Ottawa Fat Cats' elephant in the room: rainouts

Namely, what if it rains and wipes out one of their scheduled doubleheaders?

That consideration seems to be another the big brains have overlooked. It might also be reassuring if, with less than two weeks to go before the opener -- some Intercounty Baseball League teams are already playing games -- the fledging outfit had announced the signing of more than a whole one player signing on its website, although the league lists 15 under contract. No word on what level most of the players will come from, but the National Capital Baseball League (an "adult amateur league") has posted a message that the Capital City Cubs have folded, which is surely a coincidence. Way to beat the bushes, fellas.

Seriously, though, what if it rains? There were two postponements out of three scheduled games last weekend:

"There were 31 postponements in the 2009 regular season.

So it’s swell that the Fat Cats, taking Oshawa’s lost place in the loop, are paying the bus fare for other teams to travel to the nation’s capital.

It will probably save the Panthers around $1,500, (Kitchener Panthers president Bill ) Pegg guesses. It’s also fine that the Cats will put other teams up for a night in a hotel. But there will still be little wiggle room for delays when the Panthers make their lone weekend visit to Ottawa on June 5-6 for a Saturday double-header and a Sunday matinee.

" 'Most of these players work,' Pegg said. 'And we’re not the only team like that. You can't say to a guy, "Do you want to take off at noon on Tuesday and Thursday because we’re going to Ottawa." I don’t think so.'

" ... 'Most of the teams are on record as saying going to Ottawa during the week for playoffs just isn’t going to happen,' Pegg added.

"That means Ottawa needs the coveted fan-friendly weekend dates in a series. That’s another issue.

"So the IBL better pray for sunshine and clear skies, whenever the Fat Cats play.

"Otherwise, scheduling could get messy."

One almost wonders at the chutzpah of the Ottawa operators, making a nice, community-run Southern Ontario league re-arrange everything for them. What is their contingency for rainouts? Are we that arrogant in Ottawa to not realize we're tampering with almost a century of tradition?

Why are they charging 12 bucks a game and putting together a team of neighbourhood players who were hitherto playing in the NCBL, an "adult amateur league?" Enquiring minds are wondering.

Since the future of the Ottawa baseball stadium is hanging in the balance, these are questions the Ottawa media must begin asking this week, instead of rehashing ill-informed Expos-Jays comparisons about a baseball team in Toronto. Not next week.

(Speaking of: FYI, Mark Sutcliffe, it was not an "ESPN blogger" who said the Blue Jays should be moved to Caracas. Rob Neyer -- he has a name, you know -- was referring to that idiot in Chicago. Good luck with your next marathon, though.)

Related:
Panthers still wary of Fat Cats’ entry into IBL (Jeff Hicks, Waterloo Region Record)

Vindication! Former Rapidz owner strikes out in court

The former owner of the Ottawa Rapidz has suffered another defeat.

Rob Hall of Zip.ca and Momentous has been out for vengeance since his chute-pull after the Can-Am League team's single, farcical season in 2008. Earlier Tuesday, Judge Lynn Ratushny of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed Hall's actions against the Can-Am League and Bruce Murdock, a season-ticket holder and Ottawa resident who put a lot of time and sweat equity into the ill-fated franchise. Claims vs. the City of Ottawa and Can-Am commish Miles Wolff are still extant.

The long-story-short is this is vindication for those who were sickened by how Hall and former partner Rick Anderson's gong show in 2008 almost drove the final nails into the coffin of pro ball in Ottawa. The court not only threw out the claim on jurisdictional grounds (i.e., an Ontario court shouldn't address claims against a North Carolina-based league), but also on its merits, which could be significant in the event of an appeal.

Hall, et al., still has claims pending against Can-Am commissioner Miles Wolff and the City of Ottawa (these people is nothing if not thorough). I'll just reiterate what I said in '08:

"The record will show that you and fellow/former Zipperhead Rick Anderson bought the team and acted like overgrown brats with a new toy, not as keepers of a quasi-public trust. You rejected advice from people whose track record, unlike yours, actually suggests they know their ass from second base when it comes to baseball. Worst of all, you toyed with the hearts of the fans. They honestly believed that a new team would rise from the ashes of the Lynx's Long Goodbye. They feel like fools now, and honestly, that sucks.

The legal system is not in the business of applying salve to the thin skins of megalomaniacs. As noted eight months ago, what it boiled down to is that they were trying to get back at the people for their self-inflicted embarrassment. Far be it that they could have found the culprits for causing the embarrassment simply by looking in the mirror first thing each morning.

For pity's sake, one minute Hall was talking about signing a 30-year lease on the Coventry Rd. baseball stadium and the next they were accusing the city and Wolff of duping them into thinking baseball could work in Ottawa. They talked about buying the stadium, but they wouldn't pay their bills. Say whatever you want about the litigation former Ottawa Lynx owner Ray Pecor has vs. the City of Ottawa, but when his team pulled up stakes, they left with every bill paid in full. Wolff worked to get the Can-Am team going and won over the right people at City Hall. The city, for the record, wanted baseball back.

When you get right down to it, the Zipperheads threw an OPM party (other people's money) all summer long party in 2008. Since then, they have been trying to collect a payoff on the backs of people who were sincere about keeping pro baseball alive in Ottawa.

The Rapidz quote, unquote lost $1.4 million. In reality, one of the owners' other businesses, Momentous, was the biggest creditor, to the tune of about $700,000, so one wonders if that was just creative accounting. The rest was unpaid expenses owed to suppliers. Those are the real victims, the businesspeople who have to go to bankruptcy court in hope of getting pennies on the dollar.

The bottom line is Ottawa ball fans should laugh long and loud. They earned it the hard way, by having their hearts broken.

Ottawa Can-Ams: Butler doesn't have the goods

No doubt Dave Butler might try to turn the fact the Can-Am League has a franchise
which has no place to play to his advantage:

"On Tuesday afternoon Nashua Mayor Donnalee Lozeau, as she had promised Monday, prevented the (American Defenders of New Hampshire) ... from playing their regularly scheduled game against the New Jersey Jackals. In addition to the tractor parked at home plate, new locks were put on the stadium gates, presumably to prevent the team from allowing fans to come in the ballpark."

Speaking of Mr. Butler and his plans to put a Can-Am team in Ottawa ... apparently someone reviewed his business plan, so-called, and the reaction was along the lines of, "That's it?!" It was no more detailed than the sparse outline he provided on Monday for the media.

Forget strike three. Butler is on about strike eleven, if anyone in Ottawa cares to check the scoreboard. Sorry to be turning this into a single-topic blog. Getting all those football previews written for cisblog.ca is taking up a lot of time.

The Defenders will likely play out their season on the road, to hazard a guess.

Related:
Defenders locked out of Holman (Tom King, Nashua Telegraph)

Ottawa Can-Ams: Dave Butler puts true fans in a show-us state

Put up or shut up, David Butler.

An attention-seeker with zero track record as a sports operator can only do harm to efforts to get any kind of franchise up and running at Ottawa's Coventry Rd. stadium. The big publicity stunt that you saw today was a pathetically obvious attempt to try to do a selling job on the city council.

Most reports have ignored that the sub-lease the Can-Am League negotiated with the ownership of the defunct Ottawa Lynx expires at the end of September. Butler is trying to create a groundswell of support — a hackneyed ploy straight from his hero Frank D'Angelo's playbook — before the amateurs have to clear the floor and make room for the big boys who would like to lay hands on that piece of property. That is his journey.

Anyone who has been following this story these past two years knows Butler, will in all certainty, go back under his rock once his 15 minutes are up. The real risk is that Butler can do damage to groups who want to make serious inquiries about the facility, be it for Can-Am League baseball, another ball team, perhaps soccer (you could get the capacity up to 14,000 seats by putting temporary bleachers, but where would people park?).

Stringing along the public while an indifferent and/or lazy media laps it up (hey, have to generate content and it is the last week of August) could be damaging. If people buy Butler's cock-and-ball story and it doesn't work out, which is pretty damn likely, it hurts the chances of a more credible operator doing something. It could also mean the city would be less likely to make a fair deal on use of the stadium. (For those who don't know, all the sports facilities in Ottawa, such as the Sensplex, are heavily subsidized by the city, but the ballpark was not, although that was one among many reasons the Lynx are livin' in Allentown.)

Meantime, for the media who gave Butler his photo op, how hard is it to work the Google on the Internet machine and get some idea of what he is about? How tough is it to contact Can-Am League commissioner Miles Wolff?

Dave Butler and his partner, Duncan MacDonald are inexperienced and in 99.9% likelihood are underfunded. They have no experience. It is established beyond a reasonable doubt that Butler has not produced when it matters. He could not even get the team bus to arrive at the stadium to pick the Rapidz up for a road trip last season. No amount of calling yourself an "Ottawa businessman" (CBC's term) and saying you are "ready to go now" will make up for being cash- and knowledge-deficient. If he can pull it off, more power to him, but it is probably not happening and shame on the media for letting itself be taken on a trolley ride.

Forget asking to see the colour of someone's money — in this case, it's more like seeing if someone has money, period. Meantime, once that lease is up at the end of next month, someone more credible probably will roll out a plan. Beware anyone who tries to push his case through the public.

Related:
New Ottawa baseball pitch lands at city (CBC.ca)

Ottawa Can-Ams: Squeaky wheel greases skids for stadium fight

David Butler can only go so long without seeing his name in print, but that's not a worrying thing.

Butler's grandstanding on Friday was valuable. It pointed out that the future of summer sports, not necessarily baseball, in Ottawa is joined at the hip with who gets control of the stadium. It's not about the sport (it might be about which sport, since you could put a soccer team there). At least if Butler is running his mouth, perhaps it plants a seed with someone else about operating a summer team in Ottawa (Can-Am League, whatever league, maybe footy) in Ottawa.

Please forget the irony in his comment, "We are going try and make a run at it again" (Sun Media) with a Can-Am League ballclub. Butler using word we is a hoot and a half. For two years, he has refused to say who is part of his group which wants to turn Ottawa's baseball stadium into a multiuse entertainment facility. As for again, what was Butler's involvement the first time, besides screwing up the buses for the Rapidz' first road trip?

Anywho, the league's "best bet for strengthening itself could lie in Canada," according to indy baseball scribe Bob Werz. Trois-Rivières is the closest to a firm possibility. Suburban Montréal would be perfect if it was physically possible to put Ottawa's entire stadium on rollers and move it two hours east. Ottawa offers a stadium and some loyal fans.

The Can-Am has received a shot in the arm publicity-wise from Éric Gagné bringing his supposedly shot arm to the Québec Capitales. Running with eight teams is better than the current six, since it makes for a less repetitive schedule. There is some potential, although broader sports-watching trends don't hold much sway in Ottawa. Nothing that happens anywhere else could ever have sway in Ottawa. That point was reaffirmed during the whole MLS-CFL debate in late 2008-early '09. The right side came out on top, but it was rich to see the pro-CFL side dismiss MLS as small-time. It has had tremendous launches in Seattle and Toronto (the expansion Sounders' average attendance rivals the baseball Mariners, albeit it with one-fourth as many games) and will be hit in Portland and Vancouver.

Whoever tries to make a go with baseball in Ottawa is going to have to step up in a market where two ball teams have gone by the wayside. Most people don't know or care the Triple-A Lynx were bled dry or that the Rapidz were rendered a joke by nimrod owners who didn't know their assets from second base. Perception is reality.

Meantime, the onus is on the media to be more judicious with figuring out if someone is credible rather than saying, "Hey, this guy says he wants to own a baseball team." Don't we all want to own a baseball team, and have an elephant?

David Butler is a trifle. The same might go for this other character who has come out of the woodwork, Duncan Macdonald. His description screams, "true believer." Macdonald says he worked for the Toronto Blue Jays during their World Series years. Apparently he did some scouting, but in the grand scheme part-time scouts have about as much to do with a Major League Baseball team's success in a given season as the assistant to the travelling secretary.

Listening to Butler describe his grandiose vision is like listening to George Costanza describe his fake house in the Hamptons. Butler at least has the good sense to scurry off and let it die rather than drive his dead fiancée's parents out to the end of the island.

That doesn't mean Butler won't try the same old ploy of telling anyone who will listen about using the stadium for concerts. It's awfully familiar:

Ottawa Business Journal, Aug. 31, 2007: "David Butler has interests with a prestigious list of firms to turn Lynx Stadium, which hosted its last Triple-A Ottawa Lynx game today, into a multi-service entertainment and sports complex within perhaps 20 months."

Sun Media, Aug. 21, 2009: "David Butler ... says he has submitted a proposal to the city and to Can-Am League commissioner Miles Wolff to re-open the doors of the Ottawa Baseball Stadium and field a team.

" ... However, given the checkered history of baseball at the Coventry Rd. stadium, Butler says he wants to use the facility for more than just baseball.

"Butler would like the city to allow the stadium to be used for concerts and other events.

" 'Baseball would be one product,' said Butler. 'Nobody will make just baseball work. I want something there every day.' "

The point is the baseball story is not going away in Ottawa. Having a stadium and a population of 1 million increases the odds of someone taking a shot. Of course, having a population of 1 million also increases the number of people who will listen to David Butler. C'est la vie!

Gagné trying Can-Am League comeback...

A Red Sox fan living in Ottawa could have had a chance to razz Éric Gagné in person this summer, but noooooooooooo, the team folded.

The word out of Québec is that the one-time Cy Young Award winner who was mentioned in the Mitchell Report is trying a comeback in the Can-Am League with the Québec Capitales.

" 'It's too early to gauge the impact of his arrival on turnout at the stadium, but let's just say it’s a big score for the team (and) for the league as well,' said team owner Miles Wolff."

It's understandable if people wish ill to the cheater. Until such time that people demand the L.A. Dodgers give refunds for all the people who bought Éric Gagné merchandise between 2002-04, he should be welcomed back as he tries to make it back into baseball, however long those odds might be.

The story says Gagné, who along with Jeff Montgomery is one of the only four-pitch closers in baseball history, will be attempting to re-launch his career as a starter.

It was such a feel-good story back in 2003. He had such a cult-like following in Los Angeles that when he was warming up in the bullpen in the eighth inning to come in for a save, fans at Dodger Stadium would pay more attention to him than the actual game. (Granted, since the Dodgers finished dead last in several offensive categories, the fans were justified.)

Who knows, maybe he can develop a knuckleball and replace Tim Wakefield when he finally retires in 2015 (that was a snarky comment). Red Sox fans have made much sport of Gagné since his ill-starred turn as a rental player during their drive to the 2007 World Series title, when he had no saves and a 6.75 ERA in 20 appearances, while allowing almost two baserunners per inning.



This is as good as a time as any to wonder if there was a hex placed on the vote-getters for the NL Cy Young Award in '03. Only three other pitchers got votes that season, Jason Schmidt (then with the Giants), the Cubs' Mark Prior and the Braves' Russ Ortiz. All three of them have, not unlike Gagné, have develope arm problems that have caused their careers to go off a cliff. Ortiz is the only one still in the majors, and he's been shaky (although he did hit a home run this season before David Ortiz).

The Capitales' first Boston-area road swing is June 16-21 at Brockton and Worcester. Perhaps Gagné will be stretching his arm out in games by that point.

Related:
Gagné signs with Can-Am team (Stephane Cadorette, Québec Media Agency)

Baseball in Ottawa: Hope fades

To quote what The Tao of Stieb said when the Ottawa Voyageurs folded, "The latticework of circumstance continues to break our baseball-loving heart."

The news is not encouraging for those hoping to see pro baseball again in 2010, or ever. Independent baseball is taking some serious hits amid the global credit crunch, which means a few leagues could disappear.

"It's serious enough that some independent league officials expect that not all of the current leagues will still be around when 2010 arrives.

" 'I think this in many ways could be the toughest year for independent baseball," Can-Am League and American Association commissioner Miles Wolff said. 'In the early years there was all this excitement that this is something new. There was St. Paul and Long Island, where baseball was back. Now all those cities have matured. Now it's a mode where we have to continue. There are not a lot of new things happening to make people say, Wow.' "

"The crazy promotions that seemed fresh and new in the 1990s are now a regular part of the minor league experience. And where in the '90s there always seemed to be a new market to move to if a team should start to falter, the building boom is largely over these days." — Baseball America

Wolff hit the nail on the head. Indy ball has been a victim of its own success, since it shook up the minors and forced them to change the way they do busness. It went from being a dead industry with games played only in front of diehards to family entertainment. Ballpark Digest also noted the Can-Am League is teetering:

"The independent Can-Am Association is down to six teams this season; you have two extremely strong franchises (Brockton and Quebec), one OK franchise (New Jersey), one struggling franchise (Sussex), and one interesting experiment that could go either way (American Defenders of New Hamphire). We don't hear any prospects for new teams for 2010 or beyond, either ..."

This is going to factor into Ottawa's endless stadium debate. Knowing how it works in Ottawa, you can't imagine this will do much to disabuse city councillors who want to tear down the Coventry Rd. ballpark.

Ultimately, it should not be forgotten Miles Wolff did believe in this city and its ball fans, and city officials did come around during the past two winters. That should be a pleasant memory even if there's never another professional baseball game in Ottawa again. (Then again, I'm just one guy.)

Related:
Bad Time For Indy Ball; Recession will be felt throughout '09 season (J.J. Cooper, Baseball America)
Debt, turnover put future of Tornadoes in doubt (Ballpark Digest)

Can-Am League: Bittersweet to boot

When pro baseball bit the dust in Ottawa for this season, the message here was not to take in isolation. The Can-Am League team in Worcester, Mass., is also having trouble. The loop is down to six teams and with the fiduciary mess in the U.S., you have to fear for the league.

"Miles Wolff, the Can-Am League commissioner, confirmed that the Tornadoes have some outstanding bills from last year, but this year’s revenues ought to be able to go toward settling debts. Meanwhile, he said he views the team as one of the league’s most successful and well-run operations.

" 'Some people who have not been paid can look forward to being paid,' Mr. Wolff said. “For many of us this is going to be a tough year. We’re going to have to tighten our belts."

Learning that the league itself is in trouble is probably pretty thin gruel for people who have no baseball games to attend in town this summer (perfect time to check out the Ottawa Fury, people). It was not the fault of the city that the Ottawa Voyageurs did not make it to Opening Day.

The irony is that Miles Wolff, with the Durham Bulls in the 1980s and through his creation in some start-up independent leagues, was one of the top 5 things to ever happen to Minor League Baseball (MiLB). Twenty-five years ago, minor-league teams were mom-and-pop operations and their major-league parents treated them more as a sunk cost, not as a cash cow. Wolff turned the Durham Bulls into a licence to print money. Others followed his lead and MiLB has become very profitable in the United States. Thing is, with the U.S. in a recession, the affiliated teams which have a connection with Major League Baseball and know where their players are coming from might be better able to read out the economic storm.

As for here in Ottawa, for the last time, there are no flies on us just because we won't be watching anyone catch fly balls.

Ottawa stadium debate: Credit him for chutzpah, nothing else

David Butler is all hat and no cattle.

Determining what to do with Ottawa's stadium issues is hard enough without this wannabe recycling a really stoopid idea which has already been shot down.

"(Butler) has informed the city of his renewed interest, but this time, he wants to start small. He wants to lease the stadium and hold five or six outdoor concerts a year -- which, using Nickelback as an example, he said would generate $350,000 each -- and eventually move toward his larger vision of a domed, state-of-the-art multi-purpose entertainment centre that could house soccer fields, a driving range, pro shops, fitness clubs and restaurants."

Sure. Go tell that to the goat which will be part of the petting zoo you're also planning to fit into his family-friendly Xanadu.

This dude is unreal. Butler is way too light on the details. It is unclear at best what if any involvement he had with the Nickelback concert at the stadium in July 2007, although there's no dispute about who fouled up when the team buses failed to show up at the stadium for the Rapidz' first road trip last season and caused them to be late arriving at the ballpark.

Readers of longer standing (thank you, everyone) will also remember that Butler told people he had backing from the quote, unquote, "Bank of Frank," and we all know how that turned out. Honestly, as someone else said when he first surfaced two years ago with his cockamamie scheme to put $40 million into the site, "What, does he think he's going to discover oil in centrefield?"

At least, as Mr. Kiiffner notes, he isn't trying to claim they sold 42,000 beers in one night, which as best as one can determine, is almost mathematically and physically impossible. The bottom line is that his proposal can still serve a purpose, provided that someone at City Hall is really into origami. The most pragmatic thing to do with the ballpark on Coventry Rd. is to take another stab at establishing an independent-league ballclub in 2010.

Related:
Proposal music to the ears; Stadium's saviour would turn facility into concert venue (Sun Media)

The W.C.E. is in like with Lansdowne, not in love

It seems best to pass the conch with regard to the latest on Lansdowne Park. It has been a popular topic.

The Globe figures MLS took a body blow to the solar plexus while the CFL bid only had the wind knocked out of it. Perhaps this forces Eugene Melnyk and the soccer people to call Roger Greenberg and the CFL lobby and start collaborating, as D. Rollins wondered.

The worst fear, of course, is that a city which hasn't done anything about this for a decade, won't do anything. A functional sports stadium is for some other city, not the capital of a G8 nation.

Again, who knows what will happen in 15 days' time, especially since it is up to the W.C.E. under the Joker, Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien.

A more pressing concern is that the ballpark on Coventry Rd., the former Lynx Stadium. City councillor Rainier Bloess mouth was ahead of his mind yesterday when he lumped it in with Lansdowne Park as one of two "white elephants." He is, no disrespect, speaking ignorance. The baseball stadium, in Carl Kiiffner's words, is "entirely paid for -- every last penny." It had a tenant for 16 consecutive summers until last week. Meantime, Lansdowne Park, counting this summer, has lacked one for 10 of the past 13.

A personal stance is that as someone who is will be not be around Ottawa for much longer has no claim on saying what's best for the city. It really falls to people who are more personally invested, so have at 'er.

Related:
Preserving part of our souls at the heart of the city (Earl McRae, Sun Media)
Stadium dreams put on ice (Shane Ross, Sun Media)
Councillors skeptical of 'big ticket' spending on stadium (Patrick Dare, Ottawa Citizen)
Ottawa's great stadium debate continues to simmer (David Naylor, globesports.com)

Ottawa Can-Ams: The last spike

Today is not a day to lash out and make it about what's wrong with Ottawa.

The demise of the Ottawa Voyageurs was beyond everyone's control, locally. The Atlantic City Surf folded over the weekend. That was that. Once that domino toppled, it left the league with seven teams, one of which was a ward of the league. A baseball league cannot run with an odd number of teams, since everyone plays almost every day.

Today, if you're so inclined to see history as a straight line, is the end of a long slide down that probably began in the mid-'90s when Major League Baseball set out to destroy the Expos. The trickle-down was felt by the Lynx, just two hours away in Ottawa. The record should show there were people who raged against the dying of the light.

This is not directly tied to the Zipperheads' lawsuit against the City of Ottawa and Can-Am commish Miles Wolff. The league, as best is my understanding, could not afford to have two franchises under league control.

It sounds like the other Can-Am owners basically said no to a league-controlled team in Ottawa. If that's the case, it's a final irony that former MLB executive Dan Duquette, who has a stake in the American Defenders of New Hampshire, was party to driving the final nail into the coffin of pro ball in Ottawa (no matter what true believers say). Duquette was GM of the Montreal Expos when the Triple-A Lynx came into being as its top farm club in 1993.

It probably was a bit inevitable, but people like friends Carl Kiiffner and Bruce Murdock went the extra mile for this nevertheless. Their voices probably won't be heard. Save for Don Campbell at the Ottawa Citizen, whose baseball bona fides are beyond reproach, and for Chris Stevenson noting this is the loss a cheap night out for families during the summer months, the knee-jerkers in the local media probably won't have much of a heart for those who cared. It's another story about a sports team in Ottawa going under, which usually means the opportunity for drive-by journalism.

Please know this has little to do with the litany of failed franchises, pending litigation, or whatever there is in the Canadian sports psyche which makes us reject so-called American sports like a bad transplant. It was the economy, stupid.

In the long run, it speaks to not having a summer team in Ottawa as an alternative to all-hockey, all-the-time sportsgeist. It speaks to what was lost for ball fans east of Toronto once MLB put the screws to the 'Spos 15 years ago. It speaks to the changing nature of following baseball as a Canadian. The self-described dinosaur with his newspaper might have hearing this from an "Internet geek," but there have never been more Canadians playing at a high level of baseball, and following them has never been more accessible. There's a trade-off, but all it takes is a high-speed connection to keep up with Canadian ballplayers such as Jason Bay, Rich Harden, Phillippe Aumont, Brett Lawrie, Joey Votto, Russell Martin and Alex Périard as opposed to watching half-talented imports ply their dubious craft on a local diamond.

Most of all, it speaks to the economic realities that all of us are facing across North America. Hockey lost two ECHL teams this winter, it's naive to think this could not happen in minor-league baseball, especially indy ball.

Please know that Wolff and many others went all out for ball fans in Ottawa. Please know there are ball fans in Ottawa. The bat was taken out of their hands.

Related:
Voyageurs strike out? (Chris Stevenson, Sun Media)
Ball team striking out in Ottawa; Can-Am league expected to shut down Voyageurs (Derek Puddicombe, Sun Media)
Pro baseball may have struck out again in Ottawa (Krystle Chow, Ottawa Business Journal)
Atlantic City Surf ceases operations (ballparkdigest.com; fist bump to Pete Toms for the link)

Vees nest: Milons deal nets pitching, infield help

It seems like Ottawa Voyageurs are trying to address two of last season's deficiencies, middle infield and starting pitching, with their latest move.

The club swapped left fielder Jereme Milons, who hit a decent .298/.360/.434 last season, to Southern Illinois in the Frontier League for the rights to utilityman Manny Paula and right-handed starter Chris Allen.

Paula comes advertised as someone who can play second and shortstop, along with outfield, so at least he would give the Vees some options. He helped Southern Illinois make a playoff push last season, and in '07 he was very good in the Frontier League, OPSing .930 and hitting 15 homers in 274 at-bats. Who knows how well that translates to the Can-Am League, but at least he's got some pop.

Allen, 24, posted decent numbers in his first pro season last season, going 6-2 with a 3.39 ERA and 1.36 WHIP with no home runs allowed in 61 innings. The stats suggest he's got decent control, but maybe goes a little too deep into counts sometimes (his efficiency isn't rated very high).

Here's hoping Ottawa can get those two into camp. As it stands, they probably have four everyday players: Rookie Jeff Thomas and incumbent Jared Lemieux in left and centre, Trino Aguilar and Jabe Bergeron at the infield corners.

Voyageurs pitching coach Mike Kusiewicz, by the way, will participate in Ottawa writer Jim Shearon's book launch on Thursday at 5 p.m. at Collected Works (1242 Wellington St.). Shearon's latest, Over The Fence Is Out!, is a history of Canadians in baseball, with a special focus on Larry Walker.

Oil Can Boyd at the Vees' Nest?

Forty-nine-year-old Oil Can Boyd pitching for the Ottawa Voyageurs ... A friend in the know mentioned it yesterday on the Q.T., and Don Campbell has it in the paper today. Honestly, the Vees could use some zazzing up, and people love the Can:

"Eighteen seasons after striking out his last major league hitter, and seven months shy of his 50th birthday, the colourful Boyd hopes to realize his dream in Ottawa with the Cam-Am Baseball League Voyageurs.

" 'My way of thinking about the game hasn't changed,' Boyd said Monday from his home in East Providence, Rhode Island.

" 'I've always known the secret to longevity is to take care of yourself and that the smarter you get, the better it is.' "

Related:
Oil Can likely to pitch in Ottawa at 49;'Ball coming out of my hand free and easy,' Boyd says (Don Campbell, Canwest News Service)

Ottawa baseball: Former owners sue city, Can-Am commish

Who needs fiction when you have the former owners of Ottawa's minor-league baseball team.

Long story short, the team's former owners, the Zipperheads, are suing anyone and everyone over their losses from last season and not one Ottawa media outlet has clued in. Far be it to suggest Rob Hall, Rick Anderson, et al., in lieu of going away in anger, should just go away. Their statement of claim, which is a matter of public record, goes so far to claim Can-Am League commish Miles Wolff and the City of Ottawa actually conspired to cause them to lose the $1.4 million they claimed to lose last summer.

33. In the 2008 season, Momentous funded the baseball club and its operations to the extent of some $1 million. In addition, Momentous loaned personnel and equipment to Rapidz Baseball while continuing to carry them on its payroll and inventory. During the course of the 2008 season, Rapidz Baseball incurred an indebtedness in excess of $1.4 million.

34. The likelihood of operational costs leading to a deficit in this range was known to the City and Wolff, but was not disclosed by either of them to the plaintiffs.

So, the Ontario courts are to believe that Wolff has spent the better part of two years trying to put a team in a market to purposely lose money. That is asinine on its face. Read that twice. Wolff and the city knew how much the owners would stand to lose? That's akin to me telling you how much money you'll have in your checking account at the end of this year without knowing anything about your spending habits.

Good friend Carl Kiiffner is pretty succinct:

If he 'knew' that baseball in Ottawa was a 'losing proposition' in excess of $1 million dollars, why did Miles Wolff try so hard to bring the Can-Am League here in the first place?

It just goes on and on through their statement of claim, that they were supposedly set up by the city and their commissioner. Sorry, gentle sirs, it does not pass muster, unlike the hot dogs at the ballpark last summer, which were so superb they barely needed mustard (how did you make the buns so crispy?).

This part of the SoC deserves a good slathering of soy sauce:

"They realised, by the magnitude of the losses, that the representations and warranties made by Wolff and joined in by the City were patently false. To overcome the effect of this breach, the plaintiffs sought the agreed upon negotiation with the City of a long term lease at commercially reasonable rates.

Translation for the legalese-impaired: "We were so mad at being lied to that we decided the only way out was to get into bed with this city for 30 years." (Mental note: Do not hire these guys to provide counselling to battered spouses.)

Anyway, the real proof, like Carl says, will be what the Zipperheads got in writing from Wolff and the city. The heart of the matter is that, despite Ottawa being a fickle market for teams other than hockey, Wolff put a ton of personal and sweat equity into bringing baseball back in 2009 with the Ottawa Voyageurs. The municipal government in Ottawa was only too eager to welcome it back, in stark contrast to some of the near tooth-pulling it took in fall 2007/winter 2008

At the end of the day, this post is being written so readers know what was meant by saying in January that the former owner "was pulling a Horn Chen." This goes a little bit beyond merely trying to hoard that team's former nickname.

To the media, this has nothing to do with the Voyageurs, which is essentially an expansion team which play out of the same ballpark (the Vees' Nest, as it shall henceforth be known). There is going to be pro ball in Ottawa in 2009.

The upshot is no one ever said it would be easy to preserve pro baseball in Ottawa and safeguard the Lynx legacy. With friends of baseball like the Zipperheads, who needs enemies.

Related:
Kennedy, the moon landings, Area 51 and… the RapidZ? (Carl Kiiffner, the unofficial Ottawa Voyageurs blog)
Previous:
Clean break from last season's Hall hole (Jan. 27, 2009)

Voyageurs: No breaking sidearmer's spirit

David Wasylak should not be, which is meant in the most positive light possible.

There was an item on The Canadian Press wire noting the Ottawa Voyageurs and American Association's Grand Prairie AirHogs have swapped lefty pitcher Jacob Ramos for Wasylak. The 26-year-old sidearmer was in the Can-Am League briefly with Québec and Worcester last season (he's a Massachusetts native).

Wasylak suffered a major compound fracture in his right forearm as a teen and suffice to say, it looked like he was going to lose the arm:

"... it was a long time before physicians knew, one way or the other, how much use Wasylak would regain in the arm. When the cast came off, the fingers on his right hand were motionless. It was almost a year before he could use a knife to cut a steak. Driving was out of the question because he could muster no strength in the arm."
— Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, June 2006

Wasylak also lost his father at an early age and made his way through three college programs, helping Lubbock Christian University make an appearance in the NAIA World Series in '06. He had a 3.63 ERA with Laredo in the United League last season and did not allow a home run in 34 2/3 innings, averaging just more than a strikeout per frame (albeit on a team which averaged almost that many; there's a lot of free swingers in that league).

This is not meant to be a testimonial to Wasylak's ability, but it's hard not to hope it works out for someone. Pitching coach Mike Kusiewicz battled arm problems throughout his playing career and eventually dropped down and became a sidearmer, so it figures that the Voyageurs might take a chance on one.

Can-Amers looking for a splendid sobriquet

Ottawa's Can-Am League baseball team has its name-the-team contest down to five:

• Ottawa Colonels
• Ottawa Jax
• Ottawa Raftsmen
• Ottawa Trappers
• Ottawa Voyageurs

It would not do to use my limited platform to influence the vote, but people should weigh in over at Carl Kiiffner's Can-Am Ottawa Blog.

Ottawa Colonels would at least have a neat interlocking OC insignia on their caps. Raftsmen and Trappers stay true to the heritage of the Ottawa Valley. Jax is nice and short for headline-writing purposes (but don't call it zippy). Voyageurs works in both French and English (and journalistically, can be clipped to Vees).

Fans can vote by emailing to ottawacanam(at)hotmail.com or by calling 613-741-0777. The deadline is 12 noon on Feb. 17.

Ottawa Can-Ams: No doubting Thomas, the man can hit

The Ottawa Can-Ams seem to be zeroing in on a 2-hole hitter, lefty outfielder Jeff Thomas, who was mentioned in passing in today's Ottawa Sun.

Thomas played four seasons of college ball under Ottawa manager Tom Carcione at Northern Illinois. He had a good senior season in 2008, putting up a team-high .450 on-base percentage (he OPS'ed .898). He showed good bat control, striking just once every 12 appearances and going all season without grounding into a double play.

The 22-year-old Thomas was the draft-and-follow type, a player whom a team might take in the June draft but not sign, instead watching him sign with an independent league team and seeing how he adjusts to hitting with a wooden bat.

Thomas' college stats have to be taken with a grain of salt due to the use of aluminum bats, but he put those numbers up in March, April and May while playing in a northern climate. Northern Illinois is in the Mid-American Conference with schools in Michigan and Ohio, along with the University of Buffalo. Hitting wit any kind of bat there is tough at the time of the year (and it really stings, speaking from personal experience). Thomas' .450 OBP came in a context where all hitters reached base at around a .370 clip. He probably won't hit for power, but he could be a good tablesetter at either the top or bottom of the order.

Thomas also seems to be a good sport. He had a pregame superstition of eating six Eggo waffles before every game, so he posed for a picture in the the DeKalb (Illi.) Chronicle chowing down.

Related:
Can-Am team's roster taking form (Shane Ross, Ottawa Sun)

Snark break...

Hang on, the Pogge kid is asking for bus fare...

Manny Ramirez finally got an offer, for $3,000 a month from the Can-Am League's Worcester Tornadoes. The Edmonton Cracker-Cats better break out their chequebook. (One of ManRam's former teammates, Abe Alvarez, signed to play in Italy this season. Can't you see Manny knocking back a shot of a grappa, then blasting a three-run homer?)

Someone, please, figure out how the Buffalo Sabres' Daniel Paille was minus-1 last night when his team beat the Edmonton Oilers 10-2.

Two QMJHL teams, Lewiston and Acadie-Bathurst, are rumoured to be on the move. They can move to Kingston, there's no major junior team there.

This post is worth nothing, but this is worth noting

• Former Jay Eric Hinske is apparently going to sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
• The Argos have lost defensive back Byron Parker to the NFL.

Ottawa Can-Ams: Clean break from last season's Hall hole

Let's be on the up-and-up, even if Rob Hall is pulling a Horn Chen.

Like Can-Am League commish Miles Wolff said in his press release announcing a name-the-team contest for the Ottawa Can-Ams this morning, a "fresh start" might be best for the local nine. The idea of a clean break, in light of last season's shenanigans under Hall and fellow ex-owner Rick Anderson, has a lot of appeal.

The old nickname had a favourable response (at least until the spelling was changed). The entire Can-Am League foray into Ottawa has been an exercise in risk management from Day One. A name change should not cause consternation and cynicism.

Speaking as someone who wants to see minor-league baseball keep going in Ottawa and in Canada, it's best to keep a positive outlook. Please try to see this as a cost of keeping baseball alive in this town. It's too easy to be a cynic and say, "They're changing the name again?"

The name is being changed because we still have a team that's going to playing this summer, even if Hall wants to hoard the name, like Chen has with the Rough Riders moniker (at least until recently). That's the upshot, and it's far better than not having a ball club.

Serious suggestions for the Name The Team contest may be sent to ottawacanam@hotmail.com, while the sarcastic ones can go in our comment section.

One-paragraph posts on small things to cling to

The Ottawa Rapids website (ottawarapidsbaseball.com) is up. More to come. You can resume shovelling show, everyone.