Anticipating the spring

I know we’ve have a relatively chilly week, the college football bowl season is ready to begin, and we’re in the midst of the holiday season, but I’m thinking baseball. Recently our Shorebirds were sold by Comcast-Spectacor to a California-based company called 7th Inning Stretch, LLC. The Shorebirds join the Stockton Ports of the California Legue as teams owned by this group. Obviously, being a Shorebirds fan, my interest was piqued and what I wondered about was what I could expect as a fan in 2007. So I looked into some of the things that the Stockton Ports have to offer.

The Ports are the class “A” (Advanced) affiliate of the Oakland Athletics; in other words, they are one rung above Delmarva in Oakland’s minor league chain (the same level as the Frederick Keys in the Orioles system.) I bring this up because, much like Delmarva, the fans in Stockton get a large player changeover each year as prospects move up or down.

Stockton just opened a new downtown stadium in 2005, so the ownership of the Ports obviously spent the time and effort (or at least lobbied the city and state well) to upgrade the facilities where the Ports play. The Ports doubled their attendance from 2004 to 2005 and now have attendance numbers almost identical to what the Shorebirds draw – last year the Ports drew 213,724, which is within a good night’s crowd of Delmarva’s total. The Ports toil in a more competitive environment though, as the city is about an hour or so from the Bay Area and their CL rival Modesto is just a few miles down I-5. It takes away some of the advantage Stockton would have by being in an area more populous than the Eastern Shore. While the Shorebirds don’t need a new facility, it would do the new ownership well to make some upgrades in the next season or two. Job one in that respect has to be a new scoreboard and video board. And it wouldn’t hurt for Sherman to get a bit of a makeover.

Because the teams in the minor leagues are only as good on the field as the players provided to them by the parent organization (something the O’s have been lacking for most of the last decade) much of the fan interest is spawned by whatever promotions are dreamed up by the team brass. As an example, it’s pretty common now in the minor leagues that weekend night games have fireworks at their conclusion. For the weekday games, a cottage industry of various entertainers make the rounds during the summer. Shorebirds fans are familiar with the antics of Myron Noodleman, the purple mascot Reggy, and other acts that make appearances at Perdue Stadium. Another gimmick is the alternate uniform nights, where the Shorebirds wear a different cap or jersey (or both) for a particular cause and they’re auctioned off to benefit that organization at game’s end with the player’s autograph. Personally I thought the Harley-Davidson uniforms with the flames were pretty cool. Not so sure about the pink ones.

But in looking at some of what the Ports did, there’s a couple neat things that they could bring to Delmarva. For one, I’d love to know how their Singles Night turned out. Basically it’s “speed dating” but by being at the ballgame (which means you’re probably baseball fans) you’re assured that you have at least one thing in common with the person opposite you. They also did a Wing Fest at the ballpark, which had to be pretty good. (Gee, does that tie in to Delmarva or what?) The Shorebirds do similar items on a more limited basis (such as toward the tail end of last season they had beer/wine tasting nights) but this effort in Stockton was open to anyone. Other events the Ports hosted were a Salute to Military Night, a Foster Care Night, a ’70’s Night (as for me I’d prefer an ’80’s night because the tunes were better), and a Law Enforcement Night. (I think the Shorebirds had a facsimile of Law Enforcement Night on a Sunday afternoon last season.)

In turn, there’s a few promotional items I’d like to see the new management keep. I really liked the car show, that needs to stay. Related to that, honoring Delmarva’s agricultural heritage also needs to continue so keep the Ag Day too. I’m sure Perdue, Mountaire, and others will also maintain their particular dates. And bring back the Redskins cheerleaders too.

Hey, while I’m doing requests I may as well ask that a couple things be brought back that were missing last season. First of all, I liked having the two onfield hosts better. Obviously the onfield hosts are typically younger folks and they move on to bigger and better things, but I enjoyed having the banter between the two rather than just one last season. Second and more importantly, bring back the bands!!! Of all the things I missed last season, that was far and away #1! It makes Thirsty Thursday just SO much better.

I had one other Shorebirds item to throw in. Many fans may recall outfielder Lorenzo Scott, who played here all of last season. Because of his advanced age compared to other Shorebirds I felt he was going to have to jump at least one or two levels next year to have a shot at the bigs.

The good news for Scott is that he was selected by the Florida Marlins in the AAA portion of the Rule 5 draft during the winter meetings. (This draft is for players not protected on a team’s 40-man roster that have played in the minor league system for at least either 4 or 5 seasons, depending on their age when signed. This way a team can’t hide a good player in the minors for more than a few seasons.) What this means is that the Marlins have to keep Scott on their AAA roster (or higher) for the duration of the 2007 season or offer him back to the Orioles for a monetary sum. So Lorenzo should get at least some opportunity to prove himself at a higher level.

Now our version of the hot stove league can begin and it’ll be interesting to see how the Orioles decide to staff the Shorebirds next season. April 5th will be here before we know it and we’ll begin to judge our experiences with 7th Inning Stretch, LLC accordingly starting April 13th (or earlier if they do a fan day in March like Comcast did for at least the last two seasons.)

But whoever owns the Shorebirds can look for me there frequently. I have to get my pics for Shorebird of the Week sometime!

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer. View all posts by Michael