Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 13, 1994 TAG: 9409140068
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Buccaneers have had 13 straight losing half-seasons with Pirates players in the Carolina League and Bowles has made no secret that he thinks better teams might mean better business at the turnstiles.
Into the mix has stepped both the Cincinnati Reds and the Colorado Rockies. The Reds may be interested in pulling out of Winston-Salem, N.C., where they have twice fielded playoff teams the past two years. The Rockies want out of Central Valley in the California League because of inadequate facilities.
``The owner down there in Winston-Salem [Don Beaver] indicated to us that he was looking around [for a new affiliation],'' Reds director of player development Chief Bender said. ``Since we've put winning teams in there the last two years and then they say they're looking around, that was distressing to us. We're looking around, too, now.
``With the new stadium in Salem, we definitely have an interest in seeing about being there.''
Rockies management hopes to meet in the middle of this week in Denver to decide what it wants to do with its Class A team.
``We have not yet decided to pull out of Visalia [Cal., Central Valley], yet,'' Rockies director of player development Dick Balderson said. ``I was in Salem, Winston-Salem, and Lynchburg last week since it had been a while since I'd been in those places. I talked to both Kelvin Bowles and [Lynchburg owner] Calvin Falwell. I'm not sure what Kelvin and the Pirates are going to do. They've had a very long relationship and those don't come along all the time.''
It is unclear what interest Bowles has in either the Reds or the Rockies.
``I'm certainly going to give the Pittsburgh Pirates every chance to be here next year,'' he said. ``I plan to talk to [minor league director] Chet Montgomery later this week - I'll fly up there if I have to - and talk to him about my concerns. He's told me to tell him what my concerns are and he'd see what he can do about them.''
``We want to be in Salem,'' Montgomery said Monday. ``We're just going to have to wait and see what Kelvin says.''
Elsewhere, Winston-Salem may have gotten cold feet about bolting from its ties with the Reds.
``From what I've seen, there isn't a whole lot out there [parties interested in moving in],'' Winston-Salem Spirits general manager John Rocco said.
The Winston-Salem explorations may have backfired.
``Winston-Salem called us on Friday and asked if we'd like to come back,'' Bender said. ``That was the first I'd heard of that. We told them we'd get back to them.''
The deadline for signing player development contracts is Sept. 25. PDC's, as they are called, wed major league organizations to the localities where they have their minor league teams.
``We'll know something about what's going to happen here probably by early next week,'' Bowles said.
With the new $5 million Salem Stadium scheduled to be ready by next season, Salem would appear to be an attractive possibility for a major league organization interested in the Carolina League.
Three California League teams - Bakersfield, Central Valley, and High Desert - have had or may have their affiliations severed. Bakersfield is the Los Angeles Dodgers slow Class A team and High Desert has been a so-called co-op team in which players from different organizations are shared.
Bowles said he would never approach another organization that was already in the Carolina League about moving to Salem.
``Because they're already in our league,'' he said. ``I don't want to step on anybody's toes. I wouldn't want to talk to the Cincinnati Reds until I know how Winston-Salem feels about it.''
The Reds are also talking to Lynchburg, where the Boston Red Sox are moving out, Bender said.
``We'll consider anybody who wants to play baseball here,'' Lynchburg's Falwell said.
Falwell said that the Red Sox want into either the South Atlantic League or the Midwest League, two circuits that are on a slower Class A developmental track than the Carolina League. The Red Sox are already in the fast track Florida State League and they don't have the talent to field another team in a similar league such as the Carolina, Falwell said.
``We wish them well wherever they go,'' Falwell said.
Falwell would not say who he had been talking to about moving into Lynchburg.
by CNB