It’s over, done, finito… game over.
Posted by sagsy on October 31, 2007
The dream of a Can-Am League baseball team in the capital seems to have died a quiet death. But did anyone see that Chris Neil wore a funny hat at Senators practice yesterday? Get that on the front page. No one cares about any other sport right?
As noted by the commenters, the Can-Am League sent out a press release today saying it plans to go ahead with eight teams for the 2008 season: Atlantic City Surf, Brockton Rox, Grays (traveling team), Nashua Pride, New Jersey Jackals, Les Capitales de Québec, Sussex Skyhawks and Worcester Tornadoes.
There’s so much inchoate rage bottled up here that it’s best to just leave it at that. Miles Wolff came to down with a damn good idea, a damn good plan for Ottawa’s small-but-loyal core of baseball followers, one that would also help our national program.
Whatever the reason, our civic leaders showed him the back of their hands for reasons that are impossible for a layperson to understand. They had a choice of baseball or litigation, and chose litigation, AKA Lawyerball. How is Carl going to explain it to his 10-year-old son who lives and breathes baseball that the politicians in this city only care about sports when it’s a good photo-op for them? Our mayor has no problem sporting a goofy grin and throwing a football around at Lansdowne Park, but someone with an established baseball track record comes in saying he can make a Can-Am League team work here, and it’s like, oh no, his opinions can’t be valid because he’s not from Ottawa.
This is a great city in many ways, but it’s so blinkered, myopic and provincial that it’s not even funny. For the 1,002nd time, we have enough baseball fans here to make it work. Bringing in the Can-Am League was the most cost-effective, pain-free thing for the city to do… love to hear the spin-doctoring on this!
November 1, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Should we have expected any different? But I can’t, for the life of me, understand why Pecor and Bostwick didn’t do some spin doctoring themselves. Why weren’t they out there telling the citizens of Ottawa that our “esteemed” Councillors at the Corner of Eglin and Laurier, would rather tie up our tax dollars in legal wrangling, rather than allow a viable alternative to step in and carry on a baseball operation?
No ball in 2008 - we can only hope that Pecor carries the lease and squeezes the paper it’s written on (does a contract entered into by our city actually carry any good faith?) with all his might. As the current, legal tenant with two year’s remaining on the lease, I hope they make the city pay for their foolish ways. Go Ray, and sue the pants off us!!
Better yet - to any Americans reading this: would you like to legally adopt a 40 something husband and wife? Consider us as refugees trying to escape the stupidity of a small minded, self centered group of politicos who are so short sighted they can’t even see the end of their noses, let alone beyond them!
Sign me: Sick, Tired and Fed Up!
November 1, 2007 at 1:49 pm
This is indeed very sad. The ineffectiveness of our city council is truly astonishing. The mayor has publicly stated that he is big fan of the CFL and that it’ important to bring the CFL back to Ottawa. I guess if he was a baseball fan, he would have figured out a way to get a Can-am league here.
I had a rather amazing email exchange with one of our city councilors about a month ago. Here’s an example of one of his responses:
“But you want us to write off $2,777,000 so you and a few others can watch baseball?”
When I responded writing off the $2.8 million was less costly than paying the Lynx $10 million if the team wins its case, never mind the lost lease money, and the legal expenses I got this response:
“That would be true if the Lynx case had any merit. It doesn’t. I guess you are not a lawyer”
Well, unfortunately, now we’ll see if the case does have any merit.
Apparently the city isn’t in the business of ensuring that family oriented activities are available for its citizens to enjoy.
November 1, 2007 at 2:10 pm
I was worried a couple months back what kind of reaction I might get when I described Canadians (myself included) as a bunch of sad-sacks with a LOSER mentality who just seem to go out of our ways NOT to PARTICIPATE in life. Well, Wayne, add me to the list of people here that are tired of this wet blanket outlook on life, I wanna be adopted too! Shame on us, I guess, for allowing the country to come to this, an over-regulated haven for red tape and bureaucratic rot. Big, big props must go to Carl, Miles Wolff and others for fighting, despite the odds… thank you guys.
November 1, 2007 at 3:12 pm
This is truly an embarrassment. Having a Can-Am team come to Ottawa made so much sense for so many involved. Yet, now we’re left with an empty stadium.
Just an awful, awful embarrassment. Shame on you, city officials.
November 1, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Just surfed over here from Neate’s site, and as a big football fan, I can tell you that I feel your pain in a big way. I will plead guilty to being a bigger football guy than a baseball guy, but I still very much wanted to see a team in town in 2008, and feel that the city’s sports landscape will be markedly poorer for the absence of pro baseball. Hopefully only 2008 has to be sacrificed to this silly legal dance, and that a team can be established here for ‘09.
I gather that all of this is taking place due to the fact that the Lynx have yet to inform the city of their desire to move, and are unlikely to formally do so until they quite literally throw out the first pitch in their new home. Question — we have heard rumblings that the new stadium in Allentown isn’t quite ready. Is the Lynx ownership doing this so that they have Ottawa as a fallback for next April so they aren’t homeless, or is this more part of the legal dance, trying to put off the lawsuit from the city for as long as possible?
I understand the anger towards the city, but make sure that you save some of that bile for the current Lynx ownership as well. After all, they are the ones slinking out of town without even giving the city or the fans the courtesy of a goodbye letter. This reminds me an awful lot of when the Gliebermans up and left Ottawa — most Renegade fans blamed the CFL for killing the team. For some strange reason many gave somewhat of a free pass to the ownership group who abused the team, failed to market it properly, then left it at the side of the road for dead.
November 1, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Note to readers: I’m the guest blogger, so I’m not sure how much leeway I have to approve comments. If your feedback doesn’t appear, rest assured it will soon enough.
November 1, 2007 at 10:53 pm
This makes us absolutely nauseous. And it makes us sad all over again about the season ender, now fully understanding how close we’re getting to baseball NEVER coming back to town.
Larry O’Brien is a fatuous gasbag who scared the small-minded yokels in Ottawa that voting for Alex Munter would mean huge tax hikes that would be directed to “special interests” (Larry’s exact words…he should have just said “Don’t vote for Gay Boy…he’s gay!”)
We just can’t believe that our dreams of baseball were placed in the hands of people not even competent enough to work in the federal civil service.
November 2, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Again everyone, I’m terribly sorry.
Carl, regardless of this outcome, I still think you did a great job keeping the issues in the public consciousness.
-Bob
November 2, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Bob,
Thanks for the kind words for Mr. Kiiffner….