Dickie Kerr Statue Now at Constellation Field

Dickie Kerr Statue over the shoulders of Tom Kennedy, Curator & Historian; Rodney Finger, BB History Sponsor; & former Houston Buff Larry Miggins.

Most people achieve fame for the things they do. Some people, however, also achieve fame for the things they don’t do. Little Dickie Kerr, the 5’7″ rookie left hander for the 1919 Chicago White Sox, did it both ways. He posted a 13-7, 2.88 ERA record as a first year starter for the 1919 American League Champion White Sox. Then he followed that up by winning both his starts in the World Series against the eventual champions, the Cincinnati Reds. What he didn’t do was follow the lead of his eight teammates, including fellow pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams, who went out there and made sure their own club lost the World Series by fixing the outcome of key plays in favor of the Reds.

Dickie Kerr didn’t even know that the fix was on. He was raised to play the game right and to always give winning his best effort. As the years went by, and the stench of the fix began to dissipate, the heroic role of Dickie Kerr became clearer and clearer to the baseball public. It isn’t often that rookies even reach a World Series in their first year, let alone get to pitch and then win two games against the almost impossible odds of beating the other club, plus the undermining efforts of eight men from your own team also working against you.

Dickie Kerr

Regardless of how innocent or guilty some of the eight “Black Sox” players may have actually been individually from the view of today’s differential evidence against each banned player, Kerr still won an uphill battle against the odds to have taken two wins in a Series that his club was destined to lose.

Kerr would post a 21-9, 3.37 record with essentially the same rostered club in 1920, but after that last intact roster season, the permanent suspension of the eight White Sox offenders by the new Commissioner of Baseball. Kenesaw Mountain Landis, would gut the club and drop the Pale Hose to a seventh place finish in 1921. Kerr would go 19-17 with a 4.72 ERA for the 1921 season, giving up league-leading totals of 357 hits and 162 earned runs.

Ironically, Dickie Kerr would find himself temporarily banned from organized baseball for violating the reserve clause in 1922. His offense? He signed to play independent baseball rather than remain bound to contract by the cheapskate owner Charlie Comiskey, a problem that led to fouler reactions by his earlier eight lost teammates when confronted by their inability to get paid what they each apparently felt they were worth.

The difference here is large. Kerr didn’t cheat. He just quit organized ball. He did try a brief comeback with the White Sox in 1925 at the age of 31, but he gave it all up after 12 games and a 0-1 record. From there on, Dickie Kerr earned his modest life keep as a coach and minor league manager. The book on his MLB pitching record closed at 54-34, with a 3.84 ERA.

In 1927, Dickie Kerr was attracted to Houston by the opportunity to coach baseball at what was then known as Rice Institute, now Rice University. The St. Louis native loved Houston even though he had not played any of his minor league ball here. It was still a Cardinals town because of the minor league Buffs and Dickie had a lot of baseball friends who also lived in the general area.

Stan Musial

A few years later, Dickie Kerr served as manager for the Cardinals’ Class D club at Daytona Beach, Florida when he acquired a young lefty pitching prospect named Stan Musial from Donora, PA. The kid was only 19, but he had posted a couple of stats from 1939 that must have jumped off the page at Kerr as the now wily old manager looked over his new talent.

The “kid” had posted a 9-2, 4.30 ERA pitching record at Williamson in 1939, but he also had batted .352 in 75 times at bat for Williamson that same season. If those two facts did not evoke a mild “hmmm, what have we here?” muttering from Kerr right away, I would be greatly surprised.

As 1940 turns out, the kid pitcher goes 18-5 with a 2.62 ERA in his work for Kerr, but he also bats .311 in 405 times at bat in the field. An injury to his left arm made his bat much more available to the club as an outfielder. By season’s end, the young man is a little perplexed about his baseball future. He and his young wife have also grown quite close to Mr. and Mrs. Dickie Kerr.

The Kerrs invited the Musials to spend the winter with them. During this time, Kerr convinced Stan Musial that his prospects for the future were as a hitter, not a pitcher. During this time also, the Musials gave birth to their oldest born son, with Dickie Kerr leading the hospital entourage on a mad drive to the delivery room. The Musials named their eldest boy Richard, in honor of Dickie Kerr.

The rest is history. Musial’s future as one of the greatest hitters in baseball history was off and running and he was in the big leagues to stay by 1941.

The great ones never forget where they came from. In 1958, Dickie Kerr was living modestly in Houston when San Musial swooped down upon him and made him a present of a brand new home. To do the deal, Musial used a great percentage of his 1958 baseball salary. Dickie Kerr lived there until his death on May 4, 1963.

This week, the Dickie Kerr Statue that once graced the grounds at the Astrodome and then impressed all visitors to the Houston Sports Museum at the former site of Finger Furniture and Buff Stadium on the Gulf Freeway is returning to public view on the grounds outside the gate at Constellation Field, home of the Sugar Land Skeeters.

Mr. Kerr

Thanks to their healthy respect and appreciation for the rich baseball history of our community, going way back into the 19th century, the Skeeters are now working with Mr. Rodney Finger of the Finger family and their longtime curator, Tom Kennedy, to make some precious historic items and artifacts available for public view over time, in and around the new pioneering base of minor league baseball in Houston that Constellation Field in Sugar Land has the chance of now becoming. With deep baseball commitment people like Tal Smith of the Skeeters behind the project, the Kerr statue almost takes on the beacon role of Lady Liberty, calling out our attention to the memory and honor of a great Houstonian named Dickie Kerr – and a lot of other Houston-rich baseball treasures to soon come our way too via all that positive energy that now brews baseball in Sugar Land.

Check out the Dickie Kerr Statue at Constellation Field very soon – and stay tuned for further news and details.

SABR NIGHT IN SUGAR LAND HITS SWEET SPOT

On Saturday, June 9, 2012, our Larry Dierker SABR Chapter headed for Constellation Field in SUgar Land for a meeting prior to the 7:05 PM game between the home town Skeeters and the Somerset Patriots from some town back east. About 5:00 PM, the rare threat of rain threatened to make a wash of things.

By the time the 5:30 PM started, we were all safely inside our own suite as SABR Chapter leader Bob Dorrill extended our appreciation to the Skeeters and got the meeting underway. About 34 members were in attendance. Another 16 came late, but got there in time to join us for the game.

Former President of the Houston Astros and current special advisor to the Sugar Land Skeeters Tal Smith spoke first on the attractions and opportunities of baseball at the independent league baseball level and he also talked frankly of the challenges of putting together a winning team when a club’s best players can be taken by any of the major league clubs at any time. Tal also expressed his respect and appreciation for the role that SABR plays in both the analysis and historical preservation of the game.

Deacon Jones of the Skeeters also spoke of the ball club’s aims and offered his own appreciation to SABR for the help members have given him on the history of baseball in the Sugar Land area. As per usual, “The Deac” was his gracious and kind self in his praise for for the work of others. The whole truth is, nobody works harder than Deacon Jones and makes it look easier.

Sugar Land Skeeters President Matt O’Brien took us on an in-depth ride down the history of the Atlantic League baseball program and explained in great detail the “ins-and-outs” of matters like player acquisition and the organization’s goals as a member of the local baseball community in helping spread and cultivate a love of the game among families and young people. In so many words, O’Brien made it clear that the Skeeters were not here to compete with the Astros, but to augment interest in baseball through their own cultivation of new fans in the suburban hinterlands. “There is room for more than one full house of baseball fans in the Greater Houston Area” was his basic contention. He also expressed a willingness to work with the Astros in any way that benefitted their shared aims, but he recognizes that the Astros have to make their own decision on the desirability of that kind of collective effort.

SABR members lapped up the opportunity for information and questions about baseball at the independent league level. – Who else was there? – “Round up the usual suspects.”

Mike McCroskey and Harold Jones were there. …

… and Tom Kleinworth …

… and Bob Stevens …

… and Betty Holland, Phil Holland, and Marsha Hamby ….

… and Stan “The Man Curtis and Joe “The Historian” Thompson ….

…. and Jo Russell was there in time to ask Skeeters Prexy O’Brien if his club had any interest in pursuing an exonerated Roger Clemens for a spot in the team’s starting rotation. Jo got a tempered affirmative answer that felt more like “and if Babe Ruth ever comes back from the dead, we’d love to sign him too” as it flowed  hard and clear from the longing soul of Matt O’Brien. ….

… and Bill “Your Humble Scribe/photographer” McCurdy and so many more I could not capture in digital-land today. In the end, a good time was had by all who allowed the joy of baseball to happen – and in spite of the fact that the Sugar Land Skeeters lost tonight to the Somerset Patriots by a score of 4-1.

Constellation Field, Sugar Land, Texas, June 9, 2012.

On a starry, starry night,

On a field not far away,

The Sugar Land Skeeters

Are our new Game of the Day.

 

Roll back the baseball clock, my friend,

To a field on Highway 6,

Joy finds the forever sweet spot,

Way out in the Sugar Land mix.

Skeeters Sketch: May 4, 2012

FIRST OF ALL. DON’T FORGET TO COME WATCH THE HOUSTON BABIES PLAY VINTAGE BASE BALL AT THE KATY HERITAGE FESTIVAL THIS SATURDAY, MAY 5TH, STARTING AT 10:00 AM! GOOGLE THE KATY HERITAGE FESTIVAL FOR DIRECTIONS AND FURTHER INFO. – (Official Houston Babies Sketch by Patrick Lopez)

 

The Sugar Land Skeeters (3-4) took the old DDT blast in Waldorf, Maryland Thursday night, dropping their third straight road game to the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs (5-2) at Regency Furniture Stadium. The final score in this one was 9-5, also marking down the fact that the local little stingers got stung themselves with an all-games-three-times-loss on the their first rattle-out-of-the-box road trip in history.Bobby Livingston (0-0) started his second game for Sugar Land, again avoiding a decision in his four and a third innings of work. Heath Phillips (0-1) relieved Livingston in the fourth and drew the black bean. Before the fun was done, Houstonians Trey Rackel and Sean Morgan also made brief spots on the mound. Trailing 5-0 in the top of the six, Sugar Land rallied. With two on and one out, Skeeters big first baseman Jason Botts, batting left, caught a hanging slider and bopped it the opposite way for a three-run home run to bring the Skeeters close at 5-3. After the bases loaded on a walk, third baseman Jimmy Van Ostrand hit a sacrifice fly ball out to left field, scoring Josh Pressley from third to cut the lead down to one, 5-4. The Blue Crabs intentionally walked left fielder Ben Harrison to load the bases again for Skeeters shortstop Deybis Benitez. Without a hit in the series to that point, Benitez then pasted a clutch single up the middle, scoring Drew Locke from third to tie the game, 5-5. Feast reverted to famine for the Skeeters in the bottom of the sixth. A leadoff triple by Blue Crabs left fielder Brian Barton was followed by a crisp double from right fielder Richard Giannotti. That scored the go-ahead run to put the home team back in the lead, 6-5. The Blue Crabs added three more runs in the bottom of the seventh, just for good measure. The last nine batters went down in order to finish the game. Blue Crabs reliever Eduardo Morlan (1-0) got the win after starting pitcher Dan Reichert (0-0) failed to hold the Skeeters in the sixth. The Skeeters continue their 10-game road trip with a trip to Lancaster to face the Barnstormers for a three-game series starting Friday night from Clipper Magazine Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. CDT. In spite of their three-game dive on the first road trip of the season, the Skeeters remain in a three-way tie for first place in the Freedom Division of the 140-game Atlantic League season. For further up-to-date information on the Sugar Land Skeeters, check out their website at http://sugarlandskeeters.com/index.cfm ATLANTIC LEAGUE STANDINGS Liberty Division W L PCT GB STREAK LAST 10 Bridgeport Bluefish 5 2 0.714 - 3W 5-2 Southern Maryland Blue Crabs 5 2 0.714 - 4W 5-2 Camden Riversharks 4 3 0.571 1 1W 4-3 Long Island Ducks 3 4 0.429 2 3L 3-4 Freedom Division W L PCT GB STREAK LAST 10 Sugar Land Skeeters 3 4 0.429 - 3L 3-4 Somerset Patriots 3 4 0.429 - 2W 3-4 Lancaster Barnstormers 3 4 0.429 - 2L 3-4 York Revolution 2 5 0.286 1 1L 2-5

Skeeters Sting York Again; Go 2-1 in W-L Column!

After dropping their Opening Night date with the York (PA) Revolution, 3-2, the Sugar Land Skeeters rallied to take a crushing, 10-1, win on Friday night, followed by a 3-1 second straight victory at Constellation Field on Saturday evening. The two Atlantic League clubs wrap up their four-game series and this Skeeters home stand this afternoon, Sunday, April 29th, at 4:05 PM. Come on put, if you can get a ticket, and have some good old-fashioned baseball fun.

Check our the Skeeters website for the up-to-date information on the new Houston area professional baseball club:

http://sugarlandskeeters.com/index.cfm

Constellation Field, Sugar Land, Texas, April 26, 2012.

Now here are the Atlantic League standings through all games of Saturday, April 28, 2012

Liberty Division W L PCT GB STREAK LAST 10 Long Island Ducks 2 1 0.667 - 1L 2-1 Bridgeport Bluefish 2 1 0.667 - 1W 2-1 Southern Maryland Blue Crabs 1 2 0.333 1 2L 1-2 Camden Riversharks 1 2 0.333 1 1L 1-2 Freedom Division W L PCT GB STREAK LAST 10 Lancaster Barnstormers 2 1 0.667 - 2W 2-1 Sugar Land Skeeters 2 1 0.667 - 2W 2-1 York Revolution 1 2 0.333 1 2L 1-2 Somerset Patriots 1 2 0.333 1 1W 1-2

Pictures of a Great Start in Sugar Land

Constellation Field in Sugar Land, Texas opened its brand new independent Atlantic League baseball season as the Home of the Skeeters yesterday, April 26, 2012. Other than the fact the team lost its first game, 3-2, to the defending twice champion York (PA) Revolution, most of everything else went well.

Good friend and local SABR Chapter Leader Bob "The Prez" Dorrill stops to snap a shot of the beautiful venue that rests in front of fans as they cross the footbridge from the parking lot to the new ball yard down the road.

Fans were greeted at the Opening Day Gate by a living bronze statue of an ancient ballplayer. The performance was great. The guy sometimes changed his frozen-still positions, but he never smiled, sneezed, nor spoke with any of us onlookers. I think I heard one young lady whispering, "if he only had a heart!"

Constellation Field takes your breath away with its old school charm and reminder of the times that baseball truly was our American national pastime. The outfield is deep and green. All of the outfield distances were not posted, but the sign down the right field line says 348. (It's 327 down the RF line at Minute Maid Park.) - and the Sugar Land Field is laid out facing the SE - meaning the same strong Gulf winds come rolling over that right field wall as they once did at the same forces they once were at work in both Colt and Buff Stadiums.

The eight-stories high message board in deep left center field is a beauty, but do hope the Skeeters have a way of laying it down in advance of a direct hit hurricane.

Luv Dem Skeeters!

I don't think Oyster Creek flows its way to the Atlantic Ocean, but a freak of nature on that level wasn't necessary. The City of Sugar Land still found their way into the Atlantic League. Good thing we now have planes. It's a long bus ride from here to places like York, PA.

Deacon Jones' little brother John Jones came down from New York with wife and family for the Skeeters opening. For a man who says he prefers football to baseball, you ought to hear this man talk the details of baseball strategy. For a man who doesn't care much, he sure knows a lot. When I brought this fact to John's attention, he said, "that comes from having Deacon for a big brother. I had to learn baseball in self-defense. That man, my brother, loves the game. He had me playing catch in the snow on Christmas Day when we were kids, he loved the game so much. He's still that way today. - and I love him for it. - How are you not going to love a brother who loves something in life as much as Deacon loves the game of baseball?"

Opening Day was even celebrated in crystal.

There was also a merry-go-round beyond the left field wall - and somewhere, back there, a swimming pool. I didn't travel far enough to see the pool.

... an Ice House for fans who prefer to imbibe their baseball in the steady flowing company of a few cool ones up through the 7th inning. ....

.... and, finally, over in right field, there's a grass knoll beyond the wall for families and kids who want to picnic and slide in to their feelings for the game.

Skeeters President Matt O'Brien receives the Key to the City of Sugar Land from His Honor, Sugar Land Mayor James Thompson.

Club manager Gary Gaetti leads the 2012 Sugar Land Skeeters onto the field for the first time in their history, April 26, 2012.

The Skeeters are introduced to a sellout home crowd through a fiery gate of hope and, as we baseball fans always carry with us near our hearts, our great expectation about winning.

On the wings of "God Bless America," a majestic American Eagle named Challenger flew from center field to the pitcher's mound to the silence of our collective awes for both his handsome self and our united love of all he represents to our American commitment to freedom.

Three of the Four antique fighter planes that flew over the park during "Our National Anthem" got us started in both style and the right spirit.

Skeeters President Matt O'Brien and Special Advisor Tal Smith confer as they patrol the team dugout area prior to the first pitch of the first season. It was a grand day for one and all.

Skeeters starter Matt Wright prepares to deliver one of the first pitches in Skeeters history. Unfortunately for history, neither the actual first pitch in the first nor the first Skeeters hit in the third were pulled as baseballs to be kept for any future display. In each case, the game simply continued with these rare balls still in play until both were lost in the bag of sameness that falls upon all baseballs that have no special meaning. This is one detail I wish the Skeeters had taken into account prior to the first game - a plan for saving first special balls. There's also a first Skeeters home run ball floating around out there. Maybe the Skeeters got after getting that one. If not, it is my hope that the fan who caught it will work out some reasonable return of this special ball to the club.

Deacon Jones, Reverend Craig Taylor, and Challenger the Eagle with his female trainer were among the many suite guests who had their pictures made together when the great avian king came to call.

John Jones and his special Mrs. Jones also had their picture taken with Challenger & Company.

Challenger was irresistible to me too. Deacon Jones joined me (Bill McCurdy) for our own photo with the great bird and his male trainer. I'll never forget looking into Challenger's left eye at one point and thinking, "Thank God you think of us as friends and allies, Challenger! You do think of us as friends and allies, do you not?"

"Rest assured, my friend. - Rest assured."

The Skeeters may have lost their first game to York, 3-2, but they are off to a great start as the new place to be for Houston areas baseball fans. With ticket prices set at $8 and $12, plus free admission for kids under 3 and those in youth league uniforms, Constellation Field is a great place to go for nearby family entertainment for folks in the broader Sugar Land area, especially. People who want big league ball will still go downtown, but the Skeeters are a great taste of how baseball used to be when families could afford the game on a frequent basis. The parking is free to. - Take in a Skeeters game sometime soon and find out for yourself, but keep going to see the Astros too. The big club also needs our support, but we are big enough to support more than one professional baseball operation in thus area.

God Bless Baseball.
God Bless the Astros.
God Bless the Skeeters.
God Bless Our Greater Houston Area.
And, Of Course, God Bless America.

Postscript to the Houston Chronicle -

Dear Chronicle:

You gave the Sugar Land Skeeters a nice long two-column piece by Steve Campbell on Page 10 of todays 5/27/12 Sports Section and I thought that the article was well done and the placement just about right in view of the fact Houston is first of all a major league baseball and other sports town and the big fact Opening Day also happened on the first day of the NFL draft. There was more than a little local first page interest in those outcomes among the many football fans in our area.

The three things I didn’t like were each items I hope you will be able to correct, or at least, improve upon in the near future. There was no box score. No results cap stories from other league games. And no Atlantic League standings. You left out the main items that are vital to all serious baseball fans who follow the game on a daily basis.

Look. We understand that the Skeeters are an independent level professional operation, but they deserve some help cultivating fans beyond the superficial casual ones. To do that, people need to see the box scores to get involved with knowing the players and charting progress. Even if you cannot justify the standings everyday, or the other game results any day, at least, give us the daily box scores and the standings weekly. That would help those of who want to follow the Skeeters closely a big help.

Skeeters Buzzing. Think Big. Why Not?

The Sugar Land Skeeters open their inaugural season in the independent Atlantic League tonight, 7:05 PM, April 26, 2012, at Constellation Field against the York (PA) Revolution. It could be the start of something much bigger down the line for Houston Baseball.

Let’s think big. Really big.

The start of independent league baseball in Sugar Land is certainly reason enough for area fans to rejoice. The game will bring a brand of ball to one Houston suburb that will mostly compliment and generate interest in the major league game going on downtown with the Astros. There may be a few lost Astros fans as a result of the closer-to-home, cheaper tickets, freshly branded product of family focused baseball in Sugar Land, but I think we all know that any big downturn at the Astros turnstiles this season will not be the fault of the Skeeters’ new hatch in the former rice and sugar cane fields south of town. The real reason? The big league Astros are  a losing, while rebuilding, young club and not a serious choice to compete in the World Series any time soon. Attendance there will improve as the club’s performance and chances for winning improve, even as they move to the American League next year that is so dreaded by so many National League fans. Even the American League move will not stop the fans for supporting a winner. It’s how the mass of Houston sports fans are. Build a winner and they will come.

So, what about building a winning business plan on multiply tiered levels? Here’s what I mean:

One of the big expenses in professional baseball is maintaining a layered performance level graded farm team system that works to prepare new players for the big league team in a way that also makes players reasonably available for call up to the big team by moves that are quick, efficient, and economical.

Now think local.

What if the Astros eventually hooked up with the Sugar Land Skeeters and made them their AAA farm team by some kind of working agreement with their ownership? Astros fans could then grab extensive looks at parts of the big club’s future by traveling to Skeeters games as fewer do now to AA Hooks games in Corpus Christi and once did to AAA Round Rock near Austin. I doubt that many Houston area Astros fans are going to AAA Oklahoma City games now that the Red Hawks are the Astros club. It’s just too far.

In my opinion, putting the AAA farm club in Sugar Land eventually could expand, not contract, attendance in both venues and make call ups no more than a local cab or personal car, 30-minute drive away. The call ups could also result in a fan call up of those who followed these players to see how they performed at the big league level.

The key is getting the baseball decision makers on both clubs to see that their connectivity is the key to successful potentiated growth.

Now let’s push the envelope about as far as it may shove on this plane.

Let’s say the Astros and Skeeters eventually get together and run both their cups over through an important big league-aaa club working agreement. Why not then go north of Houston to those suburbs and look into starting a similar lower level AA minor league operation in someplace like The Woodlands, Kingwood, or Montgomery County?

If that works, a good prospect could work his way through the top two levels of minor league play to the Astros and do it all in the Houston Metro Area as he drag-lined a collection of new fans that already had seen him play in person by the time he broke in with the Astros, bringing his new personal fan base with him.

We need to see how the Skeeters operation goes first, of course. I’m not talking about “putting the cart before the horse here.” I am saying, about as strongly I know how, that how we see the launching of the new baseball operation is key to there being future options. If both the Astros and Skeeters stay open to the future mining of opportunity, it could help the kind of growth possibility that is best for both clubs through something better than we have now. That is, a larger plan for baseball in the Greater Houston area.

One other thing. On some other subtle level, this may be the most important point I hope to make.

If you are on the Internet (and you really need to be these days to see where marketing and merchandising is going) you know that high-tech sales over Amazon have practically been the single cause for driving Best Buy out of business. Consumers today would rather buy a digital camera online at 2:43 AM than wait until the stores open and drive to Best Buy for it.

The lesson? Immediacy is taking over as a driver in consumer purchases because of the Internet. Having a major league club and its top two minor league farm teams located in the same geographic area could make baseball immediately available somewhere just about any day in the baseball season. Fans following three clubs personally in real-time would be the equivalent of the Internet user having three windows open at the same time on the same subject. Instead of having Baseball Almanac, Baseball Reference, and Retrosheet open on the computer to study the career of Craig Biggio, Houston fans could be “bricks and mortar” open to the Houston Astros, the Sugar Land Skeeters, and the Woodlands Woodies in their ignited fan support of Houston baseball.

Think big. It only hurts for a little while. Then your head bursts and you find yourself awakening in a brave new world. – Hold onto your ticket stub when you get there too. It’s proof you paid your way to the dance. You did it by having the courage to think big.

Sugar Land Skeeters Open Season on April 26

Season Opens April 26 against York.

Yesterday I had to drive over to the groomers at Man’s Best Friend on the west side to pick up one of our dogs and I also  found these little season schedule packets for the new Sugar Land Skeeters.

Playing in their inaugural season as members of the independent Atlantic League, Sugar Land opens their 70-game home schedule against York (PA) at 7:05 PM on Tuesday, April 26th at their new venue off 90-A at Highway 6 on the south side, and just north of the Southwest Freeway (I-59), at a place now called Constellation Field.

Modestly priced group and season tickets are now on sale online at http://sugarlandskeeters.com

Individual game tickets will be available, starting March 17th.

Telephone orders and further information is available at 281.240.4487.

It should be a lot fun. Skeeters Manager Gary Gaetti was a bright and talented player for both the Twins and Cardinals and he also spent time as the batting coach for the Houston Astros after his playing days ended. On the public relations side, another former big leaguer and Astros batting coach, Deacon Jone, is keeping the fires of enthusiasm stoked and popping fire for the new Skeeters.

The Atlantic League includes clubs from the seven eastern cities and areas of Bridgeport, Camden, Lancaster, Long Island, Somerset, Southern Maryland, and York – in addition to our western expansion club in Sugar Land.

It’s not the big league game, but it’s baseball that plays out at modest prices in a brand new open air family-oriented ballpark down in Sugar Land. That sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Hope to see some of the rest of you there too.

Skeeters Baseball Getting More Real by The Day

Startex Power Field in Sugar Land is Going Up: They've also added some lighting arc posts since these recent aerials were taken too,

I had a nice call from old friend Deacon Jones a couple of days ago. The Deacon is now involved full-time as a Special Assistant to the President of the brand-spanking new Sugar Land Skeeters Independent Atlantic League Baseball Club that starts play in its own new shiny digs in 2012. We had a local baseball research question to pursue together, along with fellow SABR member Tom Murrah. This is just a great time to be in love with baseball historical research in the greater Houston area. We’ve got more going on these days than you can shake a Babe Ruth big stick at – and we just keep coming up with new ideas and new people who are eager to chase down leads on what was true or false in baseball history – and all the way deep into the 19th century, if that’s how far back the question goes.

For now, at least, the energy of baseball’s local past and future seem to be feeding upon each other. Even as I write, and as you later, but sooner read these words, the muscle of new support for expanding the presence of organized professional baseball in the greater Houston area goes on out in Sugar Land. Startex Power Field, the new home of the independent Atlantic League’s Sugar Land Skeeters is going up on the plains south of the big City of Houston off Highway 59 South near the site of the old Imperial Sugar plant. Sugar Land is getting ready to field a team in 2012 as the newest member of the independent Atlantic League as a representative of the entire Houston community.

Offering good clean family fun, the Skeeters are not here to compete with the major league Houston Astros, but to augment the availability of the game as a spectator option for people who live inside the loop to those who have moved to the hinterlands of suburbia. New interest in the Skeeters can only amplify interest among people who have never previously even dreamed of going downtown to see a big league game. It is a win-win run for both the established MLB club and the new independent league venture.

If you are already an Astros fan, the Skeeters offer a tasteful picture of what the future of baseball may look like – and also a sketch on what minor league ball has always felt like on the intimate fan level. If you are primarily a new fan of the Skeeters, on the other hand, you are about to get an appetite-whetting taste of just how good the game can be played at the major league level (during normal times for the Astros).

The Doc and The Deac

Deacon Jones says that people are buying Skeeter season tickets like hot cakes these days and he advises interested parties to get on the website and take a special look for themselves at both the progress of construction and the offerings to fans that still exist during this early period of prime options on seating and special event arrangements. There is also a whole lot of contact information there on how you can get in touch with Deacon Jones (or just about anyone else who is connected with the Skeeters) by either phone or e-mail. And, hey – a five-minute talk with Deacon will just about make your day, anyway – even if you don’t buy anything.

Here’s the link to the Sugar Land Skeeters website:

http://sugarlandskeeters.com/index.cfm

Baseball is a great game – and one of the big reasons for its greatness is the presence of good people like Deacon Jones. Deacon Jones played the professional game at a high level – and now he represents the game at the highest level of gifting to others. When you speak with Deacon, he gives you the voice and soul of the game from the heart of all the caring that he has put into baseball over the period of his lifetime.

And as the old song goes: “Who could ask for anything more?”

The Skeeters Are Coming to Sugar Land in 2012

Artist Rendering: The $40 million, 7,000 seat Sugar Land Stadium set to open in 2012 as the 70-home games per season base of the independent Atlantic League "Skeeters".

It’s official! The new independent league baseball club down in Sugar Land finally has a name that matches our area to a “T”. The Sugar Land Skeeters will begin play in the fairly-new-itself independent Atlantic League in 2012.

The Atlantic League started play in 1998 as direct result of a conflict that popped up within organized baseball. When the New York Mets objected to owner Frank Boulton’s decision in the late 1990s to move his Albany-Colonie Yankees to Long Island because of the former’s claim to their minor league territorial rights in that area, Boulton bolted from organized baseball to form his own small independent circuit and made the move anyway.

From the start, the new Atlantic League was modeled after the old Pacific Coast League. They played more games, they signed a large number of superior ability players, and they dedicated themselves to building small, but first class ballparks for their various clubs. The thirteen year result of this effort now finds the previously all eastern seaboard circuit expanding into the Houston area in 2012 with the start of the new Sugar Land Skeeters operation.

Here’s a brief look at the league membership as it stands with the 2012 inclusion of new clubs here and in Loudoun, Virginia. Each new club is preparing to play a 140-game home and road games schedule in 2012. Sugar Land is the first of four-to-six clubs that will be created to form a new Western Division of the league:

Current Atlantic League franchises

Team Names (Years Founded/Joined League)

Freedom Division

Lancaster (PA) Barnstormers (2003/2005)

Road (no home) Warriors (1998/1998)

Somerset (NJ) Patriots (1998/1998)

York (PA) Revolution (2006/2007)

Liberty Division

Bridgeport (CT) Bluefish (1997/1998)

Camden (NJ) Riversharks (1999/2001)

Long Island (NY) Ducks (1998/2000)

Southern Maryland (MD) Blue Crabs (2006/2008)

Future Teams

Loudoun (VA) Hounds (2010/2012)

Sugar Land (TX) Skeeters (2010/2012)

Sugar Land Stadium. The City of Sugar Land is building the 7,000 seat capacity venue that will house the new baseball club. With an estimated price tag of $40 million, the stadium will not be funded with general fund tax dollars, however, $30 million dollars will instead be paid for with a portion of sales tax revenues that may only be used for economic development purposes. The $10 million dollar balance will come from Opening Day Partners, a Lancaster, Pa.-based ballpark developer that owns and operates several minor league baseball teams, including the new operation in Sugar Land. The stadium will be located on a 21-26 acre tract, northeast of the Highway 6 and Highway 90A intersection.

Field Personnel. The club has yet to sign any players, but players with ig league and high league experience and potential will be in the signing sights of Skeeter scouts. The field manager could end up being someone with a recognizable local name too. Former Astros Terry Puhl and Norm Miller, plus former Astros manager Hal Lanier have all been mentioned as possible managerial candidates.

Astros & Skeeters. The Skeeters are not a threat to the Astros, but they are capable of stoking further interest in professional baseball among people who never drive downtown to see a more expensive major league game. In fact, some of these people may now be stimulated to go see a major league game for the first time as a result of their experience with the Skeeters. It will be up to the Astros to produce a club and and a plan that makes that marketing connection a harvest of attracted new interest in baseball.

The worst thing the Astros might do here would be to treat the new Skeeters club as though it didn’t exist. Who knows? Maybe the Astros will one day have a AAA or AA club operating in some near region like Sugar Land, Katy, or The Woodlands. – It sure would simplify certain player reassignments during the long season, would it not? And, if the Astros happened to own these particular clubs too, it would make for even more lucrative opportunities to treat the home base fan population with an ongoing look at coming attractions.

Those are just my thoughts. All I know for sure while we’re waiting to see if the Sugar Land operation can succeed in the Houston area is that I will be out there to see some games, if they actually do start playing. The lure of night baseball in the small ballpark under open skies is just irresistible – even in the heat of Houston summers – and even with Skeeters on the loose.