PITTSBURG — After a one-year absence, pro baseball is back on deck this summer at City Park.
The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a licensing agreement to field a new baseball team, playing in the multi-state Pecos League.
The council approved a one-year contract with Pecos that calls for the team to play 25 home games at City Park, with the season running from June to August. The first game has been set for June. 2.
The team will compete in the Pacific Division, which also includes the Monterey Amberjacks, Bakersfield Train Robbers, Wasco Reserve, Atascadero 101s, the Tucson Saguaros and a yet-to-be named Martinez team.
The Pittsburg team will tentatively be called “The Anchors.”
Pecos Commissioner and owner Andrew Dunn was on hand for questions, but the council approved the league agreement on the consent calendar with no discussion.
“We’re glad to be here,” Dunn later said. “And, we’re looking forward to the season.”
Under the agreement, Pecos will compensate the city $400 per game, including field prep work paid up front monthly. It is expected to generate revenue of $10,000 for its first season.
In late December, The Pecos League also nailed an agreement with the city of Martinez to play ball there, replacing the now-defunct Clippers.
Pittsburg got into the baseball business a few years earlier after the city renovated a field in City Park to attract a minor league team in 2014. Since then, the city has had two teams with the Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs League call Pittsburg their home: Pittsburg Mettle (2014) and the Pittsburg Diamonds (2015-2018).
Over the years, the Pacific Association made headlines with several three-game appearances by former Oakland A’s slugger Jose Canseco. It also signed baseball’s first openly gay player, Sean Conroy, and in 2017 Stacy Piagno became just the third woman to win a pro baseball game since the 1950s, when she pitched for the Stompers.
But trouble grew in 2018 when the FBI raided the Martinez Clippers owners’ home and Benicia business, DC Solar, later accusing them of diverting investment money for luxury items. Then the owners of The Diamonds, Wolfgang Croskey and Khurram Shah, threw in the towel.
Croskey said they were struggling to find investors and sponsorship and losing money.
“There just was not enough money in the community to support it,” he said after the meeting. “There’s a lot of hand stretched out from different nonprofits trying to get sponsorships, so it dilutes the pool.”
Croskey said he had never expected The Diamonds to be a moneymaker, but it did not support itself either. The incoming Pecos League, he said, is set up differently.
“We paid the players, their players pay to play,” he said. “I truly wish them luck. It has great potential, but I am hoping they have a secret sauce that we couldn’t think of.”
In existence since 2011, the Pecos League has grown from six to 12 teams from California, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas and Texas.
“It (Pecos) is an established league,” Croskey said. “It provides good baseball.”
Nate Gartrell contributed to this report.
"ball" - Google News
February 04, 2020 at 10:00PM
https://ift.tt/3bdpyDu
Pittsburg says ‘let’s play ball’ to new professional team - East Bay Times
"ball" - Google News
https://ift.tt/39CKzGV
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
No comments:
Post a Comment