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.

“The treatment of the Ottawa Lynx Triple-A franchise would not have been so bad had the city (Ottawa Stadium’s landlord) just ignored the team. But instead, the municipality took actions that doomed the club. And there was no direction to staff for any of this. The only public discussion was that Ottawans wanted a baseball facility that would hold an International League club. That’s all.

More soon, but for now, it’s good to be back!

2007 Lynx alumnus Joe Bisenius, begins the 2009 campaign in Reading.  Joe split 2008 between Lehigh Valley and Reading, appearing in just 43 games.

Another Ottawa pitcher, Brian Mazone appears to have just missed making the Dodgers 25 man roster – and not everyone is happy with that turn of events (WARNING: for those of you not fond of Hannah Montana, you may wish to turn your speakers down.  Or off).

On the brighter side, former battery mates J.A. Happ and catcher Jason Jaramillo have both made their respective MLB squads – Happ with Philadelphia and Jaramillo with the Pirates.  JJ’s promotion over Robinson Diaz was seen as a victory of his defensive ability and game calling talent.  Jaramillo will backup starting catcher Ryan Doumit to start the season, and will be reunited with Former Lynx manager, John Russell.

“I’m so excited,” Jaramillo said. “It was an unbelievable moment when I got called in and they let me know I made the ballclub. There’s a lot of stuff that flashed in my memory.

“It’s been a long road, but I’m ready to get started on this journey now.”

Happ, on the other hand, narrowly missed out on being named the Phillies fifth starter – he lost the final spot in the rotation to Chan Ho Park, and wasn’t entirely pleased about being sent to the ‘pen:

Asked what explanation he was given for the decision, a disappointed Happ paused a moment later in the day, then simply answered, ”He [Park] had a good spring,” before quickly adding, ”I feel like I had a good spring as well.”

”If I can get a job in the bullpen and if I can have some success down there, then I think an opportunity will come where I can get back a starting job,” Happ said.

”If he’s one of the best 12, I think he’d benefit from being up here,” pitching coach Rich Dubee said. ”I think he’s proved himself last year at Triple-A and I think he proved himself somewhat up here. I think the key factor is how much work he gets if he does make our staff.

”He’s not a guy we want to let sit around and not get any work because he’s still in the process of becoming a consistent major league pitcher.”

Finally, blog favorite Joe Thurston has made his way back to the bigs, this time in a St. Louis Cardinals uni.

La Russa declined to go into much detail as to why Barden started over Freese in the opener, but he was more forthcoming about the choice of Thurston. The coaching staff has liked Thurston’s defensive play at third base, and the hope is that his left-handed bat will help against Snell.

Thurston also took the No. 8 spot in the batting order — a spot that evidently will be occupied by Cardinals pitchers less often in 2009. La Russa acknowledged that Thurston fits the profile of the “second leadoff” hitter, but didn’t want to stack left-handed hitters in three consecutive spots — ninth, first and second.

In last night’s game against Pittsburgh, Joe went 2-5 and drove in two runs.

Joe Thurston beats Pirates catcher Ryan Doumit’s tag – April 7.

First off – it doesn’t appear that Jason Jaramillo will be cracking the lineup for the Pittsburgh Pirates.  With an average in Spring Training well below the Mendoza line (around .148 last time I checked), he may have lost the back-up role to Robinson Diaz.

Former Lynx manager, John Russell has some tough decisions to make.

Meanwhile, FLP J.A. Happ is locked in a duel with Chan Ho Park for the fifth spot in Philadelphia’s rotation.  J.A.’s ERA in ST is hovering just above 3 (3.15), while Park is just below at 2.87.  Philly GM, Ruben Amaro Jr. has indicated that either could be used in relief as well.  One wonders if the fact that J.A.’s a southpaw will tip the scales in his favor.

J.A. in Philly red.

Interesting find over on Bobby Valentine’s blog * (Valentine is the manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Japanese Pacific League) -

I’m looking forward to getting to know Gary, who is a very talented artist, as well as a very talented baseball player. He’s from Connecticut yet I had never met him before last year. Gary was a player for the La New Bears last year, a team that we had a working agreement with in Taiwan. He did a fabulous job for them, hitting .323 and slugging .500 and with an almost .400 OBP. Gary can play first base, in the outfield, and of course DH. I’m looking forward to his contributions.

Obviously he’s not the highest-paid player on our team ― he may be the lowest-paid player, or one of them ― but I think his contributions will be very, very large.

He’s the type of player who just wants an opportunity; he’s always fought for everything he’s gotten. He reminds me truly of our fans; who never give up. When they believe in something, they give their all, every minute of the day, and fight to the bitter end. Gary seems to have that same kind of spirit.

As a token of his gratitude to Valentine, Gary arrived in camp with a gift for his new manager -

In his debut with the Marines, Gary hit two doubles in a 9-1 win over the Tohoku Rakuten Eagles.

* unfortunately, Valentine has elected to discontinue his blog.

kanganzhu: Both [Jason] Jaramillo and [Robinzon] Diaz will battle for the backup catcher position. Since both are relatively new to the organization, could you give us your early impressions of both players as they fight for the roster spot?

Russell: Jaramillo comes from us in a trade for Ronny Paulino. We’re excited to have him. I was fortunate enough to work with him when I managed the Phillies in Triple-A. He was my catcher. He’s a student of the game with solid catch and throw skills. He’s a switch-hitter, which is valuable and gives us options.

while others continue to struggle -

The Phillies were humbled by the Pittsburgh Pirates to open pre-season baseball. The Pirates picked up an 8-2 win behind nine pitchers… The loss went to Joe Bisenius (0-1), who was hammered for four earned runs in one inning of work, with the big blast coming in the form of a three-run home run by Shelby Ford.

And from the “has it really been that long since I updated the blog?” department, a long overdue congratulations to Former Lynx catcher and good guy, Dusty Wathan on his promotion to the Lakewood BlueClaws, the Phillies Class A affiliate in the South Atlantic League.

Q: What surprised you the most in your first year as manager?

Dusty Wathan: The only thing that surprised me was what you forget about, what you assume guys know. But you had to teach them. That’s not the way we’re going to do this. This is the way we’re going to do this. Nothing serious, but just the way we do things in the pros.  

And finally on this late February morning (some 40 days removed from Opening Day), I’ve been asked by a few people about the status of the legal issues as between the City and the Ottawa Lynx.  The short answer is that it is ongoing, some two and a half years after it began.  Among other things, this should serve as a cautionary tale for local sports franchises that believe the City will respond quickly and/or reasonably when they’re confronted with a lawsuit. 

But it probably won’t.

Elsewhere, the Chiba Lotte Marines said they have acquired the services of infielders Chase Lambin and Gary Burnham.

Neither player has major league experience but both had tryouts in Lotte’s fall camp last year. Lambin, 29, will make ¥20 million while Burnham, 34, will earn ¥13 million after both tied up one-year deals.

Bobby Valentine’s team also said it has released infielder Jose Ortiz, right-hander Winston Abreu and left-hander Wu Si-yo.

For someone who’s likely never made more than $50,000 in his 11 years in the minor leagues, $13M Yen (roughly $135,000 US) is the gold at the end of the rainbow:

“Guys who have been in the majors for two or three years can earn as much as $60,000 for a five-month season,” the 32-year-old Burnham said. “That’s why it’s not easy to get a free-agent job.”

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, Burnham said.

The Rochester Red Wings, another Triple-A organization, set a cap of $8,000 per month — no matter who you are or how long you’ve been playing.

That would hardly stop a guy looking for work from signing, though. “Unfortunately, beggars can’t be choosers,” Burnham joked. “My definition of rich is being ahead of my bills for two years.”

He even started building his retirement fund two years ago:

“My goal is to make $250,000 by the time I’m 35,” Burnham said.

Certainly this contract, albeit only for one year, should put him well on his way to the $1/4M (for those of you paying attention, he’ll be 35 in October).  Last year in Taiwan, in 7o games Gary put up numbers which were beyond “respectable”:  .323 AVG, .401 OBP, .523 Slugging, .924 OPS – certainly deserving of a shot in Japan’s premier league, if not MiLB.

Congratulations Gary!

Much, much further east than the Coventry Road exit.  It is not surprising given the level of blog inactivity, that our man in the east, Hansioux, hasn’t checked in in a while.  For those of you just joining us, Hansioux is a fellow member of the Gary Burnham fan club – probably the founding member in Taiwan.  Hansioux provided the UOLB with regular updates about Gary’s progress as a member of the La New Bears. 

When we last updated the former Lynx 1B, he wasn’t seeing much in the way of regular playing time.  The good news is that things improved and he began to get in more and more games.  The “East Windup Chronicle” picks up the story as the La New Bears were heading in to the Olympic break:

Gary:  Well, the team let go of Andrew Lorraine go in mid July. I was activated and heard through some people that the team was trying to replace me for a utility guy that can hit. I was like…oh no! I asked my interpreter if they were bringing in someone else and he couldn’t tell me. It was terrible.

 So the team brought in a new player to check him out and see if he could help the club out. Brent Metheny. According to the interviews given by the manager and in the paper the reason to bring in Brent was to strengthen the roster and not to replace me. That made me feel good, but I really didn’t know who to believe.

In the meantime we had 6 games leading up to Olympic break and I have been hitting well. Not that I have been hitting poorly. I’ve been over .300 the entire time and driving in runs, but for the past six games I’ve been mashing the ball and I think my performance helped me stay. So that is where we are now. We’re on a three week break now. This is a huge time frame for me because as of Aug. 13th my tax bracket drops down to 10% and not 20% because I have been working in Taiwan for longer than 6 months. So this is a big victory for me so far.

Reading further in the article, the strain of facing the constant prospect of being cut was beginning to show.  It was nice to see that he hasn’t let his artistic ability go to waste -

Gary: … I’ve been working hard and I have a pretty big following and even bought a scooter and painted it. I call it the FIRE CAT………..the fiercest cat on the streets of Taiwan!!!!!

On Monday, the East Windup reported that Gary has signed with the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Japanese Pacific League.  Incidentally, the Marines are managed by Bobby Valentine who took the Mets to the World Series in 2000.  Knowing very little about baseball in Asia, I’ll still go out on a limb and say the calibre of play is higher in the Japanese Pacific League than in Taiwan; the 12 teams in the Pacific and Central Leagues represent the highest level of baseball in Japan.

Interesting also to note that the article claims that Gary is engaged “to a woman in the States”.  Here’s hoping for another break-out season for Gary in 2009!