Ottawa … There used to be a ball team there
The history of professional baseball in Ottawa from 1993 to the present
By Todd Devlin
Jan. 3, 2010
Wayne Scanlan had heard the rumours of deterioration at the old ballpark, but he’d
yet to see it himself.
A long-time sports columnist at the Ottawa Citizen, Scanlan was already having a
difficult time adjusting to his first summer in 16 years without pro ball in the city. But it
only got worse when he took a trip down Coventry Road in July of 2009 to see what had
become of Ottawa’s once-beautiful ballpark.
It wasn’t a pretty sight.
“The city had it all locked up so no one could use the place, and there was debris around
the outside of the stadium,” said Scanlan, who was a regular at the ballpark over the
years, both as a columnist and as a fan when it featured some of the best ball in the
country.
The playing surface itself was in shambles. The once-picturesque infield, which had been
carefully manicured for 16 years, was covered with weeds.
“Giant ones,” Scanlan said. “Like a couple feet high. There were even weeds overrunning
the warning track in the outfield. It was pretty sad.”
So sad, that it prompted him to write a column in the Citizen about the stadium’s sorry
state of affairs.
Fortunately, the city responded, cutting the grass, pulling the weeds and generally
cleaning things up at the stadium that once played host to future major-league stars.
“They actually had a (community) tournament or two there,” Scanlan said. “So it did
spark a bit of a wake-up call that there is this great facility here that’s being wasted.”
Of course, that wasn’t always the case.
While baseball and Ottawa have certainly had a trying relationship at times, one thing is
for certain: during the previous 16 summers when pro ball was in town, the city’s
premier facility was never wasted. It was a first-rate park where even the most casual fan
could enjoy high-calibre baseball.
And talk about history.
From the day the gates opened on April 17, 1993 to the day they closed on Sept. 1, 2008,
Ottawa’s stadium was the site of countless memories – both on and off the field.
There is hope that the memories won’t end there, and that Ottawa will see professional
ball once again. In fact, efforts are currently underway to make that a reality (either
returning an independent team from the Can-Am League or the Golden Baseball
League).
But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on what has
truly been a rich and interesting journey of pro ball at Ottawa’s stadium down on
Coventry Road ...
***
When former Ottawa mayor Jim Durrell set a goal of bringing baseball to the city, the
game was flourishing in Canada. The country had two Major League teams – the
Montreal Expos and Toronto Blue Jays. Both were competitive, and the latter was
drawing record crowds at a brand new SkyDome.
By 1989, there were also eight minor-league teams in Canada: triple-A clubs in Calgary,
Edmonton and Vancouver, a double-A team in London, class-A teams in Hamilton, St.
Catharines and Welland and a rookie-class team in Medicine Hat.
Durrell wanted in on the action.
In fact, it had been a dream of his to bring pro ball to the nation’s capital, for the first
time since 1954 when the Ottawa Athletics played their third and final season at
Lansdowne Park. Needing someone to champion his goal, Durrell called upon the late
Howard Darwin to make it happen. A successful businessman and prominent sports
figure in the city, Darwin was also the owner of the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL)
Ottawa 67’s.
Darwin made his target the International League, a triple-A circuit that had recently
announced -- for the first time in 30 years -- it would be expanding by two teams for the
1993 season.
It wasn’t easy, but in 1991 Darwin earned the rights to one of those franchises -- at a cost
of $5 million – after successfully lobbying city council to build a new baseball stadium in
his hometown.
“The stadium project was so tough,” Darwin admitted during an interview for a 1999 in
which he was named Ottawa’s No.7-ranked sports figure of the 20th century. “It went to
(Ottawa council) nine times for approval and we lost six times. Then we had to get the
franchise and we were just one of 19 cities bidding.”
Remarkably, everything worked out. And in 1992, construction began on a $17-million
stadium in the east end of the city that would soon be home to the triple-A affiliate of
Canada’s first major league team, the Expos. It was a perfect fit, right down to the team’s
nickname – the Lynx – aptly chosen for its identical spelling and meaning in both
English and French as a way to reach fans in the highly bilingual Ottawa region.
Meanwhile, baseball in Canada took an even bigger leap forward that same year, as the
Blue Jays became the first team outside the United States to win the World Series. On
the evening of October 24, 1992, the American pastime reached perhaps an all-time high
north of the border. As the Jays celebrated on the field in Atlanta, this hockey nation of
ours was officially sent into a baseball frenzy.
In other words, the landscape could not have been in better shape for Canada’s newest
pro ball team -- the triple-A Ottawa Lynx -- to make its debut in the spring of 1993.
***
By the time March rolled around, construction was complete on JetForm Park, a gem of
a park with a seating capacity of 10,332, along with 32 private suites, a large press box,
and a 180-person restaurant overlooking a beautiful natural grass and clay field that
would soon feature some of the game’s next stars.
The city was excited to catch a glimpse.
There was great fanfare for pro sports in Ottawa that year, and for good reason. In 1992,
NHL hockey returned to the city for the first time since 1934, as the expansion Senators
debuted in the fall at the 10,000-seat Ottawa Civic Centre. However, with limited talent
(the team finished with a league-worst 10-70-4 record), hockey in the nation’s capital did
not go smoothly that first season. As a result, the Sens’ inaugural campaign was over by
the time JetForm Park welcomed its first guests in the spring.
“What amazes me now, when I think back, is that for a lot of people there was as much
enthusiasm for baseball coming (to Ottawa) as there was for hockey,” said Scanlan. “The
Lynx actually had a better start than the Senators and they warmed the hearts of
everyone.”
Officially, the heart-warming began on April 17, 1993, when the Lynx, having returned
from a season-opening road trip, took the field for the first time at JetForm. The home
opener against the Charlotte Knights (affiliate of the Cleveland Indians), the league’s
other expansion team, was played in front of a capacity crowd and a full press box.
Among those media members on hand for the momentous occasion was Barre
Campbell, then a sports reporter for the Ottawa Sun. Campbell may not remember
every Lynx game he covered over the years, but he can recall opening night as if it were
yesterday.
“It was a drizzly, grey, very cool night,” he said. “But the atmosphere didn’t match the
dreary weather. There was real electricity in the ballpark and it felt like you were part of
history.”
The man who made that history possible merely soaked it all in, according to Scanlan.
“I remember Howard standing down there just up from home plate into the stands. And
he was standing out there in the rain, but he just had the biggest grin on his face.”
Darwin had built it and the people had come. At that point, he simply passed things off
to the players.
At 7:51 p.m., Ottawa right-hander Mike Mathile delivered the first pitch in JetForm
Park history to a Charlotte lineup that included Jim Thome, the IL’s most valuable
player in 1993.
Charlotte outfielder Ken Ramos picked up the first hit in stadium history and the
Knights went on to win the game, 3-2. F.P. Santangelo, fittingly, picked up Ottawa’s
first hit.
Fittingly, because Santangelo quickly became the first Lynx fan favourite, his hustle and
hard-nosed, style of play winning him adoration from the hometown faithful.
“He owned this town,” said Scanlan, who noted in a column once that Santangelo
“seemed destined to be our Crash Davis, minor-league legend.”
But after three years in a Lynx uniform, the 27-year-old made his major-league debut
with the Expos on Aug. 2, 1995 and became a regular in Montreal the following season.
Before that, however, he was the face of Canada’s newest minor league team, and the city
never forgot it. When Ottawa fans cast their ballots for the 10th anniversary Lynx dream
team, they voted Santangelo as the utility player and all-time great. And in 1998, the
organization made the Michigan native the first player in Lynx franchise history to have
his number (24) retired.
Besides Santangelo, who scored a franchise-record 86 runs in 131 games in 1993, there
were others on the inaugural Lynx team that moved on to the major leagues. Cliff
Floyd, Rondell White, Kirk Rueter and Matt Stairs, for example, all went on to
enjoy successful big-league careers.
However, some of the best moments in Ottawa that season were provided by some of the
lesser known names.
Chris Nabholz and Bruce Walton delivered one of them in the season’s second
month, combining to throw the team’s first no-hitter on May 24 at home against the
Richmond Braves. The feat was even more remarkable considering the talent on
Richmond’s team in 1993.
The triple-A Braves’ lineup that season was dubbed “The Great Eight” by U.S. national
media, as it featured a legitimate major-league prospect at each position -- Javy Lopez,
Ryan Klesko, Melvin Nieves, Mike Kelly, Jose Oliva, Tony Tarasco, Ramon
Caraballo and Chipper Jones, who entered the year as the No. 1 prospect in all of
baseball and earned IL Rookie of the Year honours that season.
On a May evening in front of 7,942, Nabholz shut down the entire lineup – Jones and
Klesko included. Aside from a walk to the game’s first hitter, Keith Mitchell, Nabholz
was perfect through eight innings.
But in a rare and unfortunate twist, he didn’t get the opportunity to finish the job.
On a rehab assignment from the Expos, the left-hander had reached a strict pitch count
(82 pitches) set by Montreal management. As a result, Lynx manager Mike Quade had
little choice but to remove his starter after eight innings.
So, after Stairs swatted a two-run homer to make it 4-0 Ottawa, Quade sent reliever
Walton to the mound in the ninth, prompting a chorus of boos from the crowd who
wanted to see Nabholz finish off his no-hitter.
“I feel a little bad for him (Nabholz), but much worse for the fans,” Quade said after the
game. “If I had a direct line to Duke (Expos general manager Dan Duquette), I would
have called him. From now on, any time they send me a guy to pitch, I’ll ask, ‘if he has 82
pitches and a no-hitter, can he go?’ But who would have thought it?”
All was forgiven, though, when Walton -- now the pitching coach for the Blue Jays -retired the Knights 1-2-3 in the ninth. Lynx fans surely didn’t stay mad at Quade. After
all, the franchise’s first skipper was named IL manager of the year in 1993, leading his
club to a 73-69 record and a spot in the playoffs in the team’s first season.
And the playoffs are where Scott Bryant provided, by Scanlan’s account, “the first
spectacular moment of the young franchise” against the Rochester Red Wings at
JetForm.
After dropping their first post-season game 4-0 a day earlier, the Lynx were brought back
into the series the next night thanks to Bryant‘s heroics.
Trailing 4-3 with two on and two out in the ninth, the former first round pick stepped in
against Rochester reliever Brad Pennington and belted a three-run walk-off homer to
even the series and send Lynx fans into hysteria.
“I remember he (Pennington) had a really good slider,” recalled Bryant, who now works
in commercial real estate in Austin, Tx. “And I remember telling myself to make sure I
got a ball up.”
Sure enough, the right-handed pitcher hung a slider and Bryant sent it over the wall.
“I don’t remember hitting it that well, but I hit it enough to get it out,” he said. “We had a
big crowd there and everybody went crazy.”
What made the event even more Hollywood-like was the fact that Bryant nearly didn’t
get the chance to be the hero.
“I hadn’t been swinging the bat very well,” he said. “And I know Quade even told me
afterwards he seriously considered pinch-hitting for me going into that at-bat because we
had Curtis Pride on the bench that night.”
Quade decided to stick with Bryant, and the 25-year-old provided the storybook finish.
“That’s one of those things where you grow up in your backyard and make that call ... the
play-by-play,” said Bryant, who never got the call to the big leagues and retired four
years later. “Even though it wasn’t the World Series, it was to win a triple-A playoff
game. So, it was still a pretty big deal for me.”
And a pretty big deal for Lynx fans, too.
Though Ottawa went on to lose that first best-of-five playoff series, 3-2, there was no
denying that Year 1 had been a huge success. Unlike the hockey Senators across town,
the ball team had been competitive right off the bat, coming within a game of the
championship series in their first year.
Most importantly, fans came out to JetForm in huge numbers. It would seem almost
unfathomable years later, but the Lynx officially packed in 693,043 fans in 71 home
games -- including 43 sell-outs -- that first season, an average of 9,761 per contest.
Remarkably, Ottawa’s total attendance broke a 47-year-old league record set by the IL’s
Baltimore Orioles in 1946 (not to be confused with the Orioles’ franchise in the major
leagues, which moved to Baltimore in 1954).
With the help of its newfound fan support north of the border, the IL became the first
minor league circuit ever to attract over four million fans in a season. Things were good
in minor league baseball. And things were great in Ottawa.
“There was a great novelty to have a team,” Scanlan said. “We hadn’t had baseball here
since the early 1950s, so there was tremendous enthusiasm. You had this beautiful
ballpark that everyone in the city wanted to check out. So it was all good in the
beginning.”
***
Just six weeks after the Lynx wrapped up their opening season, Joe Carter did his best
Bryant impression – except on the biggest stage imaginable. On Oct. 23, 1993, in front of
52,195 screaming fans at SkyDome, Joltin’ Joe produced perhaps the most iconic
moment in the history of baseball in this country, driving a Mitch Williams pitch over
the wall in left to give the Jays back-to-back World Series championships.
And the baseball love-in continued in Canada.
Back in the nation’s capital, the Lynx returned a significant portion of their original
roster in 1994, providing the fans with a lot of familiar faces, including Santangelo and
Pride, another fan favourite who, in 1996, became the first deaf player in modern
baseball history to play a full season in the majors.
“In the first few seasons, the fans seemed to know the entire team,” said Scanlan.
And though the team took a small step back on the field that year, going 70-72 and
narrowly missing the playoffs, Year II was still a success at the box office. Expectedly, the
initial surge and immediate novelty had worn off slightly, but the Lynx still led the league
in attendance that year, welcoming 607,190 to JetForm, an average of 8,929 per contest.
Unfortunately, despite the continued success for the Lynx on the field and at the gates,
1994 will forever be remembered for an event that took place outside the organization
that, ultimately, delivered a significant blow to the Lynx franchise and greatly affected
the future of the team.
***
On Aug. 12, 1994, the lights went out in the major leagues, as the player’s union officially
went on strike. It marked the eighth work stoppage in baseball’s history -- but the first
since 1904 that resulted in the Series being cancelled.
The problem was the Montreal Expos had a legitimate shot at playing in that Series,
which would have been the franchise’s first.
When the strike hit, the Expos owned a major-league best 74-40 record -- six games
ahead of the Braves in the NL East despite having the second-lowest payroll in the
league. Simply put, no team was affected more by the strike than the Expos.
Sadly, it marked the beginning of the end for baseball in Montreal. The cash-strapped
organization couldn’t hold onto its stars and the team soon found itself at the bottom of
the league in attendance. Ten years later, the Expos ceased to exist.
And the Ottawa Lynx? They felt the trickle-down effect.
Many reasons were bandied about as to why, in eight years, average attendance at Lynx
games had plummeted from a league-best 9,700 to a paltry 2,300 per game. But the
leading one was what happened in the summer of 1994 and the heartache that the strike
caused Expos fans.
“I think it was a big deal because of Ottawa’s connection to the Expos,” said Scanlan.
“There were bad feelings about baseball in general, but the Expos were in first place
when the lights went out.”
And while goodwill was lost by baseball fans throughout North America as a result of the
strike, those north of the border seemed to be hit harder than their U.S. counterparts. It
was seen in attendance numbers across the board, and it contributed to the death of
several professional teams in Canada.
***
Ironically enough, the year in which baseball began to head south in Canada, the team in
the nation’s capital enjoyed what turned out to be the best season in franchise history.
Led by first-year manager Pete Mackanin, the Lynx made the playoffs in 1995 for the
second time in three years. With a record of 72-70 and a second-place finish in the IL
East, they didn’t exactly tear up the league during the regular season. And they certainly
weren’t stocked with future stars.
Granted, the pitching staff included Ugueth Urbina and Rueter, who set a team record
by posting 26 consecutive scoreless innings during a three-week stretch in June.
Santangelo and Wood were still in the lineup, as was Mark Grudzielanek, who split
time between Ottawa and Montreal. But primarily, the 1995 Lynx were made up of less
notable names. In fact, four of the five players with the most plate appearances that
season -- Jim Buccheri, Kevin Castleberry, Chris Martin and Julian Yan –
finished their careers having never appeared in a big-league game.
Nevertheless, it seemed to work for the Lynx in 1995, and in early September they
welcomed Rochester for a rematch of the 1993 IL East playoff series.
It started eerily similar the second time around for Ottawa, as the team dropped the
opening game, won the second and then went down 2-1 in the best-of-five series.
But that’s where things changed.
After Yan and Pride homered to lead Ottawa to a big 8-3 win in Game 4, the Lynx closed
out the series with a slim 4-2 victory on the road to earn their first ever appearance in the
Governors’ Cup.
There, they met the class of the International League that season: the Norfolk Tides, who
posted a league-best 86-56 regular season record. Led by Jason Isringhausen, IL Rookie
of the Year and MVP in 1995, the Tides’ pitching staff was considered as good as any in
league history. Their 3.01 team ERA was the best since the Columbus Clippers posted a
2.92 mark in 1980. The New York Yankees top farm team had future big leaguers in
Doug Bird, Ken Clay, Don Cooper, Mike Griffin, Bob Kammeyer, Jim Lewis,
Tim Lollar and Dave Righetti.
As expected, it was a low-scoring series. After splitting the first two games on the road
(losing the first, 5-4, and winning the second, 1-0), the Lynx returned home to play in
front of a packed house at JetForm.
Perhaps no player soaked up the atmosphere more than pitcher and Montreal native
Derek Aucoin, who was added to the Lynx roster for the playoff drive in September
after a strong year at double-A Harrisburg. It was his first taste of triple-A baseball.
“It was outstanding,” said Aucoin, who now lives in New York and runs ‘The Baseball
Center’, an indoor training facility in the upper west side of Manhattan. “Ottawa is a
great city, and the people were really behind us.”
The Lynx captured Game 3 at home, as Yamil Benitez homered and J.J. Thobe
picked up the save in a narrow 3-2 victory to put Ottawa one game away from winning
the league championship.
And that’s exactly what they did the following day.
If opening night, 1993, was the highlight of the team’s young existence up to that point,
Game 4 of the 1995 final topped that. Just like the franchise opener, the contest featured
plenty of rain. This time, it caused a lengthy delay, forcing Ottawa starter Gabe White out
of the game after just three innings. That’s when Aucoin entered the contest.
Mackanin had no shortage of confidence in the 25-year-old, who gave up one run in four
appearances (eight innings) while striking out 12 during that postseason. In Game 4 of
the Governors’ Cup Final, the right-hander was at his best.
“I made some really big pitches,” said Aucoin, who worked three scoreless innings and
picked up the win in a 4-0 championship-clinching victory over the Tides. “I peaked. I
was dealing. The confidence was there, and nothing was going to rattle me.”
Nearly 15 years later, the 39-year-old remembers almost every single pitch during that
outing.
“Those were some of the best innings of my life,” he said.
Aucoin went on to achieve his childhood dream of playing in the major leagues in 1996,
making a pair of relief appearances for Montreal to become the first hometown player
ever to pitch for the Expos. But to this day, he shows no hesitation when asked which
moment was the highlight of his professional baseball career.
“In all honesty, it was winning the championship in Ottawa, hands down,” he said. “Not
everybody in life has the chance to wake up and be a champion ... of anything. To have
the chance to contribute was awesome. We battled for two rounds, and to win it at home
was a huge deal.”
In keeping with the close-knit nature of the 1995 Lynx team, catcher Joe Siddall
(Windsor, Ont.) and Santangelo – two players that earned September call-ups to the
Expos – made the drive to Ottawa after playing that night in Montreal to celebrate with
their old teammates.
It was the first major championship the city of Ottawa had won in 19 years since the
Ottawa Rough Riders captured the Grey Cup in 1976, and the city rolled out the red
carpet for its champions with celebrations and official recognition from the mayor’s
office.
“We were the toast of the town,” Aucoin said.
The players on the field weren’t the only ones recognized after the team’s Governors’ Cup
win. The man who made it possible also earned accolades following the 1995 season, as
the league named Darwin executive of the year. It was a well-deserved honour.
“Howard was a great man,” said Aucoin, who returned to play most of 1996 and part of
1997 in Ottawa. “He was awesome to play for and I think he did a lot of good things for
the city and for the ball team.”
It wasn’t just the Lynx and their fans that benefitted from Ottawa’s well-run baseball
organization and its beautiful ballpark, which the IL rated as the league’s top facility in
both 1994 and 1995. The opposition appreciated it as well (and not just because of the
world-class clubhouses, where Bryant remembers Stairs setting up hockey games in the
spacious locker rooms).
“Ottawa was by far the favourite place to come and play for anybody,” said Aucoin, who
was convinced of that during a conversation with current Yankees catcher Jorge
Posada at his training centre. Posada, along with future hall-of-famers Derek Jeter
and Mariano Rivera, made stops in Ottawa as members of the triple-A Columbus
Clippers during the 1995 season.
“He told me they would circle the schedule when they came to Ottawa because they were
all fired up about coming. The food was good, there were always good restaurants after
the game, the people were nice, the field was nice, and there were fans in the stands.
Everything about Ottawa was awesome.
“I don’t know where it started going wrong. I don’t know when people stopped coming.”
***
Unfortunately, things did go wrong and people did stop coming.
That was noticeable even during the 1995 season. Just two years removed from setting a
league attendance record, the Lynx dropped to sixth in the IL that year with an average
crowd of 6,917 (down 22.5% from 1994).
It was still a relatively healthy number by minor league standards, and, as Aucoin recalls,
the atmosphere at the stadium was still among the best in the minors. But with such a
large decline from the previous season, there was no denying the warning signs were
there.
The general consensus was that two factors were to blame: the strike of ‘94, which had
left a bad taste in the mouths of Canadian ball fans from coast to coast. Not even the
back-to-back Series champions were immune to that, as the Jays experienced a similar
20.4% drop in attendance from 1994 to 1995. Fans of the Expos were understandably hit
harder, and that created additional woes for the National League club and their triple-A
affiliate just 200 kilometres down the road. The second factor was that it appeared the
novelty of having pro ball in Ottawa was wearing off -- and in a hurry.
“The problem was, a lot of people that were down there weren’t baseball fans,” noted
Scanlan. “They were there because it was the place to be seen on a Friday or Saturday
night. The whole city was down there. It was almost like a party scene.”
That type of atmosphere and support from non-traditional ball fans proved to be
unsustainable, especially after the Lynx had reached the pinnacle of success in just their
third year.
“Once the Lynx won the Governors’ Cup in 1995 and the novelty factor was gone, it was
kind of like, ‘been there, done that’ with the Ottawa Lynx,” Scanlan said. “What you had
left was the hardcore group of fans in Ottawa. And as we saw, it probably wasn’t a big
enough group.”
By 1996, the honeymoon was officially over.
To make matters worse, that year saw the tide turn on the field as well, as the Lynx
plummeted in the standings. After posting a 215-211 record, along with a pair of postseason appearances and a league title during their first three years, the team proceeded
to spend four of the next five seasons in the IL East basement, compiling a dismal 295415 record (.415 winning percentage) during that span.
In 2000, the Lynx hit rock bottom, finishing with a franchise-worst 53-88 record.
A losing team will nearly always drive fans away. And that was certainly the case in
Ottawa.
In the first three post-championship seasons, attendance at Lynx games saw a
remarkably steady -- yet significant -- decline, dropping an average of 22.6% per season.
In 1997, just four years after breaking a 46-year-old attendance record, the Lynx dropped
to last place in the league (average crowd of 4,165 per game). Sadly, that was a
distinction the team held each and every year until the franchise moved to Pennsylvania
10 years later.
But while fewer people were attending games and the team found itself at the bottom of
the standings, the calibre of ball remained the same at JetForm. Triple-A baseball was
still triple-A baseball, after all. And the fans who did take in the action were seldom
disappointed.
The playing surface continued to be among the best in the minors, and in 1999 Lynx
groundskeepers Pete Webb and Brad Keith were recognized for their work when
JetFork Park was named “Beam Clay Baseball Diamond of the Year”.
That award-winning field played host to several future big-league stars, including Ted
Lilly, Javier Vazquez, Carl Pavano, Jose Vidro and Orlando Cabrera, who all
suited up for the Lynx before the decade was out.
***
Alas, pro ball is a business, and it quickly became apparent to Darwin that it might not
be a sustainable one in Ottawa. Reluctantly, the man who made Triple-A baseball a
reality in the nation’s capital chose to get out.
Following the 2000 season, in which the Lynx drew a franchise-worst 2,339 fans per
game, Darwin sold the team for $7 million -- and handed over his field of dreams -- to
Vermont businessman Ray Pecor, who also owned the class-A Vermont Expos.
Pecor put his young Vermont general manager, Kyle Bostwick, in charge of the triple-A
franchise, and provided him with a full front-office team. In a lot of ways, it was a fresh
start for an organization that had, in just five years, become a shadow of its former self.
“We were very, very excited to take over and to do some great things,” said Bostwick,
who remained the team’s GM until the end. “And (JetForm) was just a beautiful facility.
It was a wonderful representation of baseball in Canada.”
The new ownership ramped up marketing efforts and got the message out that, indeed,
Ottawa’s baseball stadium was not only still open for business, but it was still showcasing
some of the best baseball in the country on a nightly basis. The new front-office team
also provided Lynx fans with an enhanced experience at the ballpark, including in-game
promotions and activities throughout the stadium, something that had been lacking in
the past.
“We were asking people to give us a second chance,” Bostwick said. “For the most part,
the fans responded.”
They certainly did in the beginning. For the first time in franchise history, attendance
increased at Lynx games in 2001, up nearly 26%.
“There was new excitement and buzz,” Bostwick said. “The trend was definitely there.”
On the field, the Lynx were like a revolving door during the 2001 season, their first under
new ownership. Players came and went at a rapid rate as Ottawa placed fourth in the IL
East with a 68-76 regular-season record. In all, 56 different players suited up for the
Lynx that season, including Milton Bradley, Hideki Irabu, Brian Schneider,
Guillermo Mota, Brad Wilkerson and Pavano.
And, of course, Tim Raines, who headlined a historic day at JetForm Park.
On Aug. 21, 2001, Tim “Rock” Raines and Tim Raines Jr. became the first father-son
pair in modern professional baseball history to play against each other in a regular
season game. The elder Raines, an Expos legend and seven-time NL all-star, had traveled
to Ottawa for a very brief rehab assignment with the Lynx after undergoing elbow
surgery earlier in the year. He arrived in time to face Rochester, the team his son, Tim
Jr., 21, had been playing for since his promotion a month earlier.
Father and son exchanged lineup cards at home plate and then squared off in a
doubleheader. Both men hit leadoff for their respective clubs, and both reached base in
their first at-bats. Raines Jr., who was just 12 days old when his dad made his major
league debut with the Expos in 1979, reached on an infield single and stole his 50th base
of the season in the top of the first. His 41-year-old father doubled to the wall in left and
scored Ottawa’s first run in the bottom half of the inning.
The younger Raines ended up earning bragging rights, as the Red Wings swept the
doubleheader. The following day, Raines the elder returned to Montreal.
***
For the second year in a row, attendance increased at Lynx games in 2002, this time
climbing back to over 3,000 per game. It wasn’t the 4,000-4,500 average that Pecor
cited as necessary for financially sustainability, but it was an improvement.
On Sept. 1, Ottawa saw its first sell-out in seven years for the second-to-last game of the
season against Rochester.
“The atmosphere in the stadium was awesome,” said first-year Lynx manager Tim
Leiper, who had previously been the team’s hitting coach in 1999.
It had been so long since the last full house that the stadium didn’t even have the same
name. When JetForm, the Ottawa-based software manufacturing company, was bought
out by Adobe, the new owners had no interest in picking up the naming rights to
Ottawa’s baseball stadium. As a result, the park went nameless for several months before
simply adopting the title ‘Lynx Stadium’.
Under Leiper, the team that played at Lynx Stadium in 2002 was very good. The
organization posted its first winning season since 1995 (a franchise-best 80-61 record),
narrowly missing the playoffs in the process. Endy Chavez became the first Lynx player
to win a batting title, hitting .343 in 103 games en route to being named a league all-star
along with teammate Joe Vitiello, who hit .329 and was named Lynx team MVP.
“I’m very happy,” said Chavez, who also compiled a franchise record 25-game hitting
streak that season. “It’s the first time I’ve been in the top 10 in hitting, and now I’m No. 1.
I did my job this year. I tried to play hard and I just kept swinging.”
The same could be said of the majority of the Lynx lineup in 2002, as the team posted a
league-best .281 batting average overall.
“We had some really good young players,” said Leiper, the younger brother of Dave
Leiper, who pitched for both the Lynx and Expos in 1995 and 1996. “We stayed in the
race until the last week of the season.”
***
With the future of the Expos uncertain, the Lynx switched affiliates in 2003, signing a
two-year contract -- with a two-year option -- to become the top farm club for the
Baltimore Orioles, who ended their 42-year partnership with Rochester following the
2002 season.
Even with a brand new roster, the Lynx had just as much success on the field in 2003 as
they had the previous year. In fact, they took it a step further, returning to the playoffs
for the first time since winning the Governors’ Cup in 1995.
A solid ball club all around, the 2003 Lynx (79-65) finished the regular season tops in the
league in both team batting average (.281) and on-base percentage (.344) despite cycling
through numerous players. Nineteen different players recorded at least 100 at-bats that
season, while 20 different pitchers took the mound, combining to post the league’s
second-best ERA (3.66).
Brian Roberts was the most notable future big-leaguer on the roster. The two-time
American League all-star opened the 2003 season in Ottawa and batted .315 in 44 games
for the Lynx before being summoned by Baltimore in late May to replace an injured
Jerry Hairston Jr.
Jack Cust led Ottawa in RBIs, on-base percentage and walks (80), tying a club record
previously set by Shane Andrews in 1994. True to form, Cust also led the team in
strikeouts.
There were plenty of highlights during the 2003 season – in an April contest in Syracuse,
the Lynx pounded out a team record 24 hits; In May, Ottawa infielder Eddy Garabito
had a five-hit game at Lynx Stadium; and in a span of eight days in August, the Lynx put
together a franchise-best 10-game winning streak.
But perhaps the most memorable moment involved a player no longer on the Lynx
roster.
Jamey Carroll, who had been a member of the Lynx from 2000-02, returned to his old
home park for an August game that summer to become the second player in franchise
history to have his number (3) retired.
Carroll had been a steady presence in the Lynx lineup before fashioning a very
respectable career as a utility man in the majors (the free agent signed with the Los
Angeles Dodgers after spending 2009 in Cleveland). The Evansville, Ind. native was also
a phenomenal ambassador for the Lynx off the field.
Active in the community, Carroll made visits to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern
Ontario (CHEO), as well as to local schools for the Lynx ‘Reading Builds Imagination’
(RBI) program. And he was a regular at baseball camps for youth in Ottawa.
On Thursday, Aug. 14, 2003, Carroll had his number retired. However, the ceremony
didn’t go exactly as planned. That day, after all, is better remembered for the massive
electrical blackout that affected an estimated 10 million people in Ontario.
“We had a great crowd planned for that night,” recalled Bostwick. “But we ended up
having to do the ceremony without any microphone in the outfield.”
Those fans that did make it to the ballpark were invited onto the field to participate.
“It was pretty neat to have everybody out in centre field,” he said.
Bostwick called it ‘an ironic moment’, but perhaps it was fitting. Carroll, a true class act,
probably preferred a more intimate setting with the fans that had cheered him on during
his triple-A days in Ottawa.
***
With Carroll back in Montreal, the post-blackout Lynx continued to play solid baseball
right into the playoffs, where they met Boston’s Triple-A affiliate, the Pawtucket Red Sox.
But things got off to an inauspicious start for the Lynx in their first trip back to the
postseason in eight years.
Game 1 featured a bit of everything, as the Lynx lost two players to injury. Geronimo
Gil was hurt in the fourth inning on a collision at the plate with Cesar Crespo who
tried -- unsuccessfully -- to score from third on a ground ball. Jose Leon, meanwhile,
took a first-inning throw at third base off his face and, as a result, was gone for the
remainder of the postseason with a fractured cheekbone.
The Lynx committed three errors in the opener, a contest that featured plenty of rain and
a strange 21-minute delay when the light standards went dim at Lynx Stadium.
“We’ve had snow here and we had a two-hour delay at the opener because of a frozen
field ... and lots of flight mixups,” said Lynx manager Gary Allenson. “So nothing
surprises us.”
Trailing 3-1, the Lynx rallied for two runs in the eighth to send the game into extra
innings. But another Ottawa error in the 11th led to the eventual winning run in a 4-3
Pawtucket victory.
The end result was the same in Game 2, as Pawtucket rallied for five runs in the eighth
inning to erase a 2-0 deficit and win their second straight road playoff game (6-2),
putting the Lynx on the brink of elimination.
The series shifted to McCoy Stadium in Rhode Island for Game 3, and it was one to
remember.
Ottawa’s Matt Riley took a no-hit bid into the eighth before being removed with a 2-0
lead. The left-hander struck out eight and walked four, including his lone batter in the
eighth -- Pawtucket’s Chris Coste -- before departing.
“It was the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make in my managerial career,” said
Allenson. “Take a guy out throwing a no-hitter like that.”
Unlike Nabholz, who back in 1993 was removed with a no-hit bid after eight innings,
Riley wasn’t on a rehab assignment or on a pitch count in Game 3 against Pawtucket. But
it was the playoffs, and with the Lynx holding a narrow 2-0 lead Allenson opted to go
with his top reliever, Tim Harikkala, who had enjoyed a phenomenal regular season,
posting a club-record 0.81 ERA in 44 1/3 innings of work. The right-hander had allowed
four runs all season.
Unfortunately for the Lynx, Harikkala matched that in the eighth inning alone. Kevin
Youkilis singled to make it 2-1, former Lynx Trace Coquillette put Pawtucket up 3-2
with a two-run single, and Lou Collier, another former Ottawa player, belted a two-run
home run to give the PawSox a 5-2 lead.
Then the series took yet another twist.
With their backs against the wall, down three runs on the road with three outs
remaining, the Lynx rallied to score four in the ninth to win 6-5 and keep their
championship hopes alive.
“We said, ‘this ain’t over.’” said Lynx utility man Joey Hammond. “We knew we had it in
us. It’s a high point to be able to do this in a game that has so much meaning.”
Raul Casanova put the finishing touches on the comeback with a sacrifice fly to score
Napoleon Calzado to put the Lynx up 6-5. Darwin Cubillan then closed things out
for the save.
“They could make a movie about this game,” Allenson said. “But nobody would buy it,
because nobody would believe it.”
Pawtucket had no choice but to believe it.
Riding their momentum from the night before, the Lynx evened up the best-of-five series
with a 2-0 win in Game 4. Casanova provided the winning runs again with a two-run
homer in the first inning that stood up as the difference.
Unfortunately, that’s where Ottawa’s storybook postseason ended.
In the deciding Game 5 in Rhode Island, Collier hit his second home run of the series – a
solo shot in the first – and Kelly Dransfeldt delivered a two-run double in the fourth to
lead the PawSox to a 3-1 series-clinching victory to quash Ottawa’s championship hopes.
As it turned out, Game 5 at McCoy Stadium marked the last playoff game in Lynx
history.
***
There was disappointment within the Lynx organization following the 2003 season.
It wasn’t because of the tough playoff loss. In fact, it had nothing to do with the on-field
product whatsoever. Instead, it had everything to do with attendance.
Following back-to-back years of increased crowds at Lynx Stadium, things went in the
other direction in 2003, dropping 15.2%. And when that number dropped again in 2004,
down to 2,347 per game, it appeared the early inroads made under the new ownership
had vanished just as quickly.
Pecor’s annual trips from Vermont to Lynx Stadium each summer for a ‘state of the
franchise’ meeting with the media were getting more and more gloomy each year, and
rumours swirled about the team’s imminent departure to the U.S. (Harrisburg,
Allentown, Richmond and Orlando were all possible destinations).
In 2004, Pecor repeated his desire to keep the triple-A team in Ottawa. But in order to do
so, he said the Lynx would need far greater fan support. With the current attendance
figures, Pecor was reportedly losing $1-million every year as owner of the Lynx.
As usual, the front office was doing whatever it could to build momentum around the
team and increase the city’s support for baseball.
“They tried everything in the world,” recalled Leiper. “They did a great job at the
ballpark. There was a lot of entertainment and a lot of positive energy.”
Unfortunately, not enough people came out to enjoy that positive energy.
As well, aside from the usual obstacles facing the Lynx and their efforts to get more fans
in the stands (the lingering effects of the MLB strike, the imminent demise of the
Montreal Expos, and the competition from a now highly-successful Senators hockey club
across town), it became clear there was yet another obstacle to deal with.
Once again, it was the result of events outside the control of the ballclub, and that was
most frustrating of all.
***
It seems painfully simple. If you want to accommodate a lot of people at an event, you
need sufficient parking available. But while that used to be a non-issue for the Lynx, it
gradually became a major problem.
When JetForm opened in 1993, the stadium was surrounded by empty lots and there
were roughly 2,500 parking spots available on site. By 2004, that number had shrunk to
a mere 800. The city of Ottawa was to blame.
The stadium was now surrounded by big-box stores, apartment buildings, an industrial
strip mall and a large hotel -- all of the additions made possible by the city of Ottawa,
who sold off the adjacent land.
“That was a challenge,” Bostwick admitted. “It was very frustrating.”
Perhaps no more frustrating than when, on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, cars were
seen lined up on Coventry Road, hoping to get a parking spot at Lynx Stadium only to be
turned away due to a full lot.
“It really became difficult to get to that ballpark,” Bostwick said. “And that upset a lot of
people who were trying to give us a second chance. We had the positives with regards to
our increases in our trends and the excitement and the buzz. But then on the flipside, we
couldn’t really accommodate all the people that wanted to be there.
“So that was another cloud that we had to try to deal with.”
It was a cloud that hung over the Ottawa Lynx until their departure.
***
Along with the decline in attendance in 2004, the Lynx also suffered a setback in the
standings that year, followed up their 2003 playoff campaign with a disappointing 66-78
finish, nowhere near the playoffs.
Jose Leon returned to lead the Lynx with a .322 average and a .382 on-base percentage,
while Chad Mottola earned team MVP honours with a team-leading 22 home runs and
69 RBIs. Second baseman Mike Fontenot, meanwhile, finished just one hit shy of tying
Todd Haney’s franchise record of 147, set back in 1993.
When Erik Bedard (Navan, Ont.) made a pair of April starts, he became the 10th
Canadian to play for the Lynx in franchise history (Josh McCurdy (Thornhill, Ont.) and
Adam Loewen (Surrey, BC) later became the 11th and 12th, respectively, in 2005 and
2006.
Overall, it was a pretty forgettable season for the Lynx and Leiper, who returned to
manage Ottawa after spending 2003 at the class-A level in the Boston Red Sox
organization. One of the low points came in late April, as the Lynx gave up a franchisehigh 14 runs in the third inning on the way to a 16-1 loss to the Pawtucket Red Sox. An
embarrassingly small crowd of 844 took in that contest, which marked the beginning of a
six-game losing streak.
By the beginning of July, the Lynx had dropped to 11 games under .500 and were 16
games back in the IL North division. It was a far cry from Leiper’s 2002 team that won a
franchise-record 80 wins. In fact, the highlight of the season for Ottawa’s bench boss
came away from the International League entirely.
In August, Leiper left the Lynx for the month to join Team Canada along with former
Lynx pitcher Denis Boucher (Montreal, Que.) as coaches at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
The Canadians placed fourth, narrowly missing out on a spot in the gold-medal game
with an 8-5 loss to Cuba in the semis.
The opportunity arose through Leiper’s relationship with Baseball Canada and its top
execs, Jim Baba and Greg Hamilton, whom he met during his first stint with the Lynx. In
2006, he was on the bench again at the inaugural World Baseball Classic when Canada
upset Team U.S.A., 8-6, in the round-robin portion of the tournament.
Leiper, a California native, ended up calling Ottawa his offseason home for nine years. As
a result of his ties to the community, he was a favourite among Lynx fans, who held their
manager in high esteem. And according to Leiper, it was a mutual respect. Though the
fans were fewer in number during his tenure, he remembers them as supportive and
knowledgeable.
“They had an appreciation for the game,” he said. “They enjoyed the subtle points. That’s
something that always stood out for me.”
While they didn’t know it at the time, Lynx fans saw the last of Leiper on Sept. 4 for the
season finale at home. In October, the Orioles announced they wouldn’t be renewing
Leiper’s contract for the 2005 season. It came as a surprise to Ottawa’s manager.
He quickly landed a job with the class-A Lynchburg Hillcats in the Pittsburgh Pirates
system, but there was no question Leiper was disappointed to leave the Lynx
organization.
“The history of the team was fantastic, even in the short time it was there,” he said. “It
was a great baseball organization, and it was just a nice place to go play every day.”
***
A 2005 Lynx season wasn’t even guaranteed until early October, 2004, when it was
announced the team would return for another season. The Orioles picked up their twoyear option to remain the parent club of the Lynx, and Pecor had yet to pull the trigger
on a sale of the team.
The glory years of the franchise were long gone, but there was still triple-A ball to be
played. The combination of a thin Orioles minor-league system and the organization’s
preference to keep its top prospects closer to home at double-A Bowie in Maryland left
the Lynx with a veteran club in 2005.
But there was also a small contingent of young talent on the Lynx that year, and righthander John Maine was part of it. The 24-year-old entered the season as the Orioles’
third-best prospect, and enjoyed a steady season in Ottawa, striking out 111 batters in
128 1/3 innings before earning a trip to Baltimore in mid-August.
Fourteen months later, Maine found himself on the New York Mets, pitching -- and
winning -- a do-or-die NLCS Game 6 against the St. Louis Cardinals in front of 56,334 at
Shea Stadium. Coincidentally, there was another Lynx connection in that series – former
Lynx outfielder Chavez, who was in his first season in New York. Chavez made one of the
greatest defensive plays in postseason history in Game 7 – the Mets’ version of “The
Catch,” robbing Scott Rolen of a home run to a preserve a 1-1 tie (though the Mets
would go on to lose the game and the series).
Tim Raines Jr. was also a fixture in the Lynx clubhouse in 2005, having spent the better
part of three seasons in Ottawa after the Orioles switched affiliates. Raines had earned a
few trips to Baltimore in years past, but in 2005 the 25-year-old continued to toil away in
the minors, struggling to a .254 average and .302 on-base percentage. None of that was
apparent, though, on the day his godfather came to town.
Andre Dawson, aka “The Hawk”, made an appearance at Lynx Stadium in early August
for a promotion at the ballpark. The eight-time, NL all-star and 2010 Hall-of-Fame
nominee signed autographs and addressed the 3,230 in attendance before the game. He
also threw out the ceremonial first pitch to his godson.
“After the pitch, he said, ‘Thrill me. I’ll be up there watching,’” said Raines, who had a big
day at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored as the Lynx cruised to
a 10-4 win over Rochester. “So I said I’d see what I could do. I guess that was enough to
get me going.”
***
The Lynx lineup may not have been filled with future big-league stars in 2005, but there
was no shortage of them coming through Lynx Stadium on opposing teams that season.
It certainly wasn’t a new phenomenon, as numerous stars played against the Lynx in
Ottawa over the year. But in 2005, it was time for a new generation of talent to hone
their craft at Triple-A.
Top prospect Ryan Howard was the first, as the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Red Barons
came to town during Ottawa’s first homestand of the year. For Lynx fans, it was a
memorable appearance.
During an 11-7 Lynx win on a Tuesday night, a small group of hecklers near the visitor’s
dugout made life difficult for Howard, who finished 1-for-5 with a pair of strikeouts.
During each of the slugger’s at-bats, the group chanted and yelled, cheering at every
strike call. With a paltry 1,123 mid-April crowd, tuning them out proved impossible.
In an entertaining moment, the first baseman acknowledged the hecklers and their
efforts, flashing a grin and a tip of the cap on his way back to the dugout after striking
out for the second straight time in the seventh inning.
“It’s just part of the game,” said Howard, who was called up to the big leagues for good in
July. “I didn’t play well and they took advantage of it. Sometimes, you can’t help but
laugh.”
Of course, Howard got the last laugh. Just 4 1/2 months after his Lynx Stadium
appearance, the 25-year-old slugger was named NL Rookie of the Year. And in 2006, he
took home MVP honours.
Outfielder Shane Victorino, the 2005 IL MVP, also played for the Red Barons that
season. Both he and catcher Carlos Ruiz spent the entire year at triple-A, suiting up for
eight games in Ottawa.
Three years later, all three players -- Howard, Victorino and Ruiz -- were on the field and
in the Phillies’ lineup for Game 5 at Citizens Bank Park, as Philadelphia clinched the
2008 World Series over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Howard wasn’t the only future big-league MVP to play at Lynx Stadium in 2005. Dustin
Pedroia came to town as a member of the Pawtucket Red Sox. Like Howard, Pedroia
didn’t find the Lynx confines so friendly, as he batted just .167 in eight games in Ottawa
that season. Jonathan Papelbon didn’t either, as the right-hander gave up six runs on
eight hits over 3 2/3 innings in his second career Triple-A start – a 10-2 loss at Lynx
Stadium in mid-July.
Two years later, Pedroia, Papelbon and Youkilis -- another member of that 2005 PawSox
squad – each played a significant role in bringing the Boston Red Sox their second World
Series title in four years.
Other future stars to play in Ottawa that season included Brandon Phillips (Buffalo
Bisons), Curtis Granderson (Toledo Mud Hens), Carlos Pena (Mud Hens), and
current Blue Jays second baseman Aaron Hill (Syracuse Chiefs).
And there was also an appearance from a former star.
In mid-May, Frank Thomas suited up for the Charlotte Knights for a four-game series
at Lynx Stadium. It wasn’t the first time a big-name player visited Ottawa on a rehab
assignment (Jose Canseco and Deion Sanders had done so in the past), but it was
certainly a noteworthy event, especially since Thomas’s first game in Ottawa marked his
first game action in more than 10 months since suffering a season-ending ankle injury in
2004.
“I wasn’t expecting this much media to be here,” Thomas said before the opener, as he
sat in the visitors’ dugout surrounded by a dozen newspaper and TV personnel.
Unfortunately, like the rest of the high-profile players that came through Ottawa that
year, more media didn’t translate into higher attendance.
The series opener drew a paltry 1,349 on a Tuesday evening at Lynx Stadium. Thomas
went 2-for-3 with a double and a pair of runs, but the Lynx came away with a 9-8 victory.
And while 3,453 took in Friday’s finale, the four-game series (won by the Lynx, three
games to one) averaged 2,082.
For the season, the Lynx drew 2,396 per contest. In early August, Pecor announced the
team would return in 2006, but even he wasn’t sure why.
“I don’t know. That’s a good question,” he said. “Usually, I try to give you (Ottawa media)
answers, but I can’t answer that one. I need 4,000 (fans per game). I keep on saying that.
I’m a broken record. I love baseball and I don’t really want to go someplace else, but
there’s not a lot more that I can do. I’m at a loss.”
***
Dave Trembley, who replaced Leiper as Ottawa’s manager in 2005, returned for his
second Lynx season in 2006, and the team showed improvement on the field with a 7469 record. Still, it wasn’t enough to get them into the playoffs, as three teams finished
with better records in their division.
However, it was good enough to finally get Trembley a shot at coaching in the major
leagues. With 20 seasons as a minor-league manager under his belt, the Carthage, New
York native was named bullpen coach for the Orioles following the 2006 campaign. And
when Sam Perlozzo was fired in June of 2007, Trembley, whose final year as a player
was with the Kingston Ponites in 1974, was named manager in Baltimore, a role he has
held ever since.
In two seasons at the helm in Ottawa, Trembley produced 143 wins, along with one of the
most memorable ejections in team history, which came during a May contest at Lynx
Stadium in 2006.
Pawtucket was in town, Jon Lester made the start for the Sox, and the league was in its
third straight week without its regular officials due to a strike by the minor-league
umpires. Already miffed by what he perceived as poor umpiring from replacement crews
during the first few weeks of the season, Trembley reached his breaking point that first
day of May.
In the top of the eighth with the score was tied 4-4, Adam Stern (Port Stanley, Ont.)
came to the plate with runners on first and second. With the count 2-1, Lynx catcher Eli
Whiteside picked off Enrique Wilson at second. Trembley said the umpire had called
the pitch a strike, which would have made it 2-2. But when Stern stepped back in the
box, the ump announced the count as 3-1.
That prompted Trembley to engage in a long conversation with the umpiring crew – to
no avail. Sure enough, Stern ended up drawing a walk and Pedroia lined a single to left
for what turned out to be the winning run in a 5-4 Pawtucket victory. That sent Trembley
into hysterics.
The veteran skipper emerged from the dugout screaming at the umpiring crew. After
being ejected himself, he proceeded to point to each umpire individually and “eject” each
one of them, as Lynx fans cheered and urged on the candid performance from their
otherwise even-keeled manager. Trembley wrapped up his antics by tossing a pair of
batting helmets and a hat onto the field before departing for the clubhouse.
“This is the worst officiating I’ve ever seen in 20 years of pro ball,” Trembley said in a
tirade with Ottawa media after the game. “It’s an embarrassment to the International
League. They (replacement umps) shouldn’t be out there, plain and simple.”
It was one of the more notable incidents during the umpires’ strike of 2006, which lasted
until mid-June.
Luckily for Lynx fans, the highlights of the 2006 season didn’t all come during losses. In
fact, one in particular came in a big mid-season win at Lynx Stadium.
On July 24, the Lynx made some history in a home contest against the Norfolk Tides,
scoring a franchise-record 12 runs in the eighth for a come-from-behind 15-5 victory.
With Norfolk leading 4-3 entering the home half of the eighth, Ottawa reached safely in
12 straight plate appearances, amassing 12 hits in the inning -- 11 of them singles. Keith
Reed, Tony Alvarez and Calzado each had two hits apiece as the Tides cycled through
three different pitchers.
Only 1,714 were in attendance to witness that record-breaking Monday evening contest.
In 64 openings overall, Ottawa drew a franchise-worst 122,574 fans in 2006, an average
of 1,915 per game (down 20.1% from 2005).
The time had come in Ottawa.
***
The rumours had been swirling for months, but on Aug. 29, 2006 it became official. The
league’s board of directors unanimously approved the sale of Pecor’s majority ownership
in the Lynx to Pennsylvania businessmen Joseph Finley and Craig Stein.
The new owners already had a deal in place to move the team to Allentown, Pa. where it
would operate as the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia
Phillies.
Lynx fans officially had an end date for triple-A baseball in Ottawa.
However, it wouldn’t be 2006. Before Finley and Stein could move the Lynx, a new
stadium had to be built in Allentown to house their new ballclub. The partners had
designs for a $34-million, 8,000-seat facility, but it would take a year of construction
before Coca-Cola Park would be ready for triple-A action. As a result, the new owners
had little choice but to leave the team in Ottawa for one more season.
The news of Pecor’s sale didn’t necessarily come as a shock. But those Lynx fans that had
been faithful to the team over the years were understandably disappointed by the
announcement.
Shortly after the deal was done, the Lynx returned from a road trip to play one last twogame series at Lynx Stadium to close out the 2006 season. However, after the first was
rained out, the series against the Bisons was shortened to a single game on Labour Day
Monday.
A poor outing by Buffalo starter Fausto Carmona didn’t matter, as the Bisons slugged
their way to a 12-7 win. Jeremy Guthrie picked up the victory in relief, while Tim
Kester got the loss for Ottawa. But he did so in front of 5,364 fans, undoubtedly leaving
many to wonder where that kind of support had been all season -- or for the last six
years.
***
The final season of triple-A baseball in Ottawa saw the Lynx switch parents clubs for the
second time. For the 2007 campaign, the Philadelphia Phillies top farm club called Lynx
Stadium home, bringing an entirely new roster to Ottawa.
Attendance was virtually the same in 2007 as it was the previous year (an average of
1,922), still by far the lowest in the league. Unfortunately, the team matched that effort
on the field, finishing in the basement of the league with a 55-88 record, the team’s worst
finish since 2000.
Led by John Russell, a former big-leaguer and 2006 IL Manager of the Year, the Lynx
scored the fewest runs per game of any team in the league, while also posting the highest
team ERA.
But Ottawa’s dismal record certainly didn’t hurt Russell’s career. Following the season,
the 46-year-old was named manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates in November, a position he
still holds entering the 2010 season (ironically, Russell’s predecessor in Pittsburgh was
Jim Tracy, who managed the Lynx back in 1994).
There were bright spots on the team in 2007, and 32-year-old Gary Burnham was one
of them. The long-time, minor-league veteran led the team in several offensive
categories, including doubles, home runs, on-base percentage, and OPS. He also finished
third in the league in RBIs (84), behind IL MVP Mike Hessman (Toledo Mud Hens)
and Louisville’s Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.), who earned IL Rookie of the Year
honours that season.
J.A. Happ headlined the Lynx pitching staff in 2007, as the 24-year-old led the team in
starts (24) and strikeouts (117 in 118 1/3 IP). Happ made the start in the team’s 15th and
final home opener on April 17. Fittingly, the opponent was the Charlotte Knights, the
same team Ottawa played in its first home opener back in 1993. Fifteen years earlier, a
packed house of 10,332 watched the Knights win 3-2. In 2007, a disappointing 1,025
took in the opener – though this time the Lynx came out on the winning end of a 3-2
contest.
In June, Brandon Watson -- a former Expos draft pick -- produced a historic moment
at Lynx Stadium as a member of the visiting team. The 25-year-old Columbus Clipper
came into town on June 14 riding a 39-game hitting streak. After going 7-for-13 from
Thursday through Saturday, the streak stood at 42 entering Sunday’s series finale. And
then he made history.
With a sixth-inning single up the middle off Ottawa starter J.D. Durbin on Father’s
Day, June 17, Watson officially broke a 95-year-old International League record by
hitting in 43 straight contests, surpassing the previous mark set by Rochester’s Jack
Lelivelt (42) in 1912.
“My dad is a big baseball fan,” said Watson following the feat. “To do something of this
calibre on Father’s Day is special.”
The Lynx managed to steal away some of that thunder, earning a come-from-behind
victory in extra innings. Joe Thurston tied a franchise-record with five hits, Burnham
hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to send it into extra innings, and Jim
Rushford capped it off with a walk-off single to right in the 10th to give the Lynx the 98 win.
Wins like that may have been few and far between for Ottawa in 2007, but Lynx fans still
had plenty of reasons to come out to the ballpark, as the organization rolled out an
impressive assortment of events and promotions throughout the summer.
On July 14, the franchise held its official 15th anniversary celebration for a Saturday
game against the Norfolk Tides. Both Santangelo and Aucoin were on hand to sign
autographs and throw out the ceremonial first pitches.
The following week, the Lynx held a ‘Tribute to the Expos Day,’ where former Montreal
players Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd, Warren Cromartie, Claude Raymond and
Rodney Scott teamed up with local media personalities to play a three-inning game
against an ‘all-fan’ team made up of winning bidders from an eBay auction.
And then the Lynx reached a milestone.
The countdown had been on for some time, but on Thursday, Aug. 30 -- with just six
games remaining in their final season -- the Lynx won the 1,000th game in franchise
history.
Making his Lynx Stadium debut, Ottawa newcomer Gary Knotts got the better of
Rochester’s Nick Blackburn in a pitcher’s duel, earning a 1-0 win in the opener of a
doubleheader in front of one of the better crowds (3,413) of the season.
“I haven’t been here long, but it was nice to see a few more fans in the stands and be part
of history,” said the veteran Knotts, who took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and
finished with a complete-game, two-hit shutout for the milestone win. “It was good for
Ottawa.”
The following day, Ottawa racked up win No. 1,001, this time against the Syracuse
Chiefs. They did it in dramatic fashion, too, as Danny Sandoval broke a 4-4 tie with an
RBI double in the bottom of the 10th inning for the victory.
Unfortunately, instead of looking ahead to the next 1,000 wins, Lynx fans knew the
franchise had just three games left.
And then the inevitable day arrived.
***
On September, 3, 2007, the Lynx took the field for the last time.
Knotts got the nod in the franchise finale, making his second start at Lynx Stadium on
that warm, sunny Labour Day Monday contest against Syracuse . This time, however,
there were more than twice as many fans in the stands.
Officially, 7,461 were in attendance for that final game -- the largest crowd at Lynx
Stadium since April 16, 2005. Once again, it left the organization wondering what could
have been had the city offered anything near that type of support over the past several
years.
“It’s bittersweet,” Bostwick said of the large crowd. “We’re not doing anything different
than we normally do. It’s certainly frustrating to know that there are people here who
can make the effort to come out to a game.”
Veteran Lynx outfielder Pedro Swann definitely appreciated the support.
“The best feeling I had was when we took the field and the fans gave us a standing
ovation at the start of the game,” said the 36-year-old Swann, who also spent 2003 and
2004 in Ottawa while in the Orioles’ system. “It was the first time we heard that all
season. It was so loud, it made you want to come out and win for them.”
Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
Knotts wasn’t sharp this time around, and the right-hander was pulled in the top of the
sixth, trailing 5-3. Reliever Ryan Cameron then gave up a three-run homer to Wayne
Lydon, the first batter he faced, putting Ottawa down 8-3.
The Lynx did make it interesting, getting two back in the sixth to pull within three. They
even managed to put the tying run on base in the ninth following singles from Burnham
and Brennan King.
But it wasn’t to be.
More than 500 players wore the Lynx uniform during the team’s 15-year existence. But
with two out and a 2-1 count in the team’s final inning, 36-year-old catcher Dusty
Wathan came away with the infamous distinction of being the last out in franchise
history.
With the entire crowd on its feet, Wathan bounced a grounder to Ryan Roberts, and
the Syracuse second baseman made the routine play to close out the final chapter of the
Ottawa Lynx, Canada’s last triple-A ball team.
If the cheering quieted down following the final out, it wasn’t noticeable. The 7,461
remained on their feet for a lengthy standing ovation as the players slowly gathered their
equipment and walked off the field into the clubhouse.
“It was great to see the fans out,” said Russell, whose three-year-old son ran a final lap
around the base paths, sliding into home to loud cheers from the crowd. “It’s a great city,
we love the city. Fans were appreciative of what we did. It’s a shame things are turning
out the way they are for baseball here, but it was an enjoyable summer for us.”
And with that, it was over.
After 15 years of memories, three playoff appearances and a league championship, the
Darwinian-born Lynx were officially extinct.
***
Affiliated baseball was finished in the city, but that’s not where the story ended for pro
ball in Ottawa.
There were other options for keeping the game in the nation’s capital, and a small – but
dedicated – group of fans rallied together in an effort to make that happen.
As the Lynx were playing out the string in 2007, and city council was reviewing
proposals for the future of the stadium, a petition was in circulation as well as outside
Lynx Stadium asking for support to “Save our Ballpark.”
That same summer, Miles Wolff, the commissioner of the Can-Am baseball league,
came to town. After meeting with Bostwick and scoping out the city and its stadium,
Wolff decided Ottawa would be a great fit for his newest independent league, which at
the time consisted of eight teams throughout the northeastern United States, as well as a
team in Quebec (Les Capitales).
Less than two weeks after the Lynx left town, Wolff was at Ottawa city hall along with a
team of supporters to officially make a pitch for independent ball in the city.
While there were several other proposals for the site on Coventry Road, including
everything from an indoor sports facility, to a concert venue, to yet another big-box
locale, Wolff’s proposal to keep pro ball in Ottawa came out on top. And the man who
founded the first modern independent league back in 1993 was confident the Can-Am
league would succeed in the nation’s capital.
“When the Lynx started, they were drawing 9,000 a game — it was phenomenal,” Wolff
said. “You’ve got to think all these fans haven’t died, that there is a base here that we
need to bring back, to cultivate, and hopefully we can do it.”
Aside from pointing out the team could survive on less than the 4,000-4,500 that were
needed at the triple-A level, Wolff also stressed the advantages of the Can-Am league
schedule, which started in late May (much later than the affiliated season). Because of
this, Ottawa would be able to avoid the cold and wet April and early-May days that
plagued the Lynx for a number of years, drastically affecting total attendance numbers.
In January, 2008, the Can-Am commissioner announced the front-office staff for the
league’s newest member, and in mid-February, the team introduced its first field
manager, Ed Nottle. The Ottawa club also unveiled its team name – the Ottawa Rapids
(aka Rapides), chosen from over 1,100 entries in a ‘name the team’ contest.
Finally, after several months under the ‘ownership’ of the league, the franchise changed
hands, as a pair of local businessmen, Rick Anderson and Rob Hall, purchased the
team in late April.
“The reason we’re into this is because we love sports, because we love this community
and we think that the Can-Am league is a tremendous version of baseball — an
independent league, players playing for the love of the game,” said Anderson.
***
But from there, things didn’t go so smoothly.
Just 10 days into their ownership (and 16 days before the start of the season), Anderson
and Hall announced the firing of General Manager Don Charrette, who had been hired
by Wolff in January.
The owners also changed the team’s name to ‘Rapidz’, the ‘z’ being added for branding
purposes (Anderson and Hall were owners of Zip.ca, an online video rental company).
The season opener on May 22 was certainly a success in terms of attendance (4,246 came
out to newly-named Rapidz Stadium), but unfortunately, the home side was unable to
deliver a win.
Ottawa native and former national team pitcher Mike Kusiewicz did his part, allowing
one earned run over six innings, but the Rapidz managed only two hits and committed
six errors en route to a 6-0 loss to the New Jersey Jackals.
After losing three of their first four at home, the Rapidz hit the road, dropping three
straight to the Atlantic City Surf (a team managed by former big-leaguer Cecil Fielder),
and then three of four once again to the Jackals in N.J. When the team returned to
Ottawa, their record was just 2-9.
And the losses kept coming after that.
At the conclusion of the season’s first half, Ottawa owned a league-worst 13-34 record.
On July 31, the owners fired Nottle, a veteran of almost 40 pro seasons as a player, coach
and manager. Hitting coach Tom Carcione was named as the temporary replacement.
The change at the top didn’t reflect much in the standings, as the Rapidz finished in the
basement again in the second half with an 18-29 record, giving them an overall mark of
31-63 on the year.
One of the few bright spots on the field in 2008 was the play of Jabe Bergeron, a first
baseman from New Hampshire. In 91 games, the 26-year-old finished with 13 home
runs, 69 RBIs and a .354 batting average, good for third-best in the league.
But the brightest spot that season came off the field.
Attendance during the Rapidz’ first season had been pretty good. Including an
announced crowd of 5,021 for the Sept. 1 season finale, Ottawa’s Can-Am team drew an
average of 2,197 per contest in 2008 to rank fifth in the eight-team league. Despite the
mounting losses, there was no denying the city had supported the team in its first season.
“The fans have been amazing here -- considering our record and the weather this
summer, how lousy both have been,” said Kusiewicz before the Rapidz lost their season
finale, 8-3, to the Worcester Tornadoes. “You realize it was the first season you’re going
to have some growing pains and just start looking and building for next year.”
The owners, too, said they were looking forward to Year II. In fact, they claimed to
already have a list in hand of possible prospects to add to Ottawa’s squad in 2009.
“We took over this team three weeks before the season, so we were rushed to get
everything done in 21 days,” said Hall. “Now we’ve got eight months to plan next year, so
we’re really looking forward to the opportunity to show Ottawa what we can do.”
Not even four weeks later, Anderson and Hall filed for bankruptcy, claiming debts of
nearly $1.4 million.
***
Without ownership, the team was handed back over to the league. Despite the
disappointing turn of events, Wolff announced in November that the league planned on
returning to Ottawa the following season.
Wanting a “fresh start” for the franchise, the Can-Am league renamed the team the
“Ottawa Voyageurs” in February, 2009, after another ‘name the team contest.’ With new
management in place, including new general manager Barry Robinson, the team was set
to open on May 28.
It didn’t happen.
On March 30, less than eight weeks before the proposed start of the season, Wolff
announced that the Voyageurs would cease operations due to forecasted financial losses
and the lack of a solid, local ownership group. The team hadn’t even unveiled its logo.
It was a sad day, indeed, for baseball fans in Ottawa, as it meant that 2009 would mark
the first year since 1993 that the city -- and its beautiful stadium -- would not be home to
pro ball.
In fact, it wasn’t home to any level ball, professional or otherwise. Instead, it sat empty
throughout the summer.
That wasn’t Wolff’s decision. In fact, the Can-Am commissioner expressed his desire to
see someone use the park.
“We have told the city – use it for whatever you want,” said Wolff, who paid $108,000 in
rent on the stadium in 2009 despite not fielding a team in Ottawa. “It’s a crime not to
use this beautiful facility.”
Because no one was using it, the park was not maintained by city staff. The result was
depressing, as Scanlan found out when he took a drive down Coventry Road last July.
In an effort to share his sorrow, he phoned up Darwin, the man who 16 years previously,
had successfully lobbied to have the state-of-the-art minor league stadium built in
Ottawa during the ‘heyday’ of baseball in Canada.
“I went by there a few days ago,” Darwin said. “It tore my heart out. It’s just awful.”
Like Wolff and Scanlan, Darwin wanted to see the park opened up so Ottawa-area
ballplayers could make use of the facility.
“Let the Orleans Little League teams play there,” Darwin said. “Or the Ottawa Nepean
Canadians. Open the park up and let the kids use it. The city cuts the grass on
playgrounds, doesn’t it? Well, that’s a hell of a playground there.”
Sadly, Darwin passed away just three months later, at age 78.
But before he did, the park was opened up -- with a little help from Scanlan.
Shortly after Scanlan’s column appeared in the Ottawa Citizen, City Councillor Bob
Monette took a tour of the ballpark with acting mayor Doug Thompson. That trip
prompted the city to take action, cleaning up the stadium and restoring the field to a
playable level.
“It would be a shame, leaving a field like that empty all year long,” said Monette, who
spearheaded a return of baseball – at the community level – to Coventry Road in late
August and early September.
For two weekends, the stadium hosted a pair of National Capital Baseball League playoff
games, as well as eight exhibition contests between teams from District 2 and District 6
of Little League Ontario.
“This stadium is in fantastic condition, and it’s still the pride that it was back when we
had the Lynx,” Monette said during the first weekend of action. “The city has maintained
it and will continue to maintain it, and what I want to make sure is that next year,
whether we have a Can-Am team or not, this stadium will not sit empty.”
***
The hope is that there will be a Can-Am team in 2010. Or, barring that, a team from
another independent league.
Wolff still believes in the Ottawa market, which showed a lot of support for its Can-Am
team in 2008.
“I still remember 5,000 fans at our last game, with really no reason to be there,” he said,
referring to Ottawa’s dismal play in 2008 and the game’s irrelevance in the final
standings. “I would love to say we’re going to come back to Ottawa next season. The
(2008) season did not end up as we wanted. It hurt us so much as far as credibility goes.”
Luckily, the league’s credibility doesn’t appear to have suffered too much.
On Dec. 1, 2009, City of Ottawa staff made the recommendation that its baseball stadium
continue to be used in the short-term future for professional or semi-pro baseball. The
city received two unsolicited proposals for pro ball, and the Can-Am League is believed
to be one of them.
The other proposal is from a group that wants to bring in a team from the Golden
Baseball League, a California-based independent circuit whose northern division already
includes teams from Victoria, Calgary and Edmonton.
Of course, neither proposal is a sure thing. There are plenty of obstacles to be overcome
before Ottawa can play host to professional baseball once again.
Nevertheless, the early December news was exciting for ball fans in Ottawa, who cringe
at the thought of their stadium being torn down.
With winter now here, a trip down Coventry Road over the next few months will most
likely show a field covered in snow, hardly a welcome sight for ball fans. But at least now,
those fans can daydream about returning to the ballpark in the summer, when the sun
glistens off the bright blue seats at the stadium, and the sights, sounds and smells of
baseball waft throughout the stadium.
Here’s hoping that next spring, that dream becomes a reality and Ottawa welcomes back
professional baseball ...
***
Todd Devlin is a freelance sportswriter based in London, Ont. He got his first taste
working in professional ball when he served as a media relations assistant for the
Ottawa Lynx in 2005. He saw 71 of 72 games from the pressbox at Lynx Stadium that
summer, missing just one contest for his university graduation.