LaGrave Field, Fort Worth
Cats
It is one of the most unique facilities in pro
ball: LaGrave Field, the home of the Fort Worth
Cats (independent; American Association), sits
where the original LaGrave Field sat from 1926
through 1967. The dimensions are the same as in
the original facility, home plate sits in the same
place, and the dugouts of the old ballpark have
been converted to dugout suites. And, being Texas,
there's a hitching rail beyond the outfield for
folks riding to the games on horseback.
Doug Kingsmore Stadium,
Clemson Tigers
Before its thorough makeover and renaming in 2003,
“Beautiful Tiger Field” described the home of the
Clemson Tigers. Not surprising, and not an
overstated moniker. While the ballpark and other
athletic facilities are closely connected to the
western edge of campus, the grandstand view
features an appealing pastoral feel, and although
the ballpark is now named for Tigers alum and
contributor Doug Kingsmore, it's still a beautiful
field.
QuikTrip Park at Grand
Prairie, Grand Prairie AirHogs
The aviation theme is strong
at QuikTrip Park at Grand Prairie, the new home of
the Grand Prairie AirHogs (independent; American
Association), but it's not overwhelming and
gimmicky. We were there opening night: it's an
impressive facility that raises the bar for indy
facilities and should allow the team to be
competitive in the increasingly crowded
Dallas-Fort Worth market.
Obligatory legal information:
This site is copyright 1998-2008 Kevin Reichard/August
Publications. All rights
reserved. My wife is a lawyer, so she will come and chop off
your hand in a legal fashion if you rip off this site
in any form. All logos are the property of their respective
owners.
Drillers
ballpark funding plan approved
Posted July 11, 2008 (feedback)
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The
Tulsa City Council approved the expansion and
extension of a downtown assessment zone, with part
of the proceeds used to fund a new $60-million
ballpark for the Tulsa Drillers (Class AA; Texas
League). The council laid a few conditions on the
zone and the tax plan -- namely, that the city
wouldn't be responsible for any debt on the
facility -- but the 6-3 showed solid support for
the plan. The current schedule has the new
ballpark opening in the 2010 season and funding
with $30 million in private donations, $25 million
from the downtown assessment district and $5
million from the Drillers.
More from Tulsa World.
Brewers add
recliners to nation's largest rec room
Posted July 10, 2008 (feedback)
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If
you grew up in Wisconsin, you remember the rec
room in the basement, with the castoff recliner
and soft sitting beneath an old beer light, with
just a thin wood-veneer panel (no need for
sheetrock here!) separating you from the furnace
and water heater. The Milwaukee Brewers revived
that vibe -- sorta -- with the addition of
DreamSuite seats in center field, firming
Miller
Park's standing as the world's largest rec room.
(Think about it: beer lights, some wood paneling
near the Leinie's stands and now recliners. What
more do you need?) Heck, they even sold a truck
manufacturer to sponsor the section, thus
cementing the left-center section as a man cave of
sorts. For the record: the VIP section is equipped
with 24 Milwaukee Brewers DreamSeat leather
reclining chairs, 42” Sharp flat panel
televisions, seat covers for between games and
custom signage. (Thanks to Scott Lebedz at
DreamSeat
for sending along the information and photo.)
River Bandits
looking at more changes to Modern Woodmen Park
Posted July 10, 2008 (feedback)
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Quad
Cities River Bandits (Low Class A; Midwest League)
owners Dave Heller and Bob Herrfeldt met with
Pendulum Studio's Jonathan Cole about additional
changes to
Modern Woodmen Park in 2009 and 2010. As
you'll recall, the pair made some extensive
changes to the ballpark for this season, including
the addition of a Tiki Village, complete with a
Tiki Bar and a Tiki Bed (you can see the bar in
the video below), and a Field of Dreams-like
cornfield. (Cole worked on the revamping of what
was then John O'Donnell Stadium while at HOK
Sport; he spent some time at 360 Architecture
before forming his own firm, which did the new
logo for the ballpark.) The moves have worked:
attendance is up 64 percent despite the
ballpark being closed during flooding that
impacted the area about the ballpark. In the
shameless plug department, we'll be at
Modern Woodmen
Park on July 17 at an open bar sponsored by
the River Bandits. The event is meant for
season-ticket holders and purchasers of a
seven-game ticket package, but we're guessing you
could sweet-talk your way into the event by
calling the River Bandits front office.
More from the Quad Cities Times.
Taylor named
GM/CEO of new Bowling Green team
Posted July 10, 2008 (feedback)
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Brad
Taylor has been named GM/CEO of the Bowling Green
Sally League team slated to be relocated
from Columbus next season. He's currenty GM/COO of
the Trenton Thunder (Class AA: Eastern League),
where he's been the last three season. The hiring
reunites Taylor with Rick Brenner, GM of the New
Hampshire Fisher Cats (Class AA; Eastern league);
the pair both worked in Trenton. Brenner is an
investor in the Bowling Green team. "This move is
not only exciting on a professional level, but on
a personal level," Brenner said. "Brad is an
incredibly talented individual with a successful
track record. I consider him a close friend going
back to our years together in Trenton. We look
forward to having Brad lead the way as we bring
our brand of affordable family entertainment to
Bowling Green."
Today's video:
Amazing ball-girl catch
Posted July 10, 2008 (feedback)
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Many
of you probably saw this video and assumed it was
indeed a hoax. It was more: It was a
viral-marketing effort. Here's the story from Paul
Kennedy of the Fresno Grizzlies (Class AAA;
Pacific Coast League): "Some of you may have seen
this already, as it’s been making its way around
the Internet today. For those that haven’t, this
video is part of a Gatorade commercial that was
filmed here at Chukchansi Park back in April. The
game footage prior to the crack of the bat is
real, and the voice-over is by Grizzlies’
broadcaster Doug Greenwald. The production company
'leaked' it onto the Internet over the weekend
hoping for a viral effect, and considering the
number of calls we’ve received today from all over
the country, I suppose the strategy worked
somewhat."
Today's video
2: Inland Empire 66ers
Posted July 10, 2008 (feedback)
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Hell,
as long as we're bringing you videos let's go all
the way. The June exploits of the Inland Empire
66ers (High Class A; California League) are
detailed in this video produced by the team. Video
is proving to be an effective way for sports teams
to promote themselves. Share your videos with the
rest of the baseball community; send them to
editors@augustpublications.com. Don't feel the
need to compress them too much: we're using a
variety of video services that don't operate under
the constraints of YouTube, so we can handle
videos larger than 10MB easily.
Red Sox move
closer to Sarasota spring shift
Posted July 9, 2008 (feedback)
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The
Boston Red Sox made a tentative commitment to a
9,999-seat spring-training ballpark in Sarasota
today, making it more likely the team will be
training in that city by 2011. The tentative plan
calls for a 9,999-seat ballpark, 500 berm seats,
six practice fields (including one full-size
field), 500 seats in 20+ suites, and a replica of
the Green Monster in left field. Sarasota had sent
six conceptual plans to the Red Sox; they approved
the smallest one. Why? Originally a 12,000-seat
ballpark was planned, but Sarasota realized a
facility of that size would require state approval
(the cutoff, obviously, is 10,000 seats). This
doesn't mean the Red Sox are definitely gone from
Fort Myers, but it does mean Sarasota officials
have approval to price out the smaller
ballpark/training complex. In fact, one scenario
has the Baltimore Orioles moving to Fort Myers and
the existing Red Sox complex; the Orioles are on
the move after announcing late last week they
would not be pursuing a Fort Lauderdale Stadium
makeover after the FAA held to their demands for
$1.3 million in annual rent for the facility.
Later today: the Sarasota Fair will evaluate
a proposal to swap its current 90-acre fair site
for 40 acres in Twin Lakes Park. UPDATE:
It's pretty clear the issue will be acquiring the
90-acre fairgrounds site, as this article makes
clear.
Drillers face
opposition to new-ballpark financing plan
Posted July 9, 2008 (feedback)
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Things
were obviously going too well for the Tulsa
Drillers (Class AA; Texas League) in their pursuit
of a new ballpark, as some businesses in Tulsa's
Greenwood District are opposing a 6.5 cent
per-square-foot annual property assessment. Four
cents of this assessment is slated to help pay for
the new $60-million ballpark. This is an increase
on the current variable assessment, and some
businesses say they'll be hit with an 800 percent
increase in their assessments -- an added cost in
some bad economic times. There are some cultural
issues here as well: the Greenwood District was
once known as the Black Wall Street, and some
community organizers say a ballpark doesn't
recognize the historical significance of the area.
It doesn't sound like there's any serious or
organized opposition -- an informal poll showed a
little more than half of the existing downtown
businesses supported the ballpark plan -- but some
PR from the city and the Drillers is probably in
order.
More from Tulsa World.
Lee County
offers renderings for new BoSox facility; Sarasota
to review plans tomorrow
Posted July 8, 2008 (feedback)
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Things
are coming to a head over the future
spring-training home of the Boston Red Sox, as Lee
County officials will review renderings and
developer proposals for a new complex or renovated
City of Palms Park, and the Fruitville Road Study
Group, a Sarasota economic development
organization, is scheduled to meet Wednesday
afternoon at the Sarasota Fairgrounds,
a 90-acre site foreseen by many as the potential
new spring home of the Sox. Lee County officials
say developers have been pitching their property
as a perfect place for a new complex, and we're
guessing those offers run along the lines of,
"we'll give you the land for the ballpark and
complex, you build them, and we'll retain
development rights to the rest of the property."
From what we've been told it's highly unlikely the
BoSox would go for an offer of a new complex if
Fenway Ventures didn't have a cut of the
surrounding development, so we wonder whether Lee
County really has deep enough pockets to keep the
Sox. (And from what we've been told by team
officials a renovated City of Palms Park is a
nonstarter: the issue is the lack of land for a
complex next to the ballpark and associated
development.) And, of course, Lee County really
has no money to dangle, and no one in government
has a plan to raise it: "I have no idea [where
money for the Red Sox would come from," said Bill
Hammond, deputy county manager. (Yes, the same
Bill Hammond of Hammond Stadium.) "We’re so far
away from this thing right now. With our economy
right now I’d like to tell you this thing is on
the back burner for at least a couple of years. I
think we got some real pressing issues." It's
unlikely the Red Sox will wait a few years.
Meanwhile, we are seeing some politics pop up
in Sarasota, where city and county officials are
hot to turn over 90 acres of prime land and some
cash to the Red Sox to snare the lucrative
spring-training facility. The Sarasota Fairgrounds
isn't necessarily against moving to Twin Lakes
Park, but so far the offer of 45 acres there for
the 90 acres on Fruitville Road isn't seen as an
equitable trade. (They're right; it's not.) So
clearly negotiations needs to take place.
More
from Spring Training Online.
Report: Wrigley Field to
host New Year's Day game
Posted July 8, 2008 (feedback)
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story) (discuss) The
Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting a New
Year's Day NHL game hosted by the Chicago
Blackhawks at Wrigley
FIeld is a done deal and will be announced by
the NHL team at its new fan festival next week.
Wrigley Field has been mentioned quite a bit in
the last few months as a potential site for a
game, and we've been told weatherization has
always been an issue, with the ballpark basically
shut down after the end of the season. But it is
capable of being a cold-weather venue -- remember,
it was the longtime home of the NFL's Chicago
Bears -- and with the first-place Cubs
poised for a run in the playoffs well into
October, all parties involved obviously feel
weatherization won't be an issue.
Ballpark Visit: Pat Thomas
Stadium / Leesburg Lightning
Posted July 8, 2008 (feedback)
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With the end of the college baseball season, we're
transitioning our
College Baseball Digest site to cover the best
of the summer-collegiate leagues.
Today we present a look at historic Pat Thomas
Stadium, the home of the Leesburg Lightning. It's
an historic facility, hosting minor-league
baseball as far back as 1937. We'll also be
transitioning our NWLfan site into the revamped
college site as soon as some back-end changes are
made, making
College Baseball Digest the place to go to for
summer college-baseball news.
Read
more here.
MiLB attendance
continues to outpace 2007...
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Minor
League Baseball drew more than 8.2 million fans in
June, pushing the season total to nearly 23
million. The industry’s total of 22,722,519 fans
is slightly ahead of last year’s figure, when an
attendance record was set for a fourth straight
season.
The 176 clubs averaged 4,005 fans for 5,674 playing dates
through June, compared to 4,131 fans in 2007. The
3.1 percent decline in average is mainly due to
the inclement weather that affected many clubs
last month, especially those impacted by the
historic floods in the Midwest.
The Sacramento River Cats have attracted a Minor League
Baseball-best 9,684 fans a game. Fellow Triple-A
clubs Round Rock (9,405) and Louisville (9,114)
are also averaging over 9,000 fans per opening.
Frisco (8,413), Corpus Christi (6,815) and Springfield
(6,531) of the Texas League are the top drawing
Double-A clubs. Perennial Class A attendance
leader Dayton (8,622) is once again pacing its
classification. Brooklyn, with its 7,333 average,
leads all short-season clubs.
The Texas League is averaging 5,725 fans a game, 394 more
than last year. The circuit’s average represents
the largest increase (7.4 percent) over last year,
among the 15 leagues. The Northwest (4.2 percent),
International (3.6 percent) and Carolina (0.9
percent) leagues also showed improvement over
their 2007 average crowds.
...while
individual teams report attendance records
Posted July 8, 2008 (feedback)
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story) (discuss) Besides
the overall MiLB attendance, several teams and
leagues are reported record attendance figures.
A record throng of 15,189 packed Isotopes Park only to see
the Albuquerque Isotopes (Class AAA; Pacific Coast
League) fall 9-6 to the New Orleans Zephyrs on
Independence Day. It was the largest crowd in
franchise history, shattering the old mark of
15,020 set two seasons ago.
The York Revolution (independent; Atlantic League) used
record crowds to their advantage all last week,
compiling a 6-2 record in home games played
against the Long Island Ducks, Newark Bears and
Lancaster Barnstormers. The total number of fans
through the turnstiles since June 27 totals
39,117, an eight game average of 4,890. That
number includes a crowd of 6,288 on Saturday, July
5 against Lancaster, which was the largest crowd
of the season in Downtown York, and the third
largest in the history of Sovereign Bank Stadium.
For the homestand, the Revolution drew over 5,000
fans five times. The recent outstanding fan
support has raised the total number of attending
Revolution fans to 145,872 through 35 home games
this season, raising the average crowd to 4,168
fans per night at the Downtown ballpark. That
number is 600 more fans a game than the next
closest team in the Atlantic League.
The Golden Baseball League (GBL) announced that two
attendance records have been set in the last week
at GBL ballparks. The GBL single-game attendance
record of 7,101 set in Yuma in 2005 and the
Nettleton Stadium record in Chico of 4,415 set at
the GBL All-Star game in 2006 were both broken in
a span of four days driven by enthusiastic
national day celebrations in Edmonton and Chico.
The largest crowed to ever see a GBL game occurred
last week on June 30th as a Canada Day fireworks
display, fabulous weather, and a hot Edmonton
CrackerCats team facing archrival Calgary filled
Telus Field in Edmonton with almost 8,676 fans.
And on July 3 the largest crowd in the history of the
Rockford RiverHawks (independent; Frontier League)
watched Windy City starter Ross Stout pitch a
five-hitter and beat the RiverHawks, 5-2. The
standing room-only crowd of 6,588 at Road Ranger
Stadium broke the RiverHawks record of 6,548 set
on Aug. 22, 2003 at Marinelli Field for a game
against Cook County, now known as the Windy City
ThunderBolts.
Pima County
debates future of spring training
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With
the state legislature failing to approve a plan to
give taxing authority to the Pima County
Sports
and Tourism Authority, Tucson business and
political leaders begin the debate on how to keep
spring training in southern Arizona. There's the
recognized need to upgrade Hi Corbett Field for
the Colorado Rockies and perhaps build another
spring complex in order to keep the Diamondbacks
and attract another team. But so much of this
effort is of a last-minute nature: from what we've
been told it's just a matter of when the Chicago
White Sox leave Tucson, not if, and when one team
leaves Tucson the two remaining teams can choose
to end their leases.
More
from Spring Training Online
and
the Arizona Republic.
Today's video:
Richmond Braves in-game promo
Posted July 8, 2008 (feedback)
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story)
(discuss) Here's
the Richmond Braves (Class AAA; International
League) in-game promo video for July entitled Are
They Ready....To Play Today? The video is molded
after Will Ferrell's YouTube video pay my rent
where a baby is trying to collect rent from an
adult. In the video manager Dave Brundage is being
played by a 2-year-old and R-Braves players are
acting like 2-year-olds and trying to prove they
are ready to play the game. Send us your videos;
we'd love to see them! You can send them directly
to us at
editors@augustpublications.com. Don't worry
about file sizes; we're now using a service that
doesn't put limits on file sizes like YouTube does.
Mayor pushing
affiliated ball in Waukegan
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Waukegan
(Ill.) Mayor Richard Hyde says he's talking with a
developer who would build a new ballpark in the
Chicago
suburb
and bring in an affiliated team. Hyde says the
talks are exploratory, but envisions spending up
to $10 million on land for a $25 million ballpark.
This isn't the first time Waukegan has flirted
with affiliated ball, but to say the odds are
highly against any proposal for territorial
reasons is an understatement. For a Waukegan
ballpark to work, the Chicago White Sox, the
Chicago Cubs, the Kane County Cougars (Low Class
A: Midwest League) and maybe even the Beloit
Snappers (Low Class A: Midwest League) would have
to approve an affiliated team moving in. Given our
discussions with some Midwest League owners, we
don't see that happening -- unless the developer
has some serious pull with the MLB teams.
More from the Lake County News-Sun.
Dave Wright: Farewell, home away from home
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For a fellow who rarely visits his hometown
anymore, the news that demolition had begun at
Tiger Stadium made Detroit native Dave Wright
shudder. On the outside, Tiger Stadium looked like
the way one had always seen it – tall, white and
sturdy. Inside, of course, was another matter. It
was better not to see what time had wrought. One
prefers the memory of his last visit. Although the
end is inevitable, it's not without sadness,
as Wright
relates here.
Kulp named
president of Senators
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Kevin
Kulp is the new president of the Harrisburg
Senators (Class AA; Eastern League). Kulp, 36, was
general manager of the Lexington Legends (Low
Class A; Sally League) from 2004 through 2007. He
began with the Legends in 1999 as a senior sales
associate before being promoted to director of
corporate sales in 2001 and again promoted to GM
in 2004.
Kulp broke into minor league baseball with the Delmarva
Shorebirds (Low Class A; Sally League) in 1995 as
merchandise manager. He was promoted to ticket and
group sales representative in 1996 and promoted
again to advertising sales representative in 1998.
"Kevin has been involved from the business side with two very
successful stadium construction projects. We felt
his experience with new stadiums would be a
tremendous asset during this time of rapid changes
with the Senators organization and extensive
renovations soon to begin at Commerce Bank Park,"
said Senators owner Michael Reinsdorf.
Women's pro
soccer team eyes Bush Stadium
Posted July 8, 2008 (feedback)
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FC
Indiana, a W League team in Indianapolis, is
proposing moving its home games to a renovated
Bush Stadium. The proposal is fairly audacious;
while the facility was built as a baseball
stadium, it would require lots of work to prepare
for pro soccer use. New clubhouses, concessions
and luxury boxes would need to be erected, while
the existing seating bowl would need to be
extensively cleaned and patched. Still, there may
be a shot for FC Indiana -- a women's' team who
currently plays at a small stadium across the
street -- if they can find a funding source or
two. Bush Stadium has been spared the wrecking
ball because of the emotional attachment many in
Indianapolis have for the facility.s.
More
from Soccer Stadium Digest.
Hatcher to
front band at postgame Flyers concert
Posted July 8, 2008 (feedback)
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It
is nice to have ownership with connections -- and
that's the case with the Orange County Flyers
(independent; Golden Baseball League), where
minority owner James Denton plays Mike the Plumber
on ABC's Desperate Housewives. That's why
we note an upcoming postgame concert at the July
26 Flyers game: it features a postgame concert
from The Band From TV, where Desperate
Housewives star now sings lead. It's pretty
clear from clips of Hatcher's previous singing
gigs that she should stick to acting, but as a
postgame promotion, her presence is a great one.
Do indy teams impact MLB
attendance?
Posted July 7, 2008 (feedback)
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Attendance
at Texas Rangers games is off by about 6,800 fans
-- about the same amount the Fort Worth Cats and
the Grand Prairie AirHogs (both independent;
American Association) draw per game, and the
conclusion drawn by one local columnist is that
the independent teams are affecting the bottom
line of the Texas Rangers.
Our friend John Dittrich answers in this column, saying the
presence of indy ball in the Dallas-Fort Worth
metroplex actually expands the market and doesn't
draw fans from
Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.
On one level, we think he's right:
there's virtually no chance every fan at a Cats or
AirHogs game would be attending a Rangers game on
any given night. And we do think he's right about
indy ball expanding the market a tad, though what
it really does is provide a lower-cost option to
fans seeking a different experience. But there is
one area where we believe indy ball does impact
MLB teams (or even MiLB teams) in the same market:
group sales. Anecdotally, we've seen some bidding
wars between the Minnesota Twins and the St. Paul
Saints (independent; American Association) in the
past over
group sales, leading both teams to offer group
rates at greatly reduced prices. And we're
guessing the same thing happens in other markets where MLB and indy ball do
business.