League looks at Bangor Baseball’s return possible in 2003

Just over 31/2 years after a vote by the Bangor City Council effectively sounded the death knell for minor league baseball in the River City, a fledgling independent league hopes to ring that long dormant bell to herald its return – and some city, county and state officials are listening.

The Liberty League of Professional Baseball currently has no schedule, no teams, and no players, but it does have three league officers with an extensive, detailed three-year plan to re-establish independent minor league baseball in New England.

Since 1999, league commissioner Jim Ryan, president Jay Acton, and senior vice-president Jimmy Goldsmith have been developing their plan – borne of countless bull sessions extolling the positives and negatives of minor league baseball – to bring traditional minor league ball back to smaller community locales.

As they moved from a workable model for a new league to a list of potential host cities, Bangor and Augusta took their places among the top choices. Why Bangor?

“Bangor is a gateway community,” said Ryan, a lifelong New Hampshire resident who will serve as the league’s commissioner. “It’s a gateway to Acadia, it has a major educational institution nearby, it has a good past history of supporting minor league ball, plus it currently has no professional sports teams in the area.”

Although the attendance numbers were somewhat disappointing to Bangor Blue Ox officials during the team’s two-year run in Orono, Ryan sees them a different way.

“Drawing 900-plus people is doing a good job of getting people out on a nightly basis,” said Ryan.

The Blue Ox averaged 990 fans per game in 1996 and 957 in 1997.

“Any miniature golf operator or theater owner would be happy with that, and I know we would be if those were the numbers in Bangor,” he added.

Independent baseball leagues are not affiliated with Major League Baseball teams. Thus, they must stock their own rosters with players, pay their salaries and take care of all expenses. Rosters of affiliated minor league teams are stocked by major league clubs.

Ryan, a profiling unit manager for Yankee Book in Henniker, N.H., an unabashed Boston Red Sox fan, envisions a two-division, eight-team league starting play in 2003. The league schedule will start in late May and conclude in the first week of September with a best-of-five championship playoff between the two divisional winners. Games, which will start around 7 p.m., will only be played Thursday through Sunday.

“Our 60-game schedule is geared toward loading the games toward weekends and holidays from Memorial Day through Labor Day,” Ryan explained.

The “rookie level” league will have no designated hitter rule and will feature 22-man rosters (14 position players and eight pitchers) with a head coach and one assistant. It will be open to players with no more than one year of prior minor league experience. Players will be paid $1,500 per season with their meals and housing costs covered by the teams, which will operate under an annual budget capped at $300,000.

So what are the prospects for minor league ball in Bangor?

“We’ve had very, very good discussions with [Maine state director of business development] John Butera, who has helped us out quite a bit,” said Ryan.

So well that Ryan, Acton, and Goldsmith will make Maine one of their first stops as they begin personally evaluating potential team sites over the next few weeks.

Judging from the reaction by some Bangor-area representatives, they will get a warm reception.

“I think it’s exciting that they would consider Bangor as a possible site,” said former University of Maine head coach and current Husson College assistant coach John Winkin, who is also the director of Husson’s Sports Leadership Institute. “Maybe that will ignite interest from the local people in getting a minor league team back here in Bangor.”

Winkin is the driving force behind the ongoing renovation of Husson’s baseball field, which he intends to upgrade with an eye toward attracting a minor league baseball team.

“This comes at a time when Dr. Winkin is revitalizing that field and that to me is an ideal spot,” said Penobscot county commissioner and Bangor lawyer Peter Baldacci. “Baseball adds to the quality of life in an area and I think Bangor would benefit from something like this. It’s great news as far as I’m concerned.”

Officials are building the league with an eye toward fiscal restraint: the cost of an exclusive right to develop a franchise is $10,000. When site development is completed and the franchise is approved by the league, owners pay a $40,000 franchise fee. They also must pay annual dues of $20,000. The total $70,000 investment is still $5,000 less than the original franchise fee for the Bangor Blue Ox.

The league also stresses using existing ballparks or stadiums rather than forcing communities to build new ones.