For those of you who’ve not seen it, Friend of the Blog Todd Devlin has written what has to be the definitive word on baseball in Ottawa over at the Canadian Baseball Network. It really doesn’t get any better than this; clearly this exhaustive piece involved a considerable amount of research and a significant investment of Todd’s time. No stone has been left unturned as Todd chronicles the entire history of Lynx Stadium, all the way from 1989 when it was just a gleam in the late Howard Darwin’s eye, to its present day vacancy.
The article should serve as a good history lesson for members of City Council who may have forgotten some of the facts surrounding the demise of the Lynx, their shoddy treatment of the team’s second owner (Ray Pecor) and their collective culpability in driving AAA baseball out of Ottawa -
Following the 2000 season, in which the Lynx drew a franchise-worst 2,339 fans per game, Darwin sold the team for $7 million — and handed over his field of dreams — to Vermont businessman Ray Pecor, who also owned the class-A Vermont Expos.
Pecor put his young Vermont general manager, Kyle Bostwick, in charge of the triple-A franchise, and provided him with a full front-office team. In a lot of ways, it was a fresh start for an organization that had, in just five years, become a shadow of its former self.
“We were very, very excited to take over and to do some great things,” said Bostwick, who remained the team’s GM until the end. “And (JetForm) was just a beautiful facility. It was a wonderful representation of baseball in Canada.”
The new ownership ramped up marketing efforts and got the message out that, indeed, Ottawa’s baseball stadium was not only still open for business, but it was still showcasing some of the best baseball in the country on a nightly basis. The new front-office team also provided Lynx fans with an enhanced experience at the ballpark, including in-game promotions and activities throughout the stadium, something that had been lacking in the past.
“We were asking people to give us a second chance,” Bostwick said. “For the most part, the fans responded.”
They certainly did in the beginning. For the first time in franchise history, attendance increased at Lynx games in 2001, up nearly 26%.
“There was new excitement and buzz,” Bostwick said. “The trend was definitely there.”
Quite honestly, this was a chapter that I’d forgotten as well, and I suspect that I’m not alone. Ever since the Lynx left, the commonly preached story was that the decline in attendance (and interest in baseball in general) began after the first baseball strike and was steady. Clearly, not so. Unfortunately, we’ve heard this account so often that it has been accepted as dogma and, in my view, continues to cloud the reasoning of decision makers with respect to the legal issues surrounding the Lynx.
This is but one chapter in Todd’s comprehensive telling of the story. I commend all of it to you.
A link to Todd’s ongoing work – The 500 Level, appears on this blog’s Friends of the Lynx blogroll. Thanks to Todd Devlin for sending along the article.
