Archives: May 6-12, 2007
Yankees, Mets won’t sell seat licenses; ballpark funds in place
Posted May 11, 2007 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
New York’s two Major League Baseball teams won’t sell licenses to fans who want to buy season tickets at their new ballparks because they have already secured financing and don’t want the fan backlash. Yankees President Randy Levine and Mets Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon said in separate interviews that their clubs won’t join at least 17 other major U.S. sports franchises in selling personal seat licenses when their new ballparks open in 2009. The licenses require fans to pay a one-time fee for the right to buy season tickets. The two New York teams raised a combined $1.6 billion in taxable and tax-free municipal bonds that will be repaid with ballpark revenue. This is a smart move by both teams: they’re already being criticized by fans anticipating hikes in ticket prices, and adding a PSL fee to the mix would surely alienate a large part of both team’s fan base.
Frontier, Northern League merger talks underway?
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According to Rockford RiverHawks owner Dave Ciarrachi, the independent Northern and Frontier leagues have had preliminary discussions about merging and he hopes some action could be taken in the next 12 to 24 months. Northern League Commissioner Clark Griffith and Frontier League Commissioner Bill Lee didn’t comment for the Rockford Register Star story, which extensively looked at what each league would need to do in order to merge (the Frontier League would probably raise the maximum age of a player; the Northern League may have to make some concessions with travel money). A merger also doesn’t address one of the big issues with the Northern League: the Fargo-Moorhead, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary franchises would still be located quite a ways from the nearest team in the league — Kansas City is some 600 miles from Fargo.
In a blink, hitter’s eye examined at Busch Stadium
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Darryl Hamilton walked around the field Wednesday taking snapshots. Major League Baseball’s senior specialist of on-field operations wasn’t picturing a change in MLB’s stance on instant replay, but said there will be adjustments to the hitter’s background at Busch Stadium. The black hitter’s eye in center field doubles as a high-tech electronic billboard that switches to ads between innings. Problem is, you can see the white writing of "Edward Jones" through the black during at-bats, akin to house blinds allowing a sliver of sunshine.
A’s sign contracts for land in Fremont to build new ballpark
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The Oakland A’s have signed contracts to buy a crucial swath of land for a proposed ballpark and retail, housing and hotel development in Fremont, the team said Thursday. Lew Wolff, the A’s managing partner, called the deal a "critical milestone” in the team’s plan to migrate 25 miles down the Nimitz Freeway. With the land in hand, he said, he will soon submit an application to the city for a roughly 32,000-seat ballpark, surrounded by housing and high-end commercial development. Once Wolff does that, Fremont can start a permit approval process that the A’s hope ends with a new ballpark being opened within five years. Wolff did not disclose the purchase price for the land, 181 acres on two parcels west of Interstate 880 off Auto Mall Parkway. In all, the A’s now control 226 acres in Fremont, the Bay Area’s fourth-most-populous city with 210,000 people. More from the Tri-Valley Herald.
Miami Stadium: Field of broken dreams
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Cuban millionaire José Manuel Alemán believed that building a new ballpark in 1950s Miami would lure major-league baseball to the city. And he was willing to stake his personal fortune on it. Alemán was dead wrong. Billed as the most ”significant ballpark built since Yankee Stadium,” Miami Stadium never lived up to its hype following Opening Day in 1949. Today, 60 years since the original plan for the state-of-the-art ballpark was unveiled, the tragic history of the ballpark and its father-and-son owners is being revived in a documentary, White Elephant: What’s There to Save?. It premieres Saturday night at Little Havana’s Tower Theater in Miami.
Union rejects Mitchell’s request for medical records
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The baseball players’ union rebuffed a request from Sen. George Mitchell’s staff to submit anonymous medical records to his steroids probe, according to several lawyers familiar with the negotiations. Mitchell’s staff, which has been investigating steroids in baseball for more than a year, has been seeking medical records for several months. The union has not agreed to a request for anonymous records because players fear Mitchell’s staff would use information in them — such as age, height, weight and blood type — to connect the records to specific players, the lawyers said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the talks. Meanwhile, there’s other disturbing news on the drug front: major league baseball players are continuing to pop amphetamines and other banned stimulants despite the introduction of testing last year, according to a report from the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Dragons stay in touch with fans on waiting list
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In February 2000, as Fifth Third Field was nearing its completion on First Street and the Dayton Dragons (Low Class A; Midwest League) seemed more a reality than ever, the team sold its final season ticket package. Then one day, the Dragons employee assigned in the makeshift office across from the ballpark to take ticket orders suggested establishing a waiting list for season tickets. That list goes strong today. But because about 95 percent of their 5,000 season-ticket accounts renew each season, not many extra fans or businesses can purchase tickets each year. The logjam of interest — there are 6,634 names on the waiting list — has created a very desirable problem for the Dragons, who have sold out 514 straight home games.
Latin food at Yankee Stadium. Now, how about that!
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In our Complete Guide to Big League Ballparks we noted the relative lack of Latin food offerings at Yankee Stadium, a curious omission for a New York City team. That shortcoming has been addressed this season, as the normal concession items — hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken fingers, fries, pork fried rice, peanuts and even sushi and baked ziti — has some spicy new additions. They read like the day’s specials at a Washington Heights restaurant: ground beef or cheese empanadas; chicken in salsa with sweet plantains, rice and beans; Cuban sandwiches with plantain chips; and papas rellenas, or fried stuffed potatoes.
Minor-league ballpark debate continues in Grand Prairie
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Opposition to a proposed minor-league ballpark in Grand Prairie, Texas got a little more vocal recently, when a group against the park gave the city council a 5,000-name petition as a show of strength. But ballpark proponents think the petition is misleading and have mounted a phone bank counter-offensive. Katy Hubener, the spokesperson for “Citizens Against the Ballpark and For Property Tax Relief,” brought the stack of petitions to the city council on May 1. She told the council that her group planned to collect more leading up to election day and later confirmed that it had sent out a mail flier with a petition component. Tomorrow voters will to go to the polls to vote on a proposal to fund a new ballpark for an independent American Association team via a one-eight-cent sales tax.
Act of patriotism? Fans forced to stand still during anthem at Yankee Stadium
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Lots of Yankees news today. The most patriotic moments at Yankee Stadium can also be the most confining. Seconds before "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America" are played, police officers, security guards and ushers turn their backs to the American flag in center field, stare at fans moving through the stands and ask them to stop. Across the ballpark’s lower section, ushers stand every 20 feet to block the main aisle with chains. Some say the move is unduly restrictive and that the Yankees should stop the practice, but we’re unlikely to see anything more than complaints unless a fan is actually arrested or detained for moving around.
Stingers to fly away from Spartanburg to Forest City after this summer season
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Fifty-six more games — and the Spartanburg Stingers (summer collegiate; Coastal Plain League) will be no more. The Stingers next year will find a permanent home in Forest City, N.C., complete with a new name, a new ballpark and new faces filling the stands. It’s a loss to Spartanburg’s 80-year-old Duncan Park Stadium, which has seen all levels of baseball grace its diamond over time. The Stingers played there for four years. But with the stadium now closed, the team will play the 2007 season at Wofford College, including 28 home games and 28 away. The Stingers, city leaders and the college were able to broker a one-year lease to make that happen. Forest City is planning up to $2 million in renovations to its American Legion field — which, from now on, will be known as the McNair Municipal Stadium, as much of the funding for the renovation came from a gift from Bob McNair, owner of the Houston Texans (NFL). A return of the Stingers was seen as part of the potential Duncan Park Stadium renovations, but a group working toward its renovation says it’s been in contact with other leagues, and we’re guessing they’ve received some encouragement from the independent South Coast League.
Pro ball returns to city
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The independent Northern League finally dug its cleats into Saskatoon Thursday after years of whispered talk and sidelong glances. The preseason clash between the Calgary Vipers and Edmonton Cracker-Cats, which finished with a 5-5 tie, drew a crowd in the 2,500 to 3,000 range. Cracker-Cats’ general manager Al Coates surveyed the scene and an old ballpark he said wasn’t as bad as he’d thought, and proclaimed himself ready to return next season. The Cracker-Cats are being kicked out of their park for two weeks next season when the world junior baseball championships hit Edmonton in late July. Coates said there’s a good chance they’ll make Saskatoon their home base during that span.
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Nationals’ transition extends off field
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Last July, when Major League Baseball was officially turning over the Washington Nationals to the family of Bethesda real estate giant Theodore N. Lerner, the incoming president of the club, Stan Kasten, was going over the plan he thought would best serve the building of the team. It involved slashing payroll in the upcoming offseason, stripping the roster before it was completely restructured. He wanted his new owners to understand the public’s most likely reaction. As the Lerners approach the 10-month anniversary of their official takeover, the adjustments are ongoing both on and off the field. The Lerners have gone from owning businesses whose operations were essentially out of the public spotlight to taking on a franchise that Ted Lerner’s son Mark — one of the Nationals’ four principal owners — called "a public trust."
Saints on your speed dial?
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Can’t make Mascot Mania day at the St. Paul Saints (independent; American Association) baseball game next week? Just whip out your BlackBerry and you’ll be transported to Midway Stadium. The minor-league Saints, known for some of the zaniest promotions in sports, now hope to be on the leading edge of technology by partnering with B2 Networks to sign up fans to view games online or via their cell phones for $6.95 a month. The Saints plan to webcast the complete Midway experience, pig included. But how many people care enough about the game to pay $6.95 a month to watch it out of the park? The move comes after the Saints drastically scaled back their TV broadcasts this season. Then again, maybe there are a lot of fans ready to pay for game broadcasts. The Boise Hawks (short season; Northwest League) are offering the chance to listen to game broadcasts via cell phone for $5 for a game.
Pelicans at play
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Speaking of the American Association: the circuit began its season last night. We noted a crowd of over 3,000 for the Pensacola Pelicans season opener — a pretty good crowd for that market and venue. The team gets some good support from the local newspaper; here a columnist describes the many reasons why fans should go to a Pelicans game — free stuff is great, but we’re not sure about the Chicken Dance.
The way it was in ’43 at the old ballparks
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Here’s a first-person account of hawking beer and hot dogs at Municipal Stadium for Cleveland Indians games in 1943. The author, Arnold Miller, was 12 at the time, and even though hawkers were supposed to be 18 years old to sell beer, wartime meant there was a shortage of young men available, so even the 12-year-olds got a shot at beer sales. With a good crowd a hawker could make $15 a game — which was pretty good money in those days.
Entitlements key in funding Cisco Field
Posted May 10, 2007 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
Land entitlements and tax increment financing will be key in paying for Cisco Field, the proposed and its massive surrounding development, Lew Wolff said the day after releasing an economic report on the proposed ballpark village. Entitlements from the city of Fremont — such as making the industrial land by the Pacific Commons shopping center more valuable by rezoning it to housing and commercial uses — "can be a type of currency," Wolff said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters. When reached for comment Wednesday, several city officials said they were still studying the report, which was not released to them until after 7 p.m. Tuesday. Really, all of this is a trial balloon; the city and the A’s can’t even begin real negotiations until a development application or formal plan is presented to officials, and that’s a few months away at the earliest, according to Wolff.
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Ballpark battle beginning in Fort Collins?
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No wonder Kurt Colicchio, the owner of the Fort Collins Foxes (summer collegiate; Mountain Collegiate Baseball League), was in a hurry to announce a new ballpark: there’s a competing plan for a downtown $3-million, 4,000-seat ballpark that could conceivably bring minor-league baseball (in the form of the independent American Association, we suspect) to the city. Mike Jensen, a former first baseman for the U.S. national team, is now a downtown developer, and he’s pushing the notion of a downtown ballpark. Both Colicchio and Jensen say there’s room in the market for one ballpark, and whoever gets a plan in place first will likely freeze out the competition. A Fort Collins team wouldn’t be located in the smallest city in the American Association — that honor would still belong to the St. Joe Blacksnakes — and it would make a good travel partner with a new Brighton ballpark in the works.
Let’s play fantasy ballpark in Tampa Bay
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Now that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays ownership has raised the issue of a new ballpark, it’s time for the media to take that issue and run with it. This article addresses the issue of a new ballpark and under what circumstances would necessary before voters approved any sort of funding or financing: the D-Rays would need to come to the table with a reasonable financial request, continue working toward a winning team (which is happening) and request a suitable location. We’d add another condition: that the team continue its record of good customer service, evidenced in recent years with a cleaning and upgrading of Tropicana Field as well as little things like free parking. In terms of location: downtown St. Pete nearer the waterfront would be a great location — say, on the current Al Lang Field site — but Hillsborough County may also be a possibility. Still, the likelihood of something happening is small: the city still owed over $100 million on the ballpark, and the D-Rays have a firm lease running though 2027. Owner Stuart Sternberg is giving some mixed signals about whether the team needs a ballpark, however.
Manatees fire media director
Posted May 10, 2007 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)
In late November, Scott Pinner came to the Brevard County Manatees (High Class A; Florida State League) with talent, experience and an ambition to thrive as the team’s director of media relations. Less than six months later, he departed at the insistence of his employer. The North Merritt Island resident was fired on Wednesday morning in what Manatees president Charlie Baumann said was professionally "one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do.&qu