Distractions

Sorry, but due to the incredible run of weather, blogging has suffered.  According to their website, the official Rapids roster stands at 14, but with the addition of catcher Max Bouchard, I believe it’s actually 15.  All of these numbers of course are predicated on actual signings.  Can-AM roster rules mandate a 22 man roster with an additional 2 permitted on the DL.  The rules governing the make-up of the roster, are somewhat more complex. 

Now if Ed Nottle is in need of another catcher, an interesting development has taken place in AAA - local player, Pete Laforest was let go by the Phillies over the weekend.

Speaking of nemesis, it turns out that Ed’s gone over to the “dark side”.  For those of you that are interested, Ed will be attending a Pinecrest Little League training session at Ben Franklin Superdome tomorrow night.  We, of course, play in the East Nepean Little League district. 

(Best Seinfeld voice):  Pinecrest!!!!!

Shooting the Rapids? - UPDATED

Just a quick post today on a rumor that won’t go away.  There is growing speculation that uber-photographer, John Bradley will be joining the Raps as their official photographer.  This would be an absolutely stellar addition to the roster.  Mr. Bradley was kind enough to send over a timely photo that was missing from my collection - FLP and current member of the Raps roster, Napoleon Calzado:

Napoleon Calzado, 2006 Ottawa Lynx (Photo courtesy John G. Bradley)

*** UPDATE ***

GM, Don Charrette has confirmed the rumor:  John Bradley will “shoot the Rapids” in 2008!

The competition

We begin our look at the seven other teams in the Can-AM League with the Opening Day opponents, the New Jersey Jackals.  The Jackals make their home in Montclair, New Jersey, population 11,000 and they share their field, Yogi Berra Stadium, with the Montclair State University Red Hawks.  New Jersey had a great first half of the season in 2007, with a record of 31-15 - tops in the 8 team league.  Given the post-season structure in the Can-AM League, this guaranteed them a playoff spot and may account for their second half record of 18-29, worst in the league.  The Jackals were bounced in the first round, best of five playoffs, 3 games to 2 by eventual champs, Nashua.

Perhaps of greater interest to me are things like levels of corporate and community support, promotions and media exposure.  How big is their market? Do they have any competition for their fans’ sport/entertainment dollar?

Obviously, community support is best gauged by one key measurement - ATTENDANCE.  The Jackals finished fifth in the league with a total of 107,663 fans passing through the turnstiles over 49 games, an average of 2197 per game.  Given the size of the immediate community they’re drawing from, this is pretty impressive.  Can-AM ball faces stiff competition from the Atlantic League Newark Bears (another Indy league ball team) and Somerset Patriots.  The big league Mets and Yankees aren’t that far away either.

2007 marked their tenth season in Indy ball, with the Jackals beginning play in the Northeast League in 1998 (which later merged with the Northern League).  In 2005, NJ joined the fledgling Can-AM League which was primarily made up of teams from the old Northeast League.  Interesting note: The Jackals won the league championship their first year in existence.  FLP alert: Blog non-favorite, Napoleon Calzado played in Montclair last year.  He was recently traded to the Pensacola Pelicans of the Independent American Association.

There’s currently no radio broadcasts of Jackals games, although they did have radio coverage up until 2006.  Games are now webcast only.  Corporate sponsorship looks strong though, as evidenced by the team’s website and the outfield wall in this Youtube video:

I’ll try to add a bit more later.