, Giants extend PDC
Posted Aug. 31, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
The Fresno Grizzlies (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League) and the San Francisco Giants announced Wednesday the teams have signed a two-year Player Development Contract (PDC) extension that will keep the Grizzlies and Giants affiliates through the 2008 season. San Francisco originally became Fresno’s parent club in the Grizzlies first year in 1998. The Giants have had a history in the city of Fresno dating back to 1958 when the Fresno Giants (Class A; California League) were a Giants affiliate until 1987. "We are very excited and pleased to renew our relationship with the Giants for the next two years," said Chris Cummings, Fresno Baseball Club Managing General Partner. "We look forward to working with the Giants next season and are optimistic about the outcome."
Frisco, Rangers extend player-development deal through 2010
Posted Aug. 31, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
Texas Rangers Director of Player Development Scott Servais announced today the club has reached an agreement with the Frisco RoughRiders (Class AA; Texas League) to remain the club’s affiliate through the 2010 season. Frisco has been a Texas affiliate in the Texas League since the club started playing in 2003.
Memory of Yankee ghosts can’t halt new ballpark
Posted Aug. 31, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
As work begins on the new Yankee Stadium, critics see the project as symbolically burying more than just the old ballpark, the baseball shrine known as "The House that Ruth Built" across the street. What will also be lost, they say, is a metaphor for the American Century; a landmark of New York’s emergence in the 1920s among the world’s great cities and, during the decades that followed, a focal point in the city’s social life. We’d be arguing more strenuously for preservation if the original Yankee Stadium still stood; the current Yankee Stadium is a pale, 1970s version of the original, one that’s not worth saving.
October decision on Petaluma ballpark?
Posted Aug. 31, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
If a ballpark deal between the Sonoma-Marin Fair and a potential minor-league baseball team owner comes to fruition, it will be the city of Petaluma’s turn to bat — and it could come as soon as October, Mayor David Glass said. Based on the fair board’s early August decision to negotiate with baseball financier Merritt Paulson for an initial period of 60 days, October could be the soonest the city might hear a pitch for a lease extension on the fairgrounds site. Petaluma is seen as the future home of an unnamed Class A California League team; we’ve heard the Bakersfield Blaze is the team in play. Here’s an opposing viewpoint.
Baseball fans say goodbye to an old friend
Posted Aug. 31, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
This weekend marks the final series at Ray Winder Field for the Arkansas Travelers (Class AA; Texas League), as the team prepares for a move to a new ballpark in North Little Rock next season. Ray Winder Field is one of the great old ballparks of baseball, and while progress is inevitable, it’s still sad to walk away from an old friend. We were asked by Arkansas Public Radio to comment on Ray Winder Field; you can hear the (surprisingly lucid) discussion in its entirety. We hope to be at one of the games this weekend, health permitting.
Good news on deck for Rainiers
Posted Aug. 31, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
Tacoma officials are collecting signatures on lease extensions that could keep the Tacoma Rainiers (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League) at Cheney Stadium through 2010. At the same time, the City Council is about to accept a $2.5 million state grant that will make the ballpark experience more pleasant. And the Seattle Mariners are negotiating an extension of their player-development deal with the team. A first round of improvements will expand and streamline concession stands, and city officials hope to get another $7 million for a second phase of the Cheney Stadium renovation. That would pay for restroom upgrades, a new roof structure, new clubhouse facilities and dugouts, new field lighting and upgraded mechanical systems.
New for 2007: The Great Lakes Loons
Posted Aug. 31, 2006 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
The Low Class A Midwest League team moving to Midland, Mich. next season has a name: The Great Lakes Loons. Bill Stavropoulos, president of the Michigan Baseball Foundation (owners of the team), said they chose Great Lakes Loons because the loon is a classic yet unique bird that makes its home along the hundreds of miles of shoreline in Michigan. "The loon is an interesting bird," Stavropoulos said. "It has distinctive features with its striped neck and red eye. We chose ‘Great Lakes’ because this is the region’s team and we wanted to include a distinctive feature of Michigan in the name." Reaction to the name is mixed: some think the name is a little loony, but early merchandise sales were strong.