Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Sports columnist Aaron McFarling: Baseball in valley just got better
Aaron McFarling
Recent columns
On an unseasonably warm December day at Salem Memorial Baseball Stadium, good news dropped in like a cloud-skimming pop-up to center. Let's just tap the glove twice, snag it and smile.
The Boston Red Sox bought the Avalanche.
OK, so technically it was Fenway Sports Group that bought the Avalanche, and Fenway Sports Group is owned by New England Sports Ventures, which owns a bunch of stuff, including the Red Sox. You've simply got to love corporate structure. They even handed out a helpful little "family tree" flier at Monday's press conference explaining this important distinction.
Whatever. It's the Sawx. As in Big Papi and Manny Ramirez and Jonathan Papelbon. As in the Green Monster and Yawkey Way and Yaz and Teddy Ballgame and Buckner and Boggs. As in curses perpetuated and curses broken.
The Sawx.
Around here, that means the minors just got a major boost.
And it's not like the Avalanche even needed one. For years, they've been the flower blooming among the Roanoke Valley's sporting weeds, a well-run franchise with smart people in charge. While other pro franchises in the area (Dazzle, Vipers, Express, Steam, and probably a dozen more we're forgetting) struggled to lure fans and eventually drowned in red ink, the Avs flourished. This past season, they drew 258,469 fans, breaking their attendance record for the second time in three years.
Why? Because they provide a good product, win or lose. The stadium, now 12 years old, is well-maintained and fan-friendly. The ticket prices are reasonable. The concessions are varied and good.
Just as importantly, the game-day experience strikes the right balance. Those who want mascots and Sumo fights get them, but not so many that the baseball purist thinks he's made a wrong turn and accidentally found the circus. There are goofy sound effects on the loud speaker, but not after every pitch. On a level where baseball and entertainment must share the stage, few blend them better than the Avalanche.
Which is why the new owners would be wise to change very little at first, and they're smart enough businesspeople to understand that. On an operations level, nothing's really broken here. But what has been missing is exactly the thing the Red Sox can provide: An increased interest in the players themselves.
It won't happen right away. The Avs still have a year left on their contract with the Houston Astros, so the affiliation change won't happen until 2009. But when it does, fans will have yet another reason to come to the park.
Red Sox fans, like Yankees fans, are everywhere -- including this area. But even those baseball fans who don't like the Red Sox at least know their players. Nothing against the Houston Astros or Colorado Rockies, but how many of their regular-season games do we see on television around here? A half-dozen, maybe?
And that's why guys such as Hunter Pence and Brad Hawpe -- two former Salem stars now emerging for Houston and Colorado, respectively -- don't feel as connected to us as they should. We watch them play here, and then they disappear for three or four years, perhaps resurfacing in the second game of a Wednesday night doubleheader on ESPN2.
If someone in the Sox system makes the show, we'll know him. And we'll never stop hearing about him, for better or worse.
Monday felt like a baseball day. A strange tropical breeze swept through the valley. The stands in Salem were empty, but the field looked neat and ready. Up in the skybox, the Red Sox folks made their announcement, and you got the feeling that winter might be shorter this year.
Snag it and smile. A good thing just got a little better.
