Draft for Podcast

Tom King - Nashua Telegraph - http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090403/COLUMNISTS11/304039909/-1/sports

Ottawa and AC should be up and running today. It's sad, especially to see AC – home of so many Pride memories, including a night when former Pride pitching coach Rick Wise couldn't lose at the casinos. Wolff thought he had good owners last year for his newest Canadian franchise, but they butchered their business plan and it was clear that the city would have rather seen the former Triple A stadium there demolished so they could sell the land for some $20 million.

Atlantic City? The casinos never wanted the team there in the first place. And when the city and the casinos are your landlord, you're in trouble. The Surf's last owners, led by managing partner Mark Schuster, were already seeking stadium alternatives. But, in this economy, that just wasn't a reality.

What a shame. Fans went to see the games in Ottawa, an average of 2,197, while AC had a superb year at 2,765. Not bad by Can-Am standards. OK, numbers can be manipulated a bit; we're not naive here.

Moral of the story? Twofold. Here, you better appreciate what you have (the Defenders) as an entertainment venue while you still have it. Empty stadiums do no one any good at all.

And, as far as Wolff goes, when he searches for two new venues for 2010, "Maybe the way to go is to first find quality owners and then the city."

Wayne Parry - Press of Atlantic City

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/sports/pro/mlb/phillies/story/443655.html

In a 2006 interview with Casino Connection magazine, Schuster said he was cautioned against buying the struggling team, which had never turned a profit.

"Everybody told me not to buy this team," he told the magazine. "I feel differently. I know there is a lot of work to be done, but this team can be profitable.

"Putting more people in the ballpark is always great, but you can also succeed if the guy who comes out here three or four times a year will come out seven or eight times," he said. "You can make your money on concessions."

Last season, the Surf averaged 2,765 fans per game in a stadium that could hold more than twice that amount.

The team was managed in its final season by Cecil Fielder, the former Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees slugger known as "Big Daddy," but even he failed to draw enough fans to Bernie Robbins Stadium, which was known as The Sandcastle when it first opened.

Former Surf Players Looking for at-bats - http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/126/story/445091.html SUSAN LULGJURAJ

However, the Surf's owners, Ventura Sports Group, announced Monday that next season would never come. Atlantic City ceased operations and shut down.

Now, the players wonder what's going to happen next.

"I wouldn't have signed these guys if I knew this was going to happen," last year's Atlantic City manager Cecil Fielder said. "I am going to try and find something else, and I am going to do what I can to find my kids places to go."

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Fielder wasn't under contract for this season but intended to return to Atlantic City. He was told he would have a contract soon, but on Monday he learned with the rest of the community there would be no more Surf baseball.

Naturally, Fielder was disappointed with the news and the idea of not having a job, but the former Major Leaguer kept thinking about his players.

"What are they going to do now?" he said. "I can get a job. That's not the issue. I have kids that might not be able to get a job."

The players under contract with Atlantic City and Ottawa, which also shut down on Monday, will enter a pool. The roughly 30 players will be available to be selected in a draft on Friday from the remaining six league members. The order is determined based on last year's standings. The team with the worst record picks first.

"They'll be free agents if no one picks them up," Can-Am League commisioner Miles Wolff said. "It's a shame because it's a tough time to be looking for work."

No Team, But Stadium Could Be an Asset - http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/126/story/445057.html

Karin Deveney’s cell phone is ringing again.

The now-former general manager of the Atlantic City Surf baseball team is fielding calls non-stop from people scheduled to rent field time at Bernie Robbins Stadium after word spread that her employer is kaput as of Monday.

“I’m sure you heard it on the news,” Deveney tells her latest caller, sighing when the man on the other end of the phone is oblivious to what is happening. She still has a hint of embarrassment in her voice as she explains again: After 11 seasons, the Surf has ceased operation.

But Deveney, a Northfield resident and lone local in the team’s front office, is not about to see the stadium go dark. Despite new unemployed status, she’s working to get the city to operate the field and maintain it as an acceptable venue.

“The rest of (the team’s management) leaves town and goes home,” Deveney said. “For me, this is my home, and we need this stadium operational.”

Ill-Timed End for Ballclub - http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Sports/timed+ball+club/1449988/story.html

Minor professional baseball in Canada, though it had some great moments, including Babe Ruth's first home run as a pro, has been suffering for years. No one dares prop up what can't stand on its own.

So it was that only days after announcing that Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd would be in an Ottawa Voyageurs uniform this summer, trying to emulate the great Satchel Paige by pitching professionally in his late 40s, the Can-Am Baseball League pulled the plug on Ottawa's franchise, along with the franchise in Atlantic City.

To heck with pretense and the rotten timing, these Independent league owners were not going to carry two clubs that had no ownership, so the Atlantic City issue triggered the axe in Ottawa. Simple as that.

For Ottawa, it means the end -- with a whimper -- of an era that began with enormous goodwill and promise in the spring of 1993, after the city built a lovely Triple-A stadium on Coventry Road and a team called the Lynx joined the International League as an expansion franchise. The new team linked to Ottawa's former life in the IL in the 1950s.

Looking back, Canadian baseball peaked in 1993. The Toronto Blue Jays were in the midst of consecutive World Series, the first titles by any club outside of the United States. A year later, in 1994, the Montreal Expos might have extended Canada's championship string, posting the best record in baseball when the season ended suddenly with a work stoppage.

The game has not been the same in this country since the '94 strike. Yes, the Lynx won a Governors' Cup title in 1995, but already the novelty of pro baseball here was wearing off.

In fact, there was a malaise for anything here not played on ice.

In 1996, the CFL Rough Riders played their last season of football after years of mismanagement. A franchise return under a new name, the Renegades, was shortlived.

Outside the community, Ottawa has taken a verbal beating for being a lousy sports town, and now this independent team death adds to the embarrassment. Only the NHL Senators and junior hockey operations in the region seem immune.