PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL HAS REACHED THE MID-WAY POINT OF THE SEASON.
ON TUESDAY MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL IS SCHEDULED TO HOLD ITS ANNUAL ALL STAR GAME.
AND THE RED SOX ARE TRAILING THE FIRST PLACE NEW YORK YANKEES.
THE MANCHESTER FISHERCATS ARE ALSO IN SECOND PLACE.
AND TEAM OFFICIALS ARE PLEASED WITH THE BIG CROWDS COMING TO THE BALLPARK.
NEW HAMPSHIRE PUBLIC RADIO'S SPORTS CORRESPONDENT JIM JEANNOTTE REPORTS ON WHAT EFFECT THE STATE'S NEWEST MINOR LEAGUE TEAM, THE FISHER CATS, ARE HAVING ON THE LOCAL COMPETITION.
(Nat Sound)
# 16 (8 sec) “Now batting for the Fisher Cats, number 9, John Ford Griffin.”
MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, WITH AN AFFILIATION TO A MAJOR LEAGUE TEAM, RETURNED TO NEW HAMPSHIRE last spring FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OVER 30 YEARS.
THE NEW HAMPSHIRE FISHER CATS, AN AFFILIATE OF THE TORONTO BLUE JAYS, plays ITS EASTERN LEAGUE HOME GAMES AT A NEWLY-RENOVATED GILL STADIUM IN MANCHESTER.
A FOUR MILLION DOLLAR RENOVATION project UPDATED GILL’S PLAYING SURFACES, CONCESSION STANDS, GRANDSTANDS, CONCOURSE AND TWO LOCKER ROOMS.
Except for the name and location, this is not the same stadium the Manchester Yankees called home back in the early 1970s.
BOB DIX, A VETERAN CARTOONIST FOR THE UNION LEADER NEWSPAPER, WAS A SCORER FOR THE YANKEES GAMES.
Bob Dix
#49 (12 sec) One of the things I remember is the old park, the old Gill Stadium which had a lot of problems. The old benches. You’d sit on the benches, no backs.”
Another difference says Dix, are the attendance numbers.
Bob Dix
#47 (9 sec) “The crowds is a big thing. When the Manchester Yankees were here, you’d be lucky to get 200 people or 225 people in here.”
Bringing in fans is not problem for the Fisher Cats.
AFTER A COLD APRIL AND MAY, FANS ARE FLOCKING TO THE 91-YEAR OLD STADIUM.
SHAWN SMITH, THE CATS GENERAL MANAGER, SAYS HIS TEAM HAD A GOAL of OVER 200,000 NEW HAMPSHIRE BASEBALL FANS PASSING THROUGH THE TURNSTYLES THIS SEASON.
Shawn Smith
#26 (16 sec) Yeah, we set an organizational goal of selling a thousand season tickets. We sold 12-hundred. We set an organizational goal of selling 220,000 tickets on a season. Right now we’re just under 183. We have over 30 home games left for the year, and this is fortunately the warm weather months. The kids are out of school.”
EASTERN LEAGUE STATISTICS SHOW THE FISHER CATS AVERAGING 2,863 FANS PER home GAME.
HOWEVER, DURING THEIR LAST HOME STAND AN AVERAGE OF ---- ATTENDED EACH GAME.
THAT INCLUDED THREE SELLOUTS IN THE 4,250 SEAT STADIUM.
Before the Cats came to Manchester, baseball fans wondered if the state could handle two minor league teams.
Down the road in Nashua, THE PRIDE, FEATURING FORMER MAJOR LEAGUERS ON THEIR ROSTER, PLAYS IN THE INDEPENDENT ATLANTIC LEAGUE.
But ACCORDING TO PRIDE GENERAL MANAGER TODD MARLIN, THE FISHER CATS SURPRISINGLY HAVE NOT HURT THE ATTENDANCE AT HOLMAN STADIUM.
Todd Marlin
#58 (12 sec) “We haven’t really seen much effect at all, to be honest with you. Our attendance numbers are up this year. Because the Fisher Cats have come in and developed even more interest in minor league baseball, I don’t know.”
MARLIN SAYS THE PRIDE’S ATTENDANCE IS UP APPROXIMATELY 100 PER GAME, A GROWTH OF NEARLY 3,000 SO FAR THIS SEASON.
Pride ATTENDANCE IS AVERAGING ABOUT 1,700 PER GAME.
FANS ARE ATTRACTED TO THE PRIDE, ACCORDING TO MARLIN, BECAUSE ITS PLAYED AT WHAT HE FEELS IS A HIGHER LEVEL OF COMPETITION.
Todd Marlin
# 60 (10 sec) “The Atlantic League is pretty much Triple A baseball. I would put our guys against any Triple A League in the country. We’ve already lost two guys who have gone on to Triple A.”
BUTT/BYTE
#62 ( 7 sec) “ There’s been close to 25 to 30 guys signed outside of this league already this year that have gone back to organized ball.”
However up Route 93 in Concord, the Quarry Dogs are telling a different story.
They are part of the New England Collegiate Baseball league and as CURTIS BARRY, the team's GM, tells it, CROWDS AT CONCORD’S MEMORIAL FIELD HAVE DROPPED DRAMATICALLY.
Curtis Barry
#53 (16 sec) “What we’ve experienced in the spring and since the season began is roughly a 30 percent drop in our season’s ticket sales, paid season’s tickets, and roughly the same percentage in our single game attendance beyond the season tickets.”
THE QUARRY DOGS HAVE BEEN AVERAGING ABOUT 900 FANS PER GAME, DOWN FROM 12-HUNDRED A YEAR AGO AND 14-HUNDRED FOUR YEARS AGO.
BARRY SAYS FINANCIALLY, THE NON-PROFIT QUARRY DOGS COULD PROBABLY SURVIVE THE COMPETITION FROM THE FISHER CATS.
THE REAL PROBLEM FOR THE TEAM IS THE NUMBER OF VOLUNTEERS RUNNING THE PROGRAM HAS DWINDLED.
BARRY SAYS the effect has been dramatic.
AND if it continues THE QUARRY DOGS might be forced to leave THE COLLEGIATE WOODEN BAT LEAGUE.
Curtis Barry
#55 (? Sec) “We all do this as a volunteer effort, so we don’t have deep pockets to fund the team if we take a significant loss. We’re not also in it to make a huge profit. It’s not a business for us. It’s a labor of love. So, if the interest is not there on the part of the community to continue, we would recognize that.”
Back in Manchester, The Fisher Cats are looking forward to their new stadium, part of A 100-MILLION DOLLAR DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT PROJECT.
GENERAL MANAGER SHAWN SMITH brags that it will be the best baseball stadium in New Hampshire (can we say that)
Shawn Smith
#34 (20 sec) “It’ll hold 6,500 fans. 32 suites which we have a waiting list of 84 people for the 32 suites, which is exciting. Our home clubhouse will be 6,400 square feet, a palace of a club house. It’ll be a natural grass surface as opposed to the artificial surface we have at Gill.”
That construction should be completed by _______.
In the meantime, whether you're a fan of the FISHER CATS, THE PRIDE or THE QUARRY DOGS, America's passtime is alive and well in New Hampshire.
And to see a good game, you don't have to fight your way through traffic to pay the high prices at Fenway.
ALL the local teams have AFFORDABLE TICKET PRICES, AND FAN-FRIENDLY BETWEEN INNINGS GIVEAWAYS…
(Nat Sound)
#44 (11 sec) “Remember everybody, the next time you come out to a Fisher Cats game, make sure you wear the Fisher Cats hats, jerseys and you can become the next Coca Cola Fisher Cats Fan Phenom.”
FOR NHPR NEWS, I’M JEANNOTTE REPORTING.
