I’m struggling a bit with how much to recap with respect to today’s meetings given that there are other parties interested in Lynx Stadium - if you follow my meaning.

This much is safe to say:  Anyone interested in seeing baseball in Ottawa owes a huge debt to Miles Wolff.  Mr. Wolff made the trip to Ottawa today to explain his proposal to anyone on council who had the time to listen - and eleven (eleven?  I’ll have to review my notes) took the time.  I can’t say that I’m any more optimistic than I was going in to the meetings, but it was heartening to hear councillor’s opinions and questions.  I have to say that all were respectful and seemed to be genuinely interested in what Mr. Wolff had to say.  The Baseball Canada representatives - Jim Baba and Andre Lachance were gold.  Absolute gold.  Jim pointed out in the meetings that Mr. Wolff, who had been extremely reticent in discussing his own achievements, was recognized as the “guru of Independent baseball” and that council should give his (Wolff’s) opinions a great deal of weight.  The message was: If he thinks baseball can work here, don’t bet against him.  And make no mistake - Mr. Wolff’s message was that the Can Am League wants to be here, it would be “tremendous”.  This would be “Ottawa’s team” - a group of players who would “compete for the community“, not “to get to the big leagues”.

Going forward, people need to contact their City councillors and perhaps even the mayor’s office and urge them to resolve the legal issue with the Lynx.  Mr. Wolff impressed upon them that time is of the essence; he needs to know if he can bring a team here - and he needs to know soon.  Cooler, rational heads need to prevail with respect to the handling of the lawsuit - it wasn’t clear to me if council has heard this before, but they heard it today from Mr. Wolff:  The Lynx will abandon their lawsuit and let the Can Am League take over their lease obligations.  It’s a no-brainer to me.

An absolute no-brainer.

Finally, the other person to whom a huge debt is owed with respect to this effort at City Hall prefers to remain nameless.  A few people know him, and it will all come out in its due time, but without his heavy lifting, today would not have happened.  And no - it wasn’t me.  I was just along for the ride.

More tomorrow.  Read tomorrow’s Citizen and then check back here… please.