Despite a string of recent disappointments for Ottawa baseball fans, including the demise of the Rapidz last year, a new squad is stepping up to the plate this summer and is determined to fill the seats at Ottawa Stadium.
Ontario’s Intercounty Baseball League – the oldest baseball league in Canada – has ratified a proposal from the Ottawa Stadium Group and added an Ottawa roster to the eight-team league. Ottawa fans will be able to cheer on their very own Ottawa Fat Cats starting with the home opener against Mississauga on May 15.
Consisting of local businesspersons and key baseball personnel, the OSG believes the Ottawa stadium should be utilized as a multi-use facility. The group submitted the only formal bid for use of the stadium and signed a one-year lease with the city last month.
Duncan MacDonald, a partner in the OSG and the team’s general manager, is not concerned with baseball’s troubles in Ottawa over the last few years. He is confident the new semi-pro franchise is here to stay and will become a staple for family outings and the sports community.
“There isn’t going to be a more family-affordable ticket that is going to give people more value and entertainment for their dollar,” he says.
“We looked at all the problems, we did our analysis and we removed in our minds all of the negativity and threats and weaknesses of the former teams,” says MacDonald.
Among the new changes, the OSG has improved the stadium’s limited parking by arranging a shuttle service with OC Transpo for ticket holders to and from home games.
MacDonald also says there will be no more line-ups, free admission for veterans and military personnel, and senior citizens will get free admission with a child ticket purchase.
Ottawa will begin its season on the road May 8, joining the ranks of the Barrie Baycats, Guelph Royals, Hamilton Thunderbirds, Brantford Red Sox, Kitchener Panthers, London Majors, Mississauga Twins and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Bill MacKenzie, a former big league catcher, has been selected as the team’s head coach.
After playing for the Detroit Tigers and Montreal Expos, the 63 year old worked in the Expos’ front office, as a coach for the national team, and as a scout in the big league. He has just seven weeks to assemble Ottawa’s team.
“The toughest challenge will be putting a very competitive team together,” says MacKenzie. “I think we’ll probably go with a lot of younger players and hopefully enough sprinkling of veteran guys will make us competitive.”
Macdonald says there are approximately 60 talented players in college baseball within a one-hour drive of Ottawa. Along with local talent, the team will include older retirees and three hotshot Americans.
Coach MacKenzie has no doubt that local players will make up the roster.
“I hope that the nucleus of our team will be local,” he says. “It’s always been a league that’s been scouted. This will be an opportunity for these kids to be seen.”
The team will play out of the Coventry Road stadium where the 10,300 seats were once occupied by Lynx fans, the triple-A team that spanned 14 seasons in Ottawa and fans of last summer’s short-lived Rapidz, which ended their run with the Canadian-American Association of Professional Baseball league after just one season due to the economic slowdown and a lack of strong ownership.
Joe O’Neill, IBL commissioner, says the large venue and stable ownership could combine to make Ottawa’s newest team a successful operation.
“Ottawa is a great baseball town,” he says. “When Ottawa had the Lynx in the early days, the franchise was packing the stadium and that’s very unusual in minor baseball.”
Although the Rapidz had the worst record in the league, they still averaged more than 2,000 people for each game and sold over 100,000 tickets in 2008, which is more than the sales of three other teams.
The folding of the two previous teams should have no bearing on the fate of the IBL’s newest addition, says O’Neill.
“With minor independent leagues, franchises move around constantly, so I wouldn’t look at Ottawa as singularly unique in that regard,” he says. “(The OSG) is passionate about what they want to do which involves more than baseball.”
The league itself is one of the most stable in the country, according to O’Neill. Both the Guelph and Kitchener teams have been part of the league since its inception in 1919.
Gameday tickets for the May to July season will be available starting April 15.