The Watertown Rams (summer collegiate; Perfect Game League) have been evicted from Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds after trashing the clubhouse at the end of the 2014 season and failing to pay cleaning and water bills.
When the team ended the season, management was asked to perform a final walkthough on the Duffy Fairgrounds facilities. Management didn’t show up for the walkthrough, and city officials found a trashed clubhouse:
The locker room was left in a shambles, city officials said.
Players clogged locker room toilets with newspapers, stained the rugs, and left trash cans overflowing with garbage, said Parks and Recreation Superintendent Erin Gardner. The locker room was full of fruit flies and dirty uniforms still sat in lockers, she said.
“It was horrible,” she said.
Chief Financial Officer Donald Terpstra did drop by city hall to apologize, but did not pay the outstanding bills. The amount of money is pretty small — $303.61 for cleaning up the clubhouse and $113.36 for the water bill — so it’s a little surprising that team owner co-owner Todd Kirkey didn’t cover it, although the team had overpaid its total bill a little before that, and that excess will cover part of the outstanding bill. Still, the city served eviction papers on the team, and with manager Paul Alteri and his coaches still owed money as well, Alteri stopped his work on putting together a roster for 2015, leaving the team’s status in some doubt. The team did post this on a team website:
The Watertown Rams baseball organization is aware of the unsightly locker room situation and we apologize for the mess. We can’t reiterate enough how much we enjoy our working relationship with the City of Watertown.
We have been in the process of bringing in new investors to ensure the long-term success for the Watertown Rams baseball group. We’re proud of what we have accomplished over the past three seasons and bringing quality baseball and the experience to our fans. For the financial issues, the Watertown Rams are clearing those up, along with finalizing the 2014 season with many of our friends and sponsors.
We look forward to resolving these outstanding issues and seeing Watertown Rams baseball return to the Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds in 2015.
Still, until the final bill is resolved, it looks like the team is on hold as others in the league prepare for the 2015 season.