People, look East(ern)
Well, as I wrote my last entry, the situation changed pretty drastically. According to Ballpark Digest, Richmond is in line for an Eastern League franchise after all, and will replace the Connecticut Defenders (a San Francisco Giants affiliate, though that contract expires at the end of this year) in the league lineup.
Whether they get the actual Connecticut franchise appears open: minor league entrepreneur Ken Young has requested to move his Bowie (MD) Baysox franchise to Richmond, and then have the Connecticut franchise replace him in Maryland. Young owns four minor league baseball franchises: the AAA Albuquerque Isotopes (PCL) and Norfolk Tides (IL), the aforementioned Baysox, and the High-A Frederick Keys (CL). All but Albuquerque are affiliated with the Baltimore Orioles — in fact, Young abandoned a nearly forty-year relationship between Norfolk and the Mets after the 2006 season to secure the O’s affiliation for the Tides. Bowie holds the Orioles’ AA contract through 2010; whether the Orioles would balk at having their players pulled an extra two hours away from Baltimore is unknown, as is whether Bowie fans would support the new, O’s-less Baysox, since the affiliation has been a cornerstone of their marketing with the ballpark located twenty miles from Camden Yards.
Given these complications and Minor League Baseball’s stated preference for local ownership, the most straightforward approach would seem to be to ignore Young and sell the Defenders to a Richmond group. This, though, is complicated by the California-Carolina franchise transfer I mentioned in the last article. Without Richmond in play, one of the CL franchises instead appears ticketed for War Memorial Stadium in Hampton — a location I had ignored due to its presence within Norfolk’s exclusive territory. Allowing Young to take the Richmond market could compensate him for the Peninsula Pilots’ re-introduction to the CL.
I’m pretty unhappy with this. Travel and rivalries are awkward for Richmond in the Eastern League, and as a Nationals fan, I despise allowing the Orioles another entry into Virginia. That said, Young’s franchises are well-run, and my stadium experiences in Frederick and Bowie were both enjoyable when I visited in early 2007; if anybody can revive Richmond as a minor-league market, he can.
As for Charlottesville/Waynesboro? Like the second CaL-to-CL franchise, we’re still up in the air.
28 August 2008 / 0 Comments / Tags: baseball