If you had your druthers - POLL CLOSED.

Quick poll (and certainly, nothing hinges on the result).

 

 

 

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Battin’ things around

This will have to be quick today.  Couple of things - first, a reliable source tells me that there was a reason the Lynx didn’t place the Fun Zone in the picnic area: liability.  Anyone who’s been to a game at Lynx Stadium can tell you that on average, I would bet that no fewer than ten foul balls wind up in the picnic area each game (more or less, depending on how many left handed hitters are in the line up).  True, these aren’t typically “screaming” line drive fouls, but any type of ball striking a kid represents an un-acceptable risk.

Spring Training will be open to the public so we’ll all have an opportunity for a baseball “fix” in advance of Opening Day - more on this later.  Finally for today, Mr. Wolff will be returning to familiar turf this Wednesday when he steps in front of City Council to make a brief presentation before the regular Council meeting.  I believe that Rogers still webcasts Council meetings, but I’m less certain whether they cover the pre-meeting ceremonies.  I’ll post up on this before Wednesday’s meeting.

More from Coventry Road

Word continues to get out about the Raps - a quick interview with Don Charrette, General Manager of the Ottawa Rapides from yesterday’s Carleton Midweek program.

The gathering storm

As depressed as I am about what’s on our doorstep to the south (i.e. another 50 cm. of snow), I’ll try to post up with something tomorrow.   I thought about jumping out the window at the office today, but the snow’s so deep, I probably wouldn’t even have broken anything…

Someday - hopefully during a heat wave in July, I’ll look back on this week and smile.

Calling in sick

I rarely get a fever, but with the one I’m running right now, anything posted would likely be gibberish.

Sorry - more gibberish than usual.

Cross-posted from the UOLB.

Six degrees of Ed Nottle

This story comes to us via Friend of the Lynx, Joe Bisenius Sr. It seems that incoming manager Ed Nottle, was the manager in Joe Sr.’s home town of Sioux City Iowa. Former Lynx Player (FLP), Joe Bisenius (Jr.) was a bat boy during Ed’s first stint as a manager with the Explorers, when they were in the Northern League.

Nottle finds work in Ottawa

Sometime last summer, Ed Nottle pulled off the rose-colored glasses and started taking inventory. The eternal optimist peeked in the mirror and realized that looking good for your age can’t entirely stop the march of time. He scanned all the empty seats at Lewis and Clark Park, conceding to himself that a second tour of duty as manager of the Sioux City Explorers wasn’t bringing back the crowds he’d helped attract the first time around.

There were plenty of disillusionments for a guy who gives the human race more credit than it probably deserves. And, Nottle, who believes minor league managers should stand at third base and take the heat, waved yet another runner home.

At age 68, the Philadelphia native rolled the dice, surrendering a bird in the hand for that one in the bush by stepping down as manager of the X’s with no new job yet in sight.

A verbal promise from ownership here would have kept Nottle employed for at least another two years. However, he’d made the rounds to service clubs several times over, heard various acquaintances vow they’d see him at the park, and noticed more and more they weren’t showing up.

This lifelong baseball salesman needed a new audience and a new challenge. And, Thursday, he got it, being named the skipper for the new Ottawa franchise in independent baseball’s Can-Am League.

In many respects, it’s a best case scenario for Nottle, who should relish the larger market and all its attendant media scrutiny.

“The press conference was unbelievable, there were something like 70 media there,” reported Ed late Thursday afternoon. “This may be the greatest situation I’ve ever been in. The ballpark is gorgeous and the city is mobbed.”

The Canadian capital is the country’s fourth largest city with a population of 812,129 and a metro area of over 1.5 million. Ottawa stadium, the new team’s home, is a 15-year-old gem with seating for 10,332.

Best of all, there are just enough skeptics around, thinking Ottawa and baseball aren’t a good match, that expectation levels should be easy enough for Nottle to surpass.

Ottawa, you see, petitioned the Can-Am League for a franchise after 15 years in the Class AAA International League. First, the Baltimore Orioles pulled out, relocating their top farm club to Norfolk, Va. Then, last year, the city became a pit stop for the Philadelphia Phillies, already committed to a new ballpark in Allentown, just 60 miles from the parent club.

Ottawa responded accordingly, attracting just 1,922 fans a game, which was easily the worst in all of Triple-A baseball. No sense getting caught up in a team that has one foot out the door.

These independent leagues, of course, are not just a phone call away from the bigs, like Triple-A. Nonetheless, Winnipeg, a Canadian metropolis much like Ottawa, has enjoyed a 15-year love affair with their Northern League Goldeyes, ranking 29th for all minor league teams with attendance of 6,542 a game last summer.

Like Winnipeg, Ottawa has two English language newspapers (also a French daily) that compete rather vigorously. Neither of them waited for Thursday’s press conference to report the new team’s managerial choice.

“The pro baseball club in Ottawa will be singing a different tune this season,” wrote Don Campbell of the Ottawa Citizen, “and not just because it will be a new team in a new league with new ownership.

“The still-unnamed Can-Am Baseball League club, which comes to Ottawa after the departure of the Triple-A Lynx, appears poised to hire minor league managing legend Ed Nottle, who is known throughout the minors at ‘Singing Ed,’ for obvious reasons.”

“Can-Am Manager in tune?” asked the headline in the Ottawa Sun, where writer Chris Stevenson was good enough to drop the “g” while introducing “Singin’ Ed.”

Miles Wolff, the Baseball America publisher who started the Northern League, heads up the ownership group for a team that will be called the Ottawa Rapids. Wolff saw Ed start from scratch in Sioux City and build attendance to over 3,500 a game and the two have been good friends ever since.

So, our friend should be off and running by now and we wish him the best, just as we we’re waiting anxiously for his successor, Les Lancaster, to put a fresh set of eyes on baseball in our town.

Judging from the roster Lancaster has worked hard all winter to assemble, the former Chicago Cubs pitcher could be fairly popular around here, too.

And, we’ll be telling you plenty about all of that in the weeks to come.

Sioux City Journal sports editor Terry Hersom can be reached at (712) 293-4214 or by e-mail at terryhersom@siouxcityjournal.com.

(Cross posted to the UOLB)

Doesn’t play well with others…

Loved this quote:

“We feel that when get together with members it should be with (MILB) members only,” Eastern League president Joe McEacharn said. “They are not part of us…”

Wow. I guess not everyone subscribes to the theory that a rising tide lifts all bats, er… boats.

Here’s a bit more from the Baseball America business blog -

…but apparently MILB’s board of trustees has voted to ban independent league teams from attending the sport’s annual promotional seminar.Eastern League clubs boycotted the promotional seminar in 2007, expressing their disapproval in sharing ideas with non-affiliated clubs that they consider threatening their territorial rights.Apparently their effort has proven effective.

“We feel that when get together with members it should be with (MILB) members only,” Eastern League president Joe McEacharn said. “They are not part of us. Why should we let them hear our best and brightest speak at the promotional seminar.”

Here’s an older, but on point quote from 1994:

“What makes this success notable in the baseball world is that the Northern League is independent of Major League Baseball, the corporate entity that until last year controlled all the country’s minor leagues and most of its teams. Wolff and his partners have gone out on their own, competing with the big leagues for players and fans. They lack Major League Baseball’s imprimatur and financial support–but are free of its dictates. The Northern League’s success delights him. “

More on the tension between MLB and the Independent Leagues will follow.