Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 17, 1993 TAG: 9312170212
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Local historians can recall the most recent out-of-town ownership of the Salem ballclub, by New Yorkers Arthur Hecht and Stanley Walshan. Hecht and Walshan tried to transfer the team, then known as the Redbirds, to Charleston, W.Va., before the Carolina League blocked the move in the mid-1980s.
League owners said they voted against the move because they felt that the Roanoke Valley was a good baseball market.
What if a new owner tried a similar move?
"The conditions have changed," said John Hopkins, the Carolina League's president.
More specifically, Municipal Field has changed. The Bucs' home has gotten older. With the expiration of the Professional Baseball Agreement that governs standards for minor-league facilities coming at the end of the 1994 season, it seems apparent that Municipal Field's days as an approved facility are numbered.
The team's owner, Kelvin Bowles, has not said who he is talking to most seriously among a group of interested buyers. However, according to two sources, that person is Eric Morgenau of New York. Morgenau has interests in several minor-league teams, including the Capital City (Columbia, S.C.) Bombers of the Class A South Atlantic League. Morgenau was a player in the group that sold the Peninsula Pilots (now the Wilmington Blue Rocks) to the group headed by former New York Mets manager Bud Harrelson two years ago.
One source said the sale to Morgenau was a done deal. Bowles said there was no deal, yet.
Morgenau denied being involved in talks with Bowles, but he did not rule out the possibility that he might engage in discussions.
"Everybody who knows me knows I'm interested in new baseball properties," he said.
A new PBA could make things difficult for anybody interested in Salem's baseball property. Certainly, the trend in baseball is toward new parks. In the Carolina League alone, there are new stadiums in Wilmington, Del., and Frederick, Md., a new one going up in Durham, N.C., and expensive renovations are in progress or recently completed in Kinston and Winston-Salem, N.C.
Salem suffers by comparison.
"It's the worst stadium in the league, no question," said a baseball official, who asked to remain anonymous.
"Top to bottom, it's the worst in the league," said another official, who also declined to be identified.
Salem City Council already has voted to set aside $150,000 to renovate Municipal Field. But would that be enough?
"The city has done everything it could do to squeeze everything it can out of that ballpark," Hopkins said. "But long-term, the place just has too many limitations to be the home of a minor-league team."
Bowles has been seeking a commitment from officials in Salem or elsewhere in the Roanoke Valley for a new ballpark. So far, nothing has happened of much substance.
"Sure we've talked about it," said Salem Mayor James Taliaferro. "We talk about a lot of things. That doesn't mean we have the pocketbook to back it up. It would be nice to have a new ballpark, but we need a lot of things here. We have schools that need work on them."
Bowles understands Salem's dilemma.
"The mayor and the city have been more than fair with us," he said. "The mayor has to answer to the voters. He doesn't want to get run out of town because he builds a new ballpark instead of a school."
Bowles has said he is certain that he would do better business if he had a new park, if for no other reason than it would have more than the 5,000 or so seats at Municipal Field. But there's more to consider. Major-league baseball has the power to make a team move from a ballpark that it deems inadequate. It can revoke a franchise if the team does not move.
Further, there is no assurance that the Pittsburgh Pirates, whose player development contract with Salem expires after the 1994 season, would stay at Municipal Field. Pittsburgh has said repeatedly it wants a new park.
Chet Montgomery, the Pirates' farm director, said as recently as Wednesday that if there is no commitment to a new park by the end of the coming season, the organization would have to look at its situation in Salem "very hard."
These are among the considerations Bowles has as he continues negotiations to sell the team. The asking price is believed to be more than $2 million. Many people around baseball say that the market value of minor-league franchises is at a peak, another point for Bowles to ponder.
According to Bowles, there has been no talk that the potential buyer would move the team out of Salem. However, it seems clear that in the absence of a new ballpark, the club's owner may not have a choice.
If Salem can't offer the Bucs a new park, would the valley's other jurisdictions step in to keep the team?
Roanoke City Councilman Mac McCadden said Thursday that he's talked recently to people who live within 25 miles of Roanoke who are interested in buying the Bucs. He said their major concern is the ballpark situation.
If baseball fails in Salem because of the lack of a facility, McCadden has a plan that could bring a team to Roanoke.
"I already have an artist's rendering from HOK Sports of a new ballpark that would go in downtown Roanoke that would serve as a combination baseball, football and track facility," he said. "But I don't think I have the votes [on the city council] to get it done."
HOK Sports of Kansas City, Mo., is the architect of Orioles Park at Camden Yards and other state-of-the-art baseball facilities.
Bowles has been among those who have suggested a cooperative venture among Salem, the city of Roanoke and Roanoke county. There have been no formal discussions on the matter.
"I think everybody would be a winner if we could reach such an agreement," he said. "But I think the [Roanoke] city manager [Bob Herbert], the Salem city manager [Randy Smith] and the county administrator [Elmer Hodge] are always more willing to talk about things like that. But I don't think our elective boards are to that point yet. They're so protective of their own areas that we [the valley's jurisdictions] are always beating up on each other."
by CNB