ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 1996 TAG: 9607220044
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-9 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: BASEBALL
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR.
Roanoke is in the market for major-league baseball, so to speak.
A North Carolina group trying to land a big-league team for the Piedmont Triad region is including Roanoke in its market area and soon will be seeking support from local business leaders.
Michael Solomon, executive director for North Carolina Baseball, met with Roanoke Chamber of Commerce head John Stroud and Councilman Mac McCadden on Thursday to discuss the support Roanoke could lend to the group's effort to attract an expansion franchise or lure an existing team to the Greensboro/Winston-Salem area, approximately 90 miles from Roanoke.
Roanoke won't be a major player in the efforts, but at least it's in the ballpark. That's what the North Carolina group wants - Roanokers in the ballpark.
``We consider this a reality check,'' Solomon said of last week's meeting. ``We have to go out and see if the support is out there for major-league baseball. Part of the market that is critical for us is in Southern Virginia.''
Solomon, a Danville native and Virginia Tech graduate, also has met with leaders from his hometown and from Lynchburg. He plans to meet with Martinsville leaders soon before making a return trip to Roanoke.
What would be required of Roanoke is unclear at this point. Basically, Solomon is just trying to spread the word with these meetings. Most of the Virginia baseball attention has been focused on similar attempts to land an existing or expansion franchise for Northern Virginia.
``Right now, we just want to create favorable talk in the community,'' Solomon said. ``In the future, we'd like to make season-ticket sales'' in Virginia.
The North Carolina group also may enlist corporate help to build a $200 million stadium mostly with private funding.
Considered a long shot when it got off the ground a year ago, the North Carolina big-league effort has gained momentum lately, although there still is a long way to go before the majors come to Carolina. The committee made a presentation to baseball's acting commissioner, Bud Selig, during All-Star week in Philadelphia. It was a presentation Selig deemed ``excellent,'' Solomon said.
Major-league baseball, which is adding expansion franchises in Phoenix and Tampa, Fla., in 1998, may expand again within five years. Charlotte, N.C., has been considered an expansion possibility, but with the NFL's Carolina Panthers moving into a new stadium this season and the NBA's Charlotte Hornets seeking a new arena in the near future, big-league baseball may not be a priority there.
According to figures used by North Carolina Baseball, Roanoke falls into a 100-mile radius of the Triad that comprises nearly 6.5 million people. The committee also states the television market for its region would be seventh largest in the country and that more than 8 million people live within two hours of the Triad.
``If our citizens are driving to Baltimore to see the Orioles or to Atlanta to see the Braves, I think they'd be more than happy to drive to Greensboro to see major-league baseball,'' McCadden said.
DOG DAYS FOR BEAGLE: Roanoke native Chad Beagle suffered a season-ending and potentially career-threatening injury in June while pitching in the New York-Penn League.
The former Cave Spring High School pitcher tore his right pectoral muscle less than one inning into his first start for the Utica (N.Y.) Blue Sox, a rookie league farm club of the Florida Marlins. It is believed Beagle may have first hurt the muscle that connects the chest and shoulder while lifting weights, then exacerbated the injury when he tried to pitch.
Beagle's father, Wally, said his son is mulling several possibilities, including retiring from baseball. He may try to rehabilitate the injury and attempt a comeback next season or he may return to college to complete his degree.
Beagle, 25, was out of baseball for two years after pitching Cave Spring to the Group AAA final in 1989. After enrolling at a Maryland junior college, Beagle transferred to South Carolina-Aiken, where he led NCAA Division II pitchers with 12.1 strikeouts per nine innings in 1995.
SPLENDID PENDERGRASS: The Danville Braves lead the Appalachian League's East Division, they're averaging a league-high 2,300 fans per game and they feature the league's hottest player in Tyrone Pendergrass, a guy the Atlanta Braves discovered at a tryout camp last year.
Pendergrass, 19, is the nephew of R&B singer Teddy Pendergrass. The younger Pendergrass led the circuit in batting (.429), runs (27), stolen bases (18) and triples (four) through Thursday and was named the league's player of the month for June.
The switch-hitting center fielder was a high school teammate of former Danville pitcher Jacob Shumate in Hartsville, S.C., and he can thank Shumate for helping his pro career get off the ground.
When the Braves selected Shumate in the first round of the 1994 amateur draft, they essentially got two players with one pick, for it was Shumate who told the Braves his high school buddy was worth a look. Pendergrass was not drafted out of high school, but he impressed scout Junior Vizcaino at a tryout camp (where he ran the 60-yard dash in 6.3 seconds) and was signed as a free agent.
Pendergrass hadn't played in a year and batted .181 in the Gulf Coast League in 1995. With a season of pro ball under his belt, he has become one of the biggest surprises in the Braves' organization.
APPY DAZE: Martinsville never has had a winning record since becoming an affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1988, a tradition that should continue this year. Heading into the weekend, Martinsville was hugging the bottom of the Appalachian League's East Division with a 6-18 record and was leading the nine-team circuit in the number of league-worsts achieved by one team.
It wasn't just that the Phillies had the fewest victories in the loop through Thursday, they had the worst team batting average (.222) and next-to-worst ERA (6.01). They had the fewest hits (178), had scored the fewest runs (103) and had hit the fewest home runs (seven). ...
Schedule-makers will tell you balancing a schedule in a league of odd-numbered teams - a predicament the Appy League has been in since losing the Huntington franchise and dropping to nine teams - is like hitting a Troy Percival fastball with one arm in a sling. Quirky schedules are the norm this year throughout the league, with teams playing mostly two-game series, getting more off days per week and playing some bizarre doubleheaders.
For example, Princeton played a day-night doubleheader Friday against two teams. After facing Bluefield in a day game, the Reds entertained Danville that night.
LENGTH: Long : 117 linesby CNB