Filling out the roster

Just a quick note for this afternoon/evening - from the Can-AM League’s official website, Ottawa’s claimed infielder Abner Arroyo from the Sioux Falls Canaries of the American Association (Indy).  More on Arroyo to come.  And speaking of “filling out” - Sussex has acquired FLP, Walter Young.  Walter reportedly tips the Toledos at 320+ lbs and is quite possibly the heaviest player in all of professional baseball.  Atlantic City was rumored to be in the running for Young’s services, until Surf stadium and league officials became concerned about the structural integrity of a clubhouse that also included Cecil Fielder. 

More later.

Getting to it eventually

M’excuse.  Which of course is French for, m’excuse.  It’s been brought to my attention that I have yet to profile the last member of the competition, the Quebec Capitales.  I’ll try to get to it this long weekend.

One more thing I forgot to mention in the “gearing up” post.  A number of people have wondered about the possibility of changing the dimensions of the park - i.e. moving the outfield fences.  Miles believes it could be done, but he wasn’t sure why it was necessary and added that it would not be accomplished without significant expense.  Personally, I think this is a detail they can deal with in the future - they’ve got bigger fish to fry in ‘08.

Updates from Coventry Road

 

Did I mention that I hate winter?

Moving on quickly (i.e. before I start to cry), I checked in with our friends on Coventry Road to see how things were moving along.  By all reports, they’re moving along quite nicely - everyone is excited about May 22 and the entire upcoming season, and they’re hard at work to make it all happen.  The newest Rapids’ staff member is Angela Thompson - Angela takes over as Marketing and Special Events Director.  Some of you may remember Ms. Thompson from her stints here in Ottawa - she was a Marketing and Communications intern in 2001, and worked with the Lynx in the 2002 and 2004 seasons as well.  Angela headed west in 2005 and worked for the Edmonton Cracker Cats of the Northern League as a Promotions and Events Manager.  She rounded out her resume with the Edmonton Oilers where she worked as a Corporate Sales Coordinator for two and a half years.   A “local girl”, Angela’s very happy to be back home and working in baseball again with the Raps.

In other news, the Olympic baseball qualifying tournament began today in Taiwan.  Canada beat Mexico today, opening the tournament with a tight, pitcher’s duel that ended with a 15-10 score (blogger: Yes.  That’s intended as sarcasm.)  If I can locate a box score, I’ll post it.  The tournament is made up of eight teams (Mexico, Canada, South Korea, South Africa, Australia, Britain, Spain and hosts Taiwan) and runs from March 7-14.  The top top three teams earn the right to play in Beijing in August.  China, the United States, Cuba, the Netherlands and Japan have already qualified.

Here’s the sched. for the remainder of the tournament:

– March 7 

   South Africa vs. Korea 12:30 (Taichung) 

   Mexico vs. Canada 12:30 (Douliu) 

   Chinese Taipei vs. Spain 19:00 (Taichung) 

   Germany vs. Australia 18:30 (Douliu) 

   — March 8 

   Canada vs. South Africa 12:30 (Taichung) 

   Mexico vs. Chinese Taipei 12:30 (Douliu) 

   Korea vs. Australia 18:30 (Taichung) 

   Spain vs. Germany 18:30 (Douliu) 

   — March 9 

   Germany vs. Chinese Taipei 12:30 (Taichung) 

   Australia vs. Canada 12:30 (Douliu) 

   South Africa vs. Spain 18:30 (Taichung) 

   Korea vs. Mexico 18:30 (Douliu) 

   — March 10 

   Germany vs. South Africa 12:30 (Taichung) 

   Spain vs. Korea 12:30 (Douliu) 

   Chinese Taipei vs. Canada 18:30 (Taichung) 

   Australia vs. Mexico 18:30 (Douliu) 

   — March 11 Day off 

   — March 12 

   Korea vs. Germany 12:30 (Taichung) 

   Canada vs. Spain 12:30 (Douliu) 

   Mexico vs. South Africa 18:30 (Taichung) 

   Chinese Taipei vs. Australia 18:30 (Douliu) 

   — March 13 

   Australia vs. Spain 12:30 (Taichung) 

   Germany vs. Mexico 12:30 (Douliu) 

   Canada vs. Korea 18:30 (Taichung) 

   South Africa vs. Chinese Taipei 18:30 (Douliu) 

   — March 14 

   Spain vs. Mexico 12:30 (Taichung) 

   South Africa vs. Australia 12:30 (Douliu) 

   Chinese Taipei vs. Korea 18:30 (Taichung) 

   Canada vs. Germany 18:30 (Douliu) 

   Closing ceremony 21:30 (Taichung)

Surf’s up for Sess

Rapids fans will get to see another former major-leaguer come to town as a manager. Cecil Fielder, the former home run champion and one-time Blue Jay, has signed on to manage the Atlantic City Surf.

The Rapids’ first road trip will be against the Surf in their home opener on May 26.

Cash in New Jersey

While we wonder what our new jersey will look like, it’s worth noting that former Expos second baseman Dave Cash is headed to New Jersey — as the hitting coach of the Sussex Skyhawks.

Cash’s name was among a few names thrown out for the managerial job a few weeks ago. By the way, the late ’70s baseball card that the Skyhawks have posted on their website is worth a click-through.

A rising tide

Hopefully, the addition of a second Canadian team will boost the prestige of the League and act as an incentive for fans to come out to the competition’s ballparks when Ottawa comes to town.  The Sussex Skyhawks saw their total attendance go up last year (101,638 fans), but because they played more games, their average attendance fell from 2006 (from 2,183 to 1,993).  Stats may be for losers, but no matter how you want to frame it, attendance matters.  Neate posted earlier about the hiring of Hal Lanier as the new Skyhawks manager, but what I didn’t realize until yesterday was that it came on the heels of the team firing the entire coaching staff after the end of the season.  You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t cheer quite as vociferously against our opponents from Sussex.

The Skyhawks make their home at Skylands Park in Augusta, New Jersey.  The facility, built in 1994 seats 4800 - in my opinion, a perfect size for Indy ball.  The ‘hawks have been in the Can-AM since 2006, finishing their inaugural season with a record of 32-58, last for the second half of the season.  Ottawa will have this in common with Sussex: Both teams entered the league immediately following the departure of an existing team.  Sussex followed the MiLB short season affiliate New Jersey Cardinals, Can-AM Ottawa the AAA Lynx.  Like Ottawa, Sussex saw their team move to a city in Pennsylvania (State College), with the Cardinals being rebranded the “State College Spikes”.  

There’s an eerie familiarity in this:

In addition, with the arrival of competition in the form of additional teams in the New York metropolitan area, attendance began to slip. The Cardinals drew a league-leading 156,447 fans in their inaugural season, but just 115,342 in 2004.

Unlike Ottawa, Sussex draws on a local population of around 150,000 people - meaning that in 2007, a little more than 2 out of every 3 locals went to at least one game (obviously, not an exact stat, but you get the idea).  With a population close to a million, a 2/3 figure would put Ottawa in a very favorable position to set a league attendance record.  In another dissimilarity, the ‘Hawks face regional competition for sports entertainment dollars from two other ball clubs (The Somerset Patriots and The Newark Bears) and within a 60 mile radius they have Allentown, Scranton and the elephant in the room (hell, the elephant on the planet), New York City to contend with.  This must bring a whole world of additional challenges for the Skyhawks marketing people.

Back to the “like Ottawa” category, the Skyhawks have abbreviated television and radio coverage - which is quite obviously, not a desirable situation.  It does appear that the local TV affiliate gives complete “highlight” reel coverage for their evening newscasts, something that I view as critical for Ottawa; we need more than just a three second soundbite, relaying the game score.

Here’s hoping that our friends in Sussex have a succesful season both on, but mostly “off” the field.

Sussex Skyhawks

I’m working on the Skyhawks profile, but it likely won’t happen before tomorrow.

Tornado warning

 

And no, I’m not referring to today’s local meteorological events - next up on our continued team profiles is Worcester.  Hard to believe, but the team was named after a particularly destructive tornado which touched down in Worcester, Massachusetts on June 9, 1953.  Hard to believe because it killed 94 people.  And to think we were worried about the team name here in Ottawa…

Worcester joined the Can-Am League in 2005, winning the league championship right out of the gate with a three game sweep of Les Capitales de Quebec.  Quite a feat, and well deserved for a city that had been without pro baseball for 75 years.  In 2007, they finished with a record of 43-51 but fourth in attendance with an average of 2,267 fans over 53 home games.  The Tornadoes make their home in Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field, which is located on the campus of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester.  The stadium was constructed in just over three months - no small feat, retrofitting a 100 year old facility to seat 3,000 people in a completely open air environment.  Notables who made appearances at Fitton Field include Casey Stengel, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and Lou Gehrig.

The city population is pegged at just slightly shy of 176,000 and is a little more than 40 miles from Boston.  Competition for the sports entertainment dollar include not just the Red Sox, but the “New England Surge” (an indoor football team) and the “Worcester Sharks“, an AHL hockey team affiliated with San Jose of the NHL. 

The team has local radio coverage of its games (WTAG 580) and appears to have good exposure at “Worcester Love” - a “video guide to Worcester county” (see vid below).

We may have to add Fitton Field to our list of Can-AM parks to visit this summer.  Ottawa visits Worcester in June (13-15) and again in August (22-24).

More later - if time permits.

The Brockton Rox

Time to continue profiling the competition.

The Brockton Rox (or Rocks - their jerseys sport both) began play in the Can-AM League in 2005.  Prior to 2005, Brockton had played for two seasons in the Northeast League, with their 2002 inaugural season in the Northern League.   The Rocks lead the season in attendance last year (169,999 - couldn’t squeeze that last fan in to reach 170K!), which translates to a 3,333 fan average over the 51 games played at Campanelli Stadium (in Brockton, Massachussetts).  Campanelli, constructed in 2002 is the newest stadium in the league and seats 4,750 - a perfect size for Indy or MiLB ball. 

Like Ottawa, Brockton can claim a Saturday Night Live connection: Bill Murray is part owner of the Rocks (there are eight in total).  Of the teams I’ve looked at so far, Brockton looks like one Ottawa will want to emulate - solid attendance, quality baseball and a high “fun factor”.  Local radio carries all of their games and they’ve got an internet broadcast as well - community cable looks after television:

Brockton is a city of just under 100,000 - so to get 3.5 people of every 100 out to a ball game is pretty impressive.  I’ve made the comparison before, but if Ottawa were to draw as well, we should get roughly 35,000 people out to each game - put another way, we need to draw 3 people for every 1000 to keep pace with Brockton.  The comparison is a little skewed (Brockton is a scant 20 miles from Boston, with their regional population of over 4 million - but you get the idea).

Quick, “six degrees of seperation” type factoid - potential Ottawa managerial candidate Ed Nottle managed Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd in Boyd’s return to professional ball in 2005.  Oil Can, as many will recall, was here last summer in the Lynx’s “Salute to the Expos” in July.  Could Ottawa snag “the Can” for a start or two?

News from New Hampshire (that has nothing to do with the primaries)

Working the Google on my Internet machine reveals some glowing report about the Nashua Pride’s new GM, Chris Hall.

It’s important to keep in mind that the GM has a ton of sway in whether an indy team takes off, since he not only has more control over player recruitment, but has to find players who will be happy to be there and be fan-friendly.

Here’s hoping we can get that person in place in Ottawa, in good time.

(By the way, how’s this for irony: Pete Laforest, the catcher from Gatineau, was signed last week — by the Phillies, who assigned him to Lehigh Valley.)

Related:
Hall takes reins (Tom King, Nashua Telegraph)