Brewers renewing with Huntsville -- Latest: Stars season ends with another losing record, poor attendance

[Invader3K]

If he buys the Astros, can he keep his minor league teams, or does he have to sell them off?

[And That]

I'm 95% sure he can keep them. Nolan Ryan is now a partial owner of both the Texas Rangers and minor league teams Round Rock Express and Corpus Christi Hooks.

[dadofandrew]

No rule against that. MLB teams can also own minor league teams.

[Mass Haas]

City, Stars revise lease agreement for "The Joe"

By Steve Doyle, The Huntsville Times

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- City-owned Joe Davis Stadium is getting about $100,000 worth of upgrades before the Huntsville Stars' first home game in April.

The city was originally under contract to replace the playing field grass this winter, but General Services Director Jeff Easter said it's still in decent shape.

So the Stars have asked the city to make other needed fixes to the 26-year-old stadium instead.

The City Council approved the revised stadium lease agreement with the Stars on Thursday night.

Easter said the city will aim the ballpark's lights to better illuminate the field, install lights in the Stars' batting practice hitting tunnel, and place grinder pumps in the dugouts.

Grinder pumps chew up trash that would otherwise clog the dugout storm drains and cause flooding.

Gord Ash, the Milwaukee Brewers' vice president and assistant general manager, has identified improper lighting as one of the parent club's biggest beefs about "The Joe." The Brewers are the major league affiliate of the Stars.

The oldest ballpark in the Southern League, Joe Davis Stadium has also long been plagued by poor field drainage. A handful of games last season had to be canceled because of standing water.

Under the revised lease, the city will give the Stars $30,000 to laser-level the field, add more drains and redo both the pitcher's mound and warning track.

Easter said it would have cost more to replace the sod than to make the new improvements requested by the Stars.

"It works out better for both parties," he said.

Despite his frustrations with the stadium, Stars owner Miles Prentice in September renewed the team's lease through the fall of 2015.

The Stars open the upcoming season on the road in Jacksonville before returning home on April 13 to face the Carolina Mudcats.

 

Photo by Dave Dieter/Huntsville Times

Huntsville's Joe Davis Stadium

 

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[Mass Haas]

Here's the next bit of speculation --

 

Group working on bringing Southern League team to a new stadium in Baton Rouge in 2013, Huntsville a possible (likely?) target (link).

 

The Brewers are tied to Huntsville through 2012, so any talk now is a bit premature, as the Brewers may not even be associated with the franchise in 2013.

 

Sure would be a nice situation, though...

[Mass Haas]

Everyone associated with the organization will be thrilled about this -- from GM Buck Rogers:

The stadium lights have been re-aimed and measured and Joe Davis Stadium hasn't been this lit up since, well, maybe ever. The city of Huntsville worked hand-in-hand with Musco, the best stadium-lighting company the world over, and got the lion's share of the work done last week. They'll make one final adjustment later this week, but you'll be amazed by what you can now see at the stadium if you come out here this weekend for the high school games. Some of the light readings were two to three times better than previous measurements made in 2008. It's like night and day. The staff is humming "I wear my sunglasses at night..."

[hsvstarsfan]

I won't be happy till we have a honest-to-God scoreboard that is fully operational. We fans, who still show up, deserve it.

[Invader3K]

I won't be happy till we have a honest-to-God scoreboard that is fully operational. We fans, who still show up, deserve it.

Yeah, one wouldn't think a working scoreboard would be too much to ask for in this day and age...

[Southern Leaguer]

I won't be happy till we have a honest-to-God scoreboard that is fully operational. We fans, who still show up, deserve it.

You are so right, David. We deserve a video screen that works but, short of that, a scoreboard at LEAST as good as what we had in 1985. Give us the batter's stats, sheeesh! The only difference between the Stars scoreboard of the last couple of years and the average high school scoreboard is that Huntsville posted the batter's uniform number. I can SEE his number, tell me what his average is, how many HR and RBI ...

 

 

[Mass Haas]

Improved facility awaits Huntsville Stars as 2011 home opener arrives

By Mark McCarter, The Huntsville Times

 

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- There's a new time, new field and new menu at the old ballpark.

The Huntsville Stars open their 2011 home schedule Wednesday at Joe Davis Stadium, hosting the Carolina Mudcats in the first of a five-game series.

The game will start at 6:43 p.m., as will all night games this season. That's the management's response to families who had bemoaned how late games tended to end, and it's a spinoff from the 6-4-3 double play in a scorebook.

The more important management response was to react to Minor League Baseball's mandate for stadium improvement.

The infield has been lowered and resodded and, according to general manager Buck Rogers, the drainage problems that beset the team a year ago and forced numerous postponements have been solved. The infield looks as attractive as it has in several years.

The outfield lighting, aimed for use for high school football, has been re-directed and Rogers said there will be a noticable difference.

Last September, Pat O'Conner, president of Minor League Baseball, visited Joe W. Davis Stadium and told The Times the park "is not conducive to the long-term health of baseball in Huntsville."

He warned Stars management that he would "enforce the rules" to see the park met at least minimum standards for a Double-A facility.

Construction should be complete soon on a new batting tunnel for pre-game work, as per a request from the parent Milwaukee Brewers.

"The big issue (in the off-season) facing us was to get it to where Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball and the Brewers need us to be," Rogers said.

Stars fans will notice a broader menu for Thursday, Friday and Saturday games, with some ballpark delicacies like barbecue nachos, pretzel buns and brisket sandwiches.

They should also continue to appreciate the affordability. Adult tickets remain $8 and childrens tickets $5; put a zero on the end of those and you'll get a sense what it costs to watch a major league game. As Rogers pointed out, with the myriad promotions and corporate partnerships, "you'd be hard-pressed to have to pay full-price if you'll shop around."

The season schedule and promotional calendar are available at huntsvillestars.com

The Stars, 3-2 on the season, will be hoping to rebound from a 67-73 record from last season and a one-year absence from postseason play. At the turnstiles, they'll be hoping to climb from the bottom in Southern League attendance.

There is one small change in the Southern League. The West Tenn DiamondJaxx have changed their name to the Jackson Generals. Next season there will be dramatic change. The Carolina Mudcats' franchise will be moving to Pensacola, Fla., with a Class A team moving into the Mudcats' park.

The Stars' future remains secure, according to management. Huntsville and Milwaukee will be in the first year of a two-year player development contract that was renewed at the end of last season and this will be the second on a five-year stadium lease that management extended last April with the city of Huntsville, which owns Joe Davis Stadium.

[Mass Haas]

Stars show some promise on and off the field during home opening victory

By Mark McCarter, The Huntsville Times

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Quick question: How do you say "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" in German?

 

The Huntsville Stars chose for some mysterious reason an Oktoberfest theme for their season-opener Wednesday night.

 

Beck's beer cheaper, leiderhosen optional.

As fans arrived, they were greeted at the stadium by a German band playing selections from what seemed the "K-Tel Greatest Polka Hits" CD.

Sure. You think baseball in April, you think beer-guzzling in the fall.

Then again, both are joyous celebrations.

It's always intriguing to see what an Opening Night might do, with the novelty of pro baseball having evaporated, with Huntsville long proving a fickle spectator city and so many area sports fans busily occupied on rivals.com to see which college football team is being most recently accused of cheating.

This time, 5,338 convened at Joe W. Davis Stadium to root, root, root for the heimmannschaft.

The ol' park looked pretty good for her age. Redirected lighting made the field look brighter. And it highlighted a field that for the most part was pretty enough to be awarded a "Yard of the Month" sign.

(Still, there's the constant reminder of bewildering infrastructure woes; to wit, the wi-fi signal to the press box was kayoed when the electrical circuit in the visitors' clubhouse was overloaded.)

A win doesn't hurt the cause. A bunch of runs early didn't hurt that.

At exactly 7:05 - the traditional first-pitch time before it was switched to 6:43 p.m. this year - Huntsville already had a 5-0 lead.

With Wily Peralta pitching, five runs is a luxury like a Kevlar vest under a catcher's chest protector. He pitched 4 2/3 innings of perfect ball and left with a 6-2 cushion in the seventh.

A more than interested spectator was Miles Prentice, the Stars' majority owner.

Last season, he sat among 7,782 fans for the Southern League All-Star Game.

This time, another good crowd. Another lovely night. Another reminder of the "what could be" about this franchise.

Prentice was understandably dazzled by the field and feels this is the best front-office staff gathered in more than a half-dozen years.

The last two years he said "we couldn't catch a break" because of bad weather. Figure time has come for that to change; wouldn't that be the case, now that migraine-causing draining issues have been solved, there'll be little to drain?

The All-Star attendance left Prentice optimistic, and reminded him that "the (population) numbers are here."

Prentice frankly said that "we should be averaging 2,500 a game."

That'd be a stretch from past seasons.

It should be do-able.

"We've got to reach out," Prentice admitted.

There is a large population base. The team has potential to be good. There's an overstocked menu of promotions to lure fans, some more corny or daring than others.

(For instance, the women's-only gathering this Friday, sponsored by a local adult boutique. And, sorry, but a webcam broadcast from the stands rather than a radio arrangement is more bush league comedy than Southern League-quality.)

The bottom line issue that keeps dangling is the team's future, or any potential sale.

"I don't like to move," Prentice said.

"But it's been a rough couple of years," he acknowledged.

Maybe they'll get things smoothed like the field. Maybe things will go brighter, like the lighting adjustment.

Here's hoping they'll keep playing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" here.

In any language.

[Mass Haas]

Three ex-Huntsville Stars will start as National League All-Stars; shame so few appreciated them here

By Mark McCarter, The Huntsville Times

 

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- This is about a team called "Lemon's Juice," an apathetic fan base that doesn't know what it missed, some baseball history and how sometimes things do live up to the hype. All that as the wrapping to the accomplishments of three spectacular players.

There are sports fans in Huntsville who stubbornly cling to early days of the Stars' franchise, with selective memory of watching Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire. There are those - I hear this once a month at least - who complain that an affiliation with the Milwaukee Brewers caused them to lose interest.

There are tens of thousands of other sports fans in the area whose apathy toward the Stars has screamed loudly.

Now hear this:

One-third of the starting National League All-Star team consists of former Huntsville Stars.

That would be first baseman Prince Fielder, second baseman Rickie Weeks and outfielder Ryan Braun, all with the Brewers.

"It means the Milwaukee Brewers have arrived on the national scene," Braun told The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Shame these guys never really arrived here, never really resonated with local fans.

(A case for inclusion on the teams could be made for two other former Stars, Padres reliever Mike Adams, with a 1.34 ERA over the last 2 1/2 seasons as a set-up man, and Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz, with 20 homers, 50 RBI; he was runner-up to Fielder in last year's Home Run Derby on All-Star eve.)

Not since 1988 have three former Huntsville players started on the same All-Star team, when McGwire, Canseco and catcher Terry Steinbach did so. That was during a stretch in which McGwire was a starter four years out of five, his streak interrupted by ... Cecil Fielder, Prince's father.

As dire and depressing as it may be on an average night at Joe Davis Masoleum these days, it's been a long process of erosion, this disinterest in the Stars.

When Fielder and Weeks were Huntsville mainstays in 2004, along with Tony Gwynn Jr. (now with the Dodgers), the Stars drew 180,506.

When Braun played here in 2006, sparking an unprecedented streak of 36 wins in the last 47 games, the Stars drew only 158,775.

Fielder, Weeks and Braun have undeniably lived up to the hype.

Braun, 27, was the fifth player picked in the 2005 draft. He was a college All-America at Miami.

Weeks, 28, was the second player picked in the 2003 draft. He was the college player of the year at Southern University. He is enjoying a career season, batting .278 with 15 homers and his best fielding percentage yet.

Fielder, 26, was the seventh player picked in the 2002 draft. He was a prodigy whom old players recall hitting tape-measure homers in big league parks while taking batting practice with his dad. At his current pace, he'll be the 2011 National League MVP.

Fielder and Weeks have all but been a tandem act in their careers. Their path that winds to the All-Star Game on July 12, that spun underappreciated through Huntsville in 2004, began many years before.

Chet Lemon, a former big league outfielder, had an AAU baseball team in Lake Mary, Fla., just outside Orlando. "Chet Lemon's Juice," he called it. Among his players in the mid-1990s were Prince Fielder and Rickie Weeks. A simple mention of that team is guaranteed to bring a smile to Fielder and Weeks.

Lemon would recall years later that Fielder was a big kid even then and that Weeks was painfully quiet and shy. That much hasn't changed.

"Man," Lemon said, "we traveled the country with those youngsters."

What a trip they're on now.

 

Prince Fielder, center, and Rickie Weeks during their days with the Huntsville Stars, along with teammate Tony Gwynn Jr. (now with L.A. Dodgers)

Photo by The Huntsville Times / Patricia Miklik Doyle

 

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[Mass Haas]

Minor League Baseball president concerned about 'long-term future' of Huntsville Stars franchise

By Mark McCarter, The Huntsville Times

Pat O'Conner, president of Minor League Baseball, has two schools of thought when it comes to faltering operations and aging facilities among the 160 franchises under his watch.

 

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Near-empty Joe Davis Stadium is typical occasion

Huntsville Times Photo by Dave Dieter

"My evaluation boils down to real simple terms: unwilling or unable," O'Conner said Monday night on a visit to Huntsville. "Some are willing and unable. Some are unwilling. And you've got to cut to the root and find out if they don't care if baseball is here, how long should we? And I don't have the answer. And I don't like having the conversation."

The collective "they" would be the city of Huntsville, the landlord of 26-year-old Joe W. Davis Stadium, the oldest in the Southern League; potential fans; and the ownership and management of the Huntsville Stars, headed by president Miles Prentice and general manager Buck Rogers.

"I have real concerns about long-term future," O'Conner said of the franchise, reiterating a comment he made last August on a fact-finding trip here.

O'Conner was in town this time to present a check for $20,000 on behalf of Minor League Baseball Charities to the Huntsville Salvation Army for tornado relief. Funds were raised through a "15 for 15" program, in which teams agreed to donate 15 percent of their online merchandise sales to the charity during a 15-day period.

"When we have communities that get in trouble, it's what we do to come to their aid," O'Conner said. "It is a characteristic of Minor League Baseball and our clubs and our executives, and I'm very proud of them."

O'Conner sat down for an interview an hour before Monday's Huntsville-Tennessee Smokies game was rained out, the third in six dates. Not good news for a franchise that already has the lowest attendance of the nation's 30 Class AA teams, averaging 1,696 per date.

Though he acknowledged "the club is struggling," O'Conner said he typically doesn't become involved in the day-to-day decisions of the franchises or attendance woes. He has not had any conversation with Prentice about the future of the team.

Prentice, a long-time attorney in New York, also owns a short-season Class A team in Norwich, Conn., that he purchased last winter as well as the Midland A's of the Texas League. Prentice, who has relocated to Key West, has been heavily involved this summer in the development of a group of Five Guys Restaurants he purchased.

"I refuse to believe people don't know (baseball) is here," O'Conner said. "I refuse to believe people don't like baseball. I think people have made a conscious decision that this is a place they prefer not to be and to spend their summer."

Some fans have complained about the Stars' management and others point to the working agreement with the Milwaukee Brewers as two reasons for apathy. Ownership, the Brewers and O'Conner have all suggested that a park drastically renovated to become more fan-friendly, or a new stadium, would assure a brighter future.

What impact an old stadium that is not fan-friendly has on attendance is subjective. Whether it's even suitable for Minor League Baseball remains another question.

O'Conner made several demands last August to assure the stadium was brought up to minimum standards. He gave the stadium only a cursory inspection -- an official inspection recently took place and O'Conner will see the results later this month -- and said, "On the surface, it's not greatly changed."

However, the lighting and drainage issues that were top priorities were taken care of in the off-season.

"My concern is, are we putting Band-Aids on a big problem? And if we are, how long are we collectively going to be able and willing to do that?" he said. "I don't know where we are with this ballpark. It's better, and I applaud that. It may not yet to be where it needs to be.

"Quite honestly, this building is too big, it's too old and the infrastructure issues we talked about a year ago are still there. It's major dollars (to fix it). Are we trying to make a pig sing here?" O'Conner continued.

O'Conner said he is aware "that cities are in a jam right now (with) public money" and is not pronouncing a death notice on the team.

"Can they get by? Yeah, they can probably get by for a while," he said. "But at some point, there is a diminishing return for a need for a continuing investment by Miles and the city.

"I think Huntsville is a good enough baseball town to have Southern League baseball. My concern," O'Conner said, "is if it loses baseball, it could be a considerable amount of time before it gets it back. ... If they lose it, it'll cost more to get back in than it'll cost to keep it."

[Mass Haas]

Stars season ends with another losing record, poor attendance

By Mark McCarter, The Huntsville Times

 

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- And so another Huntsville Stars season has come and gone, this one as forgettable and faceless as the stranger next to you on an hour-long flight.

 

It ended symbolically and appropriately, with a rained-out doubleheader Monday afternoon.

The Stars finish at 64-73, their second consecutive year without postseason play. It was their sixth losing season in the last eight years.

Huntsville drew only 93,340 in 59 dates this season, an average of 1,582 per game, the lowest of all 30 Class AA franchises. (In fact, it's only 92 more per game than the Brewers' Class A Brevard County, Fla., team, the eighth-best attendance in the Florida State League.)

The Stars' front office would have you believe Mother Nature has been at fault for attendance woes throughout the last several years. That's like blaming the nation's economic meltdown on a busted ATM machine.

Huntsville hardly is the only team in the league to have dealt with consistent heat mixed with frequent rain. It lost more dates than any other team mostly because it was ill-equipped to handle rain, because of a short staff and porous tarp.

You need a strong microscope to find very many bright spots from this summer. No Huntsville player made the postseason Southern League All-Star team. No player with more than 200 at-bats hit higher than .300. No one was even in double-digits in homers. Dan Meadows had six wins and a 1.51 ERA and Wily Peralta won nine games before his promotion to Class AAA.

Perhaps the highlight was when Hunter Morris, the former Grissom High and Auburn player, became the first Huntsville native to play for the Stars. He had six hits in 17 at-bats, including a homer, triple and double, in four games before being sent back to Class A so he could play full-time.

"It was a good development year," manager Mike Guerrero said Monday afternoon. He was one of the last ones left in the Stars' clubhouse, its carpeting soaked by a leak coming from the ceiling. As he chatted in his office, where bags were packed, three times the power conked out.

"I feel good about the development area. The guys who were supposed to get better got better," Guerrero continued. He noted that three players who spent part of 2011 with the Stars - third baseman Taylor Green, outfielder Logan Schafer and catcher Martin Maldonado - are in the majors.

"When you see players from your team make it to the majors," Guerrero said, "that's the biggest satisfaction. It's a beautiful thing."

Few others will join them there from the '11 Stars. The Brewers strip-mined their minor league system, swapping many of their top prospects for experienced major leaguers, trying to capitalize on a playoff opportunity before the economics of small-market baseball doom them again.

It's cyclical, this player development business, and the Brewers are back on a down cycle after being considered the best organization in the minors just three years ago. None of the six Milwaukee farm clubs finished with a winning season.

As the Stars announced Monday's cancellation, it was noted they'll open the 2012 season on Sunday, April 15.

The extended forecast is 70 percent chance of rain, with widely scattered apathy.

 

Photo from The Huntsville Times / Bob Gathany

Former Grissom High and Auburn star Hunter Morris, whose brief appearance with Stars was a rare highlight for summer of '11.

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[Southern Leaguer]

From the last couple of articles ....

 

"I refuse to believe people don't know (baseball) is here," O'Conner said. "I refuse to believe people don't like baseball. I think people have made a conscious decision that this is a place they prefer not to be and to spend their summer." ...and ...

 

"The Stars' front office would have you believe Mother Nature has been at fault for attendance woes throughout the last several years. That's like blaming the nation's economic meltdown on a busted ATM machine. Huntsville hardly is the only team in the league to have dealt with consistent heat mixed with frequent rain. It lost more dates than any other team mostly because it was ill-equipped to handle rain, because of a short staff and porous tarp."

"As the Stars announced Monday's cancellation, it was noted they'll open the 2012 season on Sunday, April 15. The extended forecast is 70 percent chance of rain, with widely scattered apathy."

 

Mr. O'Conner and Mr. McCarter sum it up rather nicely. Sure, there are a few folks who have just started attending games in the last year or two and they seem to tnjoy it but those of us who have been going to games simce 1985 know that Huntsville is now a bush-league operation. We attended 4 games this year, the fewest since the team came here in 1985 and by FAR the fewest in the last 20 years. We went to Birmingham to see the Barons play Chattanooga and went to Nashville for one game. Right now, based on our experiences at the Joe over the last 3 years, I don't know if we will attend any games there in 2012 unless there is a major shake-up in local management ... and a scoreboard that is at least as good as what we had before they ever installed the video screen.

[Mass Haas]

Stars will flicker out unless government and civic leaders force some dramatic changes

By Mark McCarter, The Huntsville Times

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- The time has come. If professional baseball stands a chance in Huntsville, it will take a dramatic rescue effort.

 

As much as it pains me to type this, I often believe it's too late. I think it's just best to end the suffering and pull the plug on the Huntsville Stars.

I'm a baseball guy at heart. I grew up on Southern League baseball, as a kid and in this business.

I'm an advocate for quality-of-life aspects to the community. We need myriad things for entertainment and enrichment, whether they suit everyone's taste or not.

Baseball is part of that quality of life.

So, as long as there is a pulse, we should do what we can to save it.

First, the city officials need to quickly and strongly initiate change.

Huntsville is the Stars' landlord. Majority owner Miles Prentice should be commanded to come here for significant and serious conversation with government and civic leaders.

Invoke some covenant rules. Prentice has plopped a rusting carcass of a '59 Buick on a piece of prime property.

They must demand better day-to-day operation of the franchise, a more professional operation and stronger community outreach and marketing.

Buck Rogers, the Stars' general manager, is a pleasant, hyperkinetic man fueled by liter jugs of Mountain Dew. He generates off-kilter promotional ideas that don't resonate in sophisticated Huntsville. Nor, frankly, has he.

Far too much time and effort have been spent on circus acts like people piling into a car to see who can survive the longest, and not enough on running a quality show or becoming a more integral part of this community.

A common complaint among visitors to the stadium is how rudely they've been treated by staff or how hokey the entertainment is.

In fairness to Rogers, he has a modest budget. He has a squirt gun where he needs a fire hose. He has a small, inexperienced, unpolished staff. His energy and ideas can be a boon for a franchise somewhere else. He deserves and needs a fresh start.

Secondly, to bang this drum still another time, local heroes need to gallop to the rescue.

Someone who understands local sensibilities should be in charge of the operation and be given a workable budget. An ideal solution would be the sort of local consortium that saved the franchise two decades ago.

It's gone beyond sad. It's embarrassing if you have any sense of civic pride at all. It's downright depressing to see a once-vibrant franchise become so pathetic, to see Joe Davis Stadium sit there as empty and soul-less as the shell of a boarded-up big-box store, left to the rats and roaches.

Quickly to the stadium issue: You can't justify taxpayer investment if the Stars draw less than 100,000. A new or renovated stadium is not a panacea. It might spike attendance for a year or so, but unless other drastic changes were to take place - in ownership, management and major league affiliation - we'd be back in the same dreary boat in three years.

That doesn't change the fact that Joe Davis Stadium is the worst and oldest in the Southern League and a nightmare of infrastructure woes. It can't go on leaking and creaking forever.

Nor can this operation.

With his teams in Midland, Texas, and Norwich, Conn., his new home in Key West, his involvement in a chain of Five Guys Restaurants, Prentice rarely visits Huntsville, never accomplishing much when that happens.

I realize now, all his rhetoric to the contrary, Prentice cares more about cheeseburgers than Huntsville baseball. He really gave up a long time ago on this franchise.

If we care about quality of life in Huntsville, the rest of us shouldn't give up.

 

The Huntsville Times / Photo by Dave Dieter

Near-empty Joe Davis Stadium is typical occasion

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