Mitt-makers to the pros, family has passion for the game
In a small factory in a quiet, residential area of northern New Jersey, a few dozen craftsmen assemble an important contribution to the nation's pastime.
There, baseball gloves that could be worn in the World Series, or in a Little League game, are hand-stitched and glued together.
The mitt-makers shape leather for players such as Shane Victorino, center fielder of the Philadelphia Phillies, who are facing off against the New York Yankees in this year's World Series.
Mindful that players of all levels may have to snare sizzling line drives, glove craftsman Mike Rattacasa has a secret way of smoothing out a glove's fingers.
He uses his mother's wooden soup ladle.
"I needed something that didn't retain heat," he said, because heat can warp the leather.
The great American pastime depends mostly on foreign factories because nearly all professional baseball equipment is made in places with cheap labor, such as the Philippines and Indonesia.
Akadema Professional of Hawthorne is considered the home team -- one of only a handful of companies left in the United States that still sews part of their handmade baseball gloves in America.
The company makes about 20 percent of the total U.S. production of professional baseball gloves. Company founders and brothers Joe and Lawrence Gilligan are expanding their domestic-made product lines despite an economy that remains on the disabled list. They face little competition in this country.
"(Other) people have tried it, but it's a hard gig -- a very manually intensive product," said Joe Gilligan, 41, who is chief executive. "I can tell you on a scale of hardest to easiest, sewing baseball gloves is the hardest."
The challenge and expense lies in the complexity of the finished product. Baseball mitts are made of 32 individual parts. They are constructed of Kip leather or American Steer, both a type of cowhide. Each glove takes about two and a half to three hours to complete, which means Akadema's production lines can crank out only about 10 gloves a week.
Part of the production is mechanized. Sewing machines stitch together the top and bottom portions of the mitt. Then an electric heater, shaped like a metal hand, helps stretch the leather fingers. Manually lacing the glove's digits and palm can take nearly an hour.
It's a personalized effort that is already paying off. Some 30 professional baseball players have signed contracts to wear the gloves, including Mets pitcher Tim Redding and Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder Manny Ramirez.
But competition is fierce on the field and in the marketplace. Because of the tough economy, the company -- which has 22 full-time and 10 part-time employees -- has reduced prices of its Patriot series gloves, dropping them 20 percent in the past four months to $199 each.
Gloves used on national TV are the high-profile end of Akadema's business. The bulk of the 15-year-old company's revenue is derived from other sources, including on-site and off-site baseball skills training and coaching. The privately-held company forecasts it will notch $5 million in sales this year, with about $750,000 coming from American-made gloves.
While some mitts are made locally, other models are sewn in China and elsewhere. Additional sources of income include the production of wooden bats and a growing uniform embroidery business.
The Gilligans say they are sticking with domestic production as a way to give back to their home state and hometown of Ringwood, in Passaic County.
"We love baseball -- our family is about baseball," said company president Lawrence Gilligan, 39, a shortstop in the Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Cardinals minor league organizations from 1990 to 1992. "It could be basketball season, but we were still talking baseball."
Even if domestic production remains no more than a footnote to total output, the essence of baseball -- connecting with family and sharing a communal experience -- remains unchanged.
"Baseball is a father-son sport," said Lawrence Gilligan, who took his 6-year-old son, Ty, to his first Yankees game in September, mitt in hand. "You go to a football game, and it's about tailgating and corporate tickets."
(c) 2009 New Jersey On-Line LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Jay-Z, Alica Keys to Perform 'Empire State of Mind' at World Series
New Yorkers Jay-Z and Alicia Keys will perform their hit single "Empire State of Mind" on the field at Yankee Stadium prior to Game 2 of the World Series on Thursday, October 29, rather than ahead of Game 1.
Major League Baseball pushed back the show because of concerns that the staging equipment could damage a wet field. Bad weather is expected Wednesday.
FOX 5's coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. and will include the duet performance, as well as Keys singing the national anthem. First pitch is scheduled for 7:57 p.m.
"As a die-hard Yankee fan, I'm honored to perform a song that celebrates the greatness of New York in one of our city's most important landmarks, Yankee Stadium," said Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter.
The Yankees have been playing short excerpts of "Empire State of Mind" over the P.A. system at Yankee Stadium as a kind of unofficial playoff anthem. It usually plays as Alex Rodriguez comes up to bat.
The original version does contain Jay-Z's signature language mixed in with his tributes to the city and the Yankees.
"Catch me at the X with OG at a Yankee game/[expletive] I made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can/You should know I bleed blue, but I ain't a crip though/But I got a gang of [expletive] walking with my clique though," Jay-Z raps in one refrain.
But parents need not worry. He and Keys have promised to deliver the tamer version.
"There's a clean version that goes out on radio, and that's what they'll use," said Marla Miller, an MLB official. "It doesn't have bad words."
(c) MYFOXNY.
In vintage baseball game, big talent trumps small gloves
The pinstripes on their uniforms bent in the middle a little more than they had 30 or 40 years ago, when they were the most terrifying pitchers on the Bay Area's two major league baseball teams. Before Saturday's inaugural Legends of Baseball Vintage Showdown at Municipal Stadium in San Jose, Vida Blue, Gaylord Perry and Rollie Fingers sat Buddha-like in the dugout. Two MVP and four Cy Young Awards just sitting around talking 19th century baseball.
Someone asked Perry, who is 71 and pitched his final major league game at the age of 45, if he had ever played in a game with rules and equipment in use in 1886. "I'm not that old," Perry said, feigning indignation at the suggestion he had been around during baseball's pioneer days. Noted mostly for throwing a spitball that also didn't conform to the rules when he was winning his two Cy Youngs in 1972 and '78, Perry found a lot to like about the old rules.
As part of a Legends of Baseball squad that squared off against the home-standing Stogies of the Vintage Base Ball Federation, Perry and his Hall of Fame teammates were permitted seven balls before the hitter was awarded first base. They could even plunk the opposition without the knickered batsman being awarded a base. "I like that seven balls rule," Perry said in his native North Carolina drawl. "And if you hit a guy, it's nothing. I wonder why they ever changed all those rules. They seemed pretty good."
He had pulled the diminutive fielder's
mitt onto his left hand that all the players were issued in the locker room. Perry said he wished someone would give him another one for his right hand, so he could take them back to his farm. "I pick up a lot of hay, and they'd be good for that," he said.
Suicide gloves
That was about all they seemed to be good for, at least for the game's first two innings, as the former big leaguers let one routine grounder after another sail past them for a hit. "If they played with these gloves in the olden days," said former Oakland A's ace John "Blue Moon" Odom, 64, inspecting the dainty piece of leather barely covering his hand, "they had to have a different kind of brain. These things are a death wish."
"Suicide," said Vince Coleman, 48, the former St. Louis Cardinals outfielder, sitting nearby. "Lloyd's of London made a lotta money on these gloves."
Coleman, who stole 110 bases in 1985 during his rookie season in the majors, pulled a hamstring running to first base Saturday. And he wasn't the only old-timer to require medical attention on the field. When Brady Anderson, the former Baltimore Orioles star, legged out a triple in the second inning, a portable oxygen tank was wheeled across the field to third base in case he had gotten winded chugging around the bases.
The crowd filled only half the stadium, but everyone seemed to come equipped with a Topps card or a baseball for their heroes to sign. Young and old, they lined the runway behind the visitors' dugout and called out to Legends such as Jeff Kent and Lee Smith. No one was refused an autograph all day.
Bill "Spaceman" Lee, 62, the iconoclastic hurler for the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos, was the first pitcher to take the mound for the Legends. It was clear he was enjoying every minute of the pre-game camaraderie, particularly the first time he spotted Fingers in his 19th century uniform.
"Rollie, you look perfect!" Lee exclaimed. "You look just like a guy born in 1880."
It did appear as if Fingers' handlebar mustache had finally found its correct historical era. "When you see those old pictures in the Hall of Fame, with the square hats and the waxed mustaches, I do kind of look like I belong back there," 63-year-old Fingers agreed.
"I think it's pretty cool wearing these old uniforms. I know one thing, the guys who wore them before us didn't make a hell of a lot of money." Of course, none of the players were making money from Saturday's game: All the proceeds went to support children's charities.
Hit 'em again
Fingers seemed pleased when he learned the vintage game's rules just before the contest, particularly the one that made throwing at batters legal. "I needed that rule when I was in the big leagues," he said. "I'd hit 'em twice."
Oddly, the one former major leaguer who was acquainted with the intricacies of the vintage game was Lee, and he got shelled, giving up 11 runs in the first inning before the Legends hitters even came to bat. Lee had played with the Vermont Green Mountain Boys of the Vintage Federation, then with a championship team in Quebec that he organized. "I like playing the game this way," said Lee. "It's a more gentlemanly sport."
The narrower, heavier bats and bigger waistlines dictated a different style of play than many of the former major league stars were accustomed to. "It's a game of singles," said Lee. And he was right. When the Legends mounted their comeback during the middle innings, it was a series of bloop hits and chip shots that allowed them to a rally from the hole they dug themselves in the first inning.
With Fingers simultaneously picking up the save and managing to avoid the elder-groin injury he was dreading, the Legends won 16-15. That's the way things were always done in the Old West, if you believe "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." When the Legends become fact, go with the Legends.
(c) 2009 - San Jose Mercury News.
Better batting helmet is available, but MLB players won't wear it
When Rawlings introduced its safer S100 batting helmet around major league clubhouses in August, it was met with snickers.
The helmet, named for the protection it provides from balls thrown at 100 mph, was "too bulky." It looked "goofy."
"Those things are heinous," said the Braves' Chipper Jones after he got a glimpse of one of the six S100s sent to the Braves.
But two days after The New York Times ran a story about the new helmet, three players were hit in the head on the same day: on Aug. 15, the Mets' David Wright and the Rangers' Ian Kinsler were hit by pitches and Dodgers pitcher Hiroki Kuroda was hit by a line drive.
Wright went to the hospital with a concussion. He became the third player to go on the disabled list with a concussion after getting hit by a pitch since late July, joining the Padres' Edgar Gonzalez and the Reds' Scott Rolen. A fourth, Micah Owings of the Reds, probably would have gone on the DL if rosters hadn't been expanded when his eardrum was perforated, after he was hit by the Braves' Kenshin Kawakami.
According to SI.com, players are almost twice as likely to get hit by a pitch in a game now than 50 years ago. Players are getting hit by pitches in 36 percent of games this decade, compared to 19.4 percent in the 1950s.
Major League Baseball acknowledged the problem by making it mandatory that all minor leaguers wear the S100 next season. Players will also have to wear it in the Arizona Fall League.
The players union would have to agree to such a change across the majors and the Basic Agreement doesn't expire until 2011. But this is a way to affect change from the bottom up; if players get accustomed to it in the minors, maybe they'll wear it in the majors.
"Now that we have guys who throw 100 mph and some throw even harder, (we thought) we should provide at least the option to players to have a helmet that would withstand such a blow," said Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB's executive vice president of baseball operations. "Players' health and safety is our utmost concern."
Change can be glacial when it comes to baseball equipment, with safety losing out to style, comfort and familiarity. MLB didn't mandate batting helmets until 1971. It added an earflap in 1983 and even that included a grandfather clause.
Now, even Wright won't wear the S100. After agreeing to wear one when he got off the DL, he scrapped it for his old helmet after three games.
"It felt like it was too high on my head and bouncing around," said Wright, who tried one with two earflaps for a tighter fit. "Every time I'd run, it wouldn't stay on. When I was swinging, it was moving around. It was pretty uncomfortable."
Wright and Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster are the only two players who wore one in a game this season. Wright assured the reason he stopped was not because of the kidding he took from teammates, who hung a picture of the Great Gazoo from "The Flintstones" in his locker.
"For me personally, it's not so much about how it looks," Wright said. "It's about the effectiveness and the comfort level. That is the glaring thing for me ... (that) it's uncomfortable. And I don't think it's very practical."
That's the trade-off. The current Rawlings "Coolflo" helmets are sleeker and about four to six ounces lighter. But they are built to withstand pitching speeds of only 65-70 mph. David Halstead, technical advisor for the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, said most helmets major leaguers wear don't meet the standard set for helmets worn by Little League, high school and college players.
Halstead said if a ball were to hit an unprotected head, striking the skull at its most vulnerable spot, even at 35 mph, that person would die.
"So the fact that David Wright, who gets hit at 90 mph wearing an absolute piece of garbage helmet, isn't dead is pretty interesting news," Halstead said. "But you'd like him not to be injured. You'd like him to be able to take his base."
Halstead believes had Wright been wearing a standard Little League helmet, he could have gone to first base. And that helmet is built to withstand a direct hit at 60 mph, which Halstead said equates to a glancing blow at 90 mph. Players can usually react quickly enough to avoid a direct hit.
The S100, which has both a polypropylene and a composite layer, is built to withstand a direct hit at 100 mph.
Halstead has his 8-year-old son wearing an S100. He knows convincing major leaguers is not the same, and believes the issue is self-image and ego.
"If you're a major league baseball player and you know what I know, you wouldn't want to bat," Halstead said. "So you convince yourself, 'I'm better than anybody else, that's why I'm out here playing and I'm not going to get hit.' The minute you say to yourself, 'I better wear this helmet,' it's a defeat."
Still, MLB is hoping for some middle ground. Solomon said MLB has asked Rawlings to redesign the S100 to make it sleeker and lighter.
Mike Thompson, senior vice president of sports marketing and business development for Rawlings, acknowledged that won't be easy. "To achieve the safety standard (of 100 mph), the shell has to be bigger," Thompson said. "We'll continue to refine the helmet and work on it to make it smaller ... but for right now, it is what it is."
(c) 2009 The Austin American-Statesman. All Rights Reserved.
New S100 baseball helmet kicks up debate
When Rawlings introduced its safer S100 batting helmet around Major League clubhouses in August, it was met with snickers.
The helmet, named for the protection it provides from balls thrown at 100 mph, was "too bulky." It looked "goofy."
"Those things are heinous," said Braves' Chipper Jones after he got a glimpse of one the six S100s sent to the Braves.
But two days after the New York Times ran a story about the new helmet, three players were hit in the head on the same day: on Aug. 15, the Mets' David Wright and the Rangers' Ian Kinsler were hit by pitches and Dodgers pitcher Hiroki Kuroda was hit by a line drive.
Wright went to the hospital with a concussion. He became the third player to go on the disabled list with a concussion after getting hit by a pitch since late July, joining the Padres' Edgar Gonzalez and the Reds' Scott Rolen.
A fourth, Micah Owings of the Reds, probably would have gone on the DL if rosters hadn't been expanded when his eardrum was perforated after getting hit by the Braves' Kenshin Kawakami.
Pitchers are throwing harder than ever and batters are getting hit more often, making them more vulnerable than ever.
According to SI.com, players are almost twice as likely to get hit by a pitch in a game now than 50 years ago. Players are getting hit by pitches in 36 percent of games this decade, compared to 19.4 percent in the 1950s.
Major League Baseball acknowledged the problem by making it mandatory that all minor leaguers wear the S100 next season. Players will also have to wear it in the Arizona Fall League.
The players union would have to agree to such a change across the majors and and the Basic Agreement doesn't expire until 2011. But this is a way to affect change from the bottom up; if players get accustomed to it in the minors, maybe they'll wear it in the majors.
"Now that we have guys who throw 100 mph and some throw even harder, [we thought] we should provide at least the option to players to have a helmet that would withstand such a blow," said Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB's executive vice president of baseball operations. "Players' health and safety is our utmost concern."
Change can be glacial when it comes to baseball equipment, with safety losing out to style, comfort and familiarity. MLB didn't mandate batting helmets until 1971. It added an earflap in 1983 and even that included a grandfather clause.
Now, even Wright won't wear the S100. After agreeing to wear one when he got off the DL, he scrapped it for his old helmet after three games.
"It felt like it was too high on my head and bouncing around," said Wright, who tried one with two earflaps for a tighter fit. "Every time I'd run, it wouldn't stay on. When I was swinging, it was moving around. It was pretty uncomfortable."
Wright and Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster are the only two players who wore one in a game this season. Wright assured the reason he stopped was not because of the kidding he took from teammates, who hung a picture of the Great Gazoo from "The Flintstones" in his locker.
"For me personally, it's not so much about how it looks," Wright said. "It's about the effectiveness and the comfort level. That is the glaring thing for me ... [that] it's uncomfortable. And I don't think it's very practical."
That's the trade-off. The current Rawlings "Coolflo" helmets are sleeker and about four to six ounces lighter. But they are built to withstand pitching speeds of only 65-70 mph.
David Halstead, technical advisor for the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, said most helmets major leaguers wear don't meet the standard set for helmets worn by Little League, high school and college players.
Halstead said if a ball were to hit an unprotected head, striking the skull at its most vulnerable spot, even at 35 mph, that person would die.
"So the fact that David Wright, who gets hit at 90 mph wearing an absolute piece of garbage helmet, isn't dead is pretty interesting news," Halstead said. "But you'd like him not to be injured. You'd like him to be able to take his base."
Halstead believes had Wright been wearing a standard Little League helmet, he could have gone to first base. And that helmet is built to withstand a direct hit at 60 mph, which Halstead said equates to a glancing blow at 90 mph. Players can usually react quickly enough to avoid a direct hit.
The S100, which has both a polypropylene and a composite layer, is built to withstand a direct hit at 100 mph. That added protection is why Halstead has his 8-year-old son wearing an S100.
He knows convincing major leaguers is not the same. Halstead believes the issue is self-image and ego.
"If you're a Major League Baseball player and you know what I know, you wouldn't want to bat," Halstead said. "So you convince yourself, 'I'm better than anybody else, that's why I'm out here playing and I'm not going to get hit.' The minute you say to yourself, 'I better wear this helmet,' it's a defeat."
Still, MLB is hoping for some middle ground. Solomon said MLB has asked Rawlings to redesign the S100 to make it sleeker and lighter.
Mike Thompson, senior vice president of sports marketing and business development for Rawlings, acknowledged that won't be easy.
"To achieve the safety standard [of 100 mph], the shell has to be bigger," Thompson said. "We'll continue to refine the helmet and work on it to make it smaller ... but for right now, it is what it is. It's a larger helmet. And everybody understands it protects better. It's whether or not somebody is willing to hang up the old one for the new one because of safety."
(c) 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Mitre, Yankees unable to contain Jays
NEW YORK -- The playing field was littered with equipment after an ugly eighth-inning incident near home plate, and Yankees manager Joe Girardi considered himself fortunate, despite taking a fist to the left eye and slightly bleeding from the left ear.
His own physical well-being was dwarfed by Girardi's concern for his players, and the Yankees could breathe a sigh of relief when the scrap settled and all parties seemed to emerge healthy and intact. With October in their sights, the Yankees have more important battles than this to fight.
"You're just hoping and praying to stop this," Girardi said. "Break it up. I thought the umpires did a good job. They were in the middle of it pulling people off. I thought they were quick on the scene. But it's hard when teams have 35-man rosters and people are running in from everywhere."
The Yanks' 10-4 loss to the Blue Jays on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium was almost an afterthought following a benches-clearing melee that sparked when Jorge Posada made physical contact with Blue Jays reliever Jesse Carlson while scoring on Brett Gardner's double in the eighth inning.
Earlier in the game, two Toronto batters had been hit by Yankees hurlers, leading Carlson to retaliate by firing a fastball behind Posada. Both benches and bullpens briefly cleared as home-plate umpire Jim Joyce warned the clubs, restoring order.
It wouldn't last. Posada worked a walk and moved to second base on a Robinson Cano single, and with the Blue Jays well ahead, Gardner connected for what appeared to be an inconsequential run-scoring double.
As Posada came home, he crossed paths with Carlson -- who was backing up the play near the first-base dugout -- and threw an elbow in the pitcher's direction. Carlson immediately began barking, and a melee ensued that saw both Posada and Carlson ejected and possibly facing suspensions.
"It was really something that shouldn't happen. We got carried away," Posada said. "I don't want my kids to see that. Hopefully they won't. Benches clearing, fighting in the middle of the field. It's not a good example."
Seeing their high-priced talent scuffle gave the Yankees -- seemingly playoff bound, holding a 6 1/2-game lead in the American League East -- reason to pause. Girardi said he addressed the issue with his club after the game.
"We've already had a discussion," Girardi said. "I told them, there is a lot at stake here and we can't afford to get anyone hurt or lose anyone or get people suspended. We can't do that."
"They certainly have a lot more to lose than we do," Toronto manager Cito Gaston said. "They have a chance to go to the playoffs and perhaps win the World Series. You can get a lot of guys hurt out there in that sort of ruckus, so you don't need that going on."
Major League Baseball will review the incident, and Posada said that he hoped he would avoid disciplinary action, saying that he "didn't start anything." The Yankees were hoping that the Blue Jays would allow the issue to die.
"What's done is done," Nick Swisher said. "It's over and done with. You want to get out of those things and make sure no one is hurt. Both sides seemed like everybody was OK, so we just move on."
"You definitely don't ever want it to happen," Johnny Damon said. "We know they were protecting their hitters. It's one of those unfortunate things in baseball. Fortunately our team came out all right."
Except for the outcome of the game. New York's third loss in its past five contests came as right-hander Sergio Mitre served up a career-high four home runs, including two to Jays No. 9 hitter Travis Snider.
Snider belted the first of his round-trippers in the third inning, a long two-run blast that landed in the second deck in right field. Snider then hit one even further in the fourth inning, a solo shot.
Mitre also allowed solo home runs to Adam Lind and Edwin Encarnacion in five-plus innings, charged with seven runs on eight hits as the Blue Jays covered up a shaky opening from the normally-dominant Roy Halladay.
"His sinker wasn't really sinking a whole lot tonight," Girardi said of Mitre. "His ball was kind of flat. He was up in the zone. ...
"You're hoping you can get some distance out of him, because we probably don't have Ace [Alfredo Aceves] for the next couple of days. It didn't work out."
After being one-hit by Halladay on Sept. 4, the Yankees touched the right-hander more regularly, coming through with 11 hits -- including RBI singles in the second inning off the bats of Gardner and Derek Jeter.
A potential third Yankees run was cut down at the plate in the third inning, as Jose Bautista launched a strong throw from right field to nail Alex Rodriguez attempting to score on a Hideki Matsui single.
The Yankees were not able to add more against Halladay, who scattered the 11 hits over six innings, walking one and striking out six to improve to 18-6 with a 2.84 ERA in 37 career games (35 starts) against the Bombers.
Carlson's pitch behind Posada was spurred by a pair of hit-by-pitches earlier in the game. Mitre drilled Encarnacion on the left shoulder in the fifth inning, and rookie Mark Melancon hit Aaron Hill in the back with a two-seam fastball in the eighth inning.
Melancon said that there had been no intent on the pitch, though he has had similar trouble in his brief big league career. The Red Sox's Dustin Pedroia was buzzed and drilled by Melancon in an Aug. 6 game at Yankee Stadium, and he had harsh words for the New York right-hander.
"Both of those situations, there's no reason to hit a guy," Melancon said. "That just goes to show you that my command has been bad. That's why I don't understand. My command has just been poor lately, and that's something that will change soon."
(c) 2001-2009 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Cincinnati Reds gear up for debut in Goodyear
In another first for Arizona's growing Cactus League, the Cincinnati Reds are settling into their new spring-training clubhouse this month in the southwest Valley.
Weight-room equipment, baseball bats, balls and batting helmets are arriving from Sarasota, Fla. Minor-league players reported for the fall instructional league this week, ahead of the Reds' debut at Goodyear Ballpark early next year.
The Reds will share their new training home with the Cleveland Indians, which made their trek to the desert a year earlier.
The pairing of the two Grapefruit League defectors marks the first time two teams from the same state will share a spring-training facility in Arizona.
The Reds bring to 15 the number of teams in the Cactus League, equal the number in Florida.
Some things are still in flux, though. Tucson's last two teams are headed for a new stadium on the Salt River Reservation east of Scottsdale. And the Chicago Cubs want Mesa to improve their stadium and practice facilities or they might leave.
While there's uncertainty about some teams, the West Valley remains solid ground for spring-training expansion, and its new jewels are points of pride for the league.
Nine of the state's 15 teams train in the area, including newcomers Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago White Sox at the state-of-the-art Camelback Ranch Glendale.
The Reds, who had trained in Florida since 1998, decided to leave after a public vote shot down renovations to the team's 7,500-seat stadium and practice space.
The facility lacked meeting rooms and video equipment to review players' work, said Dick Williams, vice president of baseball operations for the Reds. Space constraints meant minor-leaguers often ate outside and there was no direct route from their locker room to the weight room.
"This was the first opportunity really to kind of customize it for the way we operate," Williams said of the training complex at Goodyear Ballpark, which boasts a stadium for 10,000 fans.
Their new clubhouse is built with major- and minor-league locker rooms on either side, providing easy access to a central corridor of training, hydrotherapy and weight rooms. Outside, the team added an incline hill for conditioning.
The 42,000-square-foot clubhouse and six-field training facility will be the Reds' training grounds for at least 20 years.
Economic impact
Goodyear Mayor Jim Cavanaugh sees a financial upside to having two Ohio teams: Their fan base is willing to travel, like fans who travel to support Ohio State in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.
"I think there's reason to be very optimistic about the long-term value these two teams will bring to Goodyear," he said.
The city and the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority built the $108 million stadium and training complex near the city's future downtown, south of Interstate 10 along Estrella Parkway.
More can be expected with the Reds, which will bring Goodyear Ballpark's game schedule to nearly 30 matches, up from about 18 last season.
For now, the area is mostly empty land and tract homes. But the first spring-training season brought a flood of activity to the area from late February through March.
The Indians' inaugural season in Goodyear set the team's spring-training attendance record: nearly 100,000.
Goodyear estimates the team brought $21 million into the Arizona economy. Hotels and restaurants reported a spike in sales, a feat in this economy.
"It was very good (for business), and that's why I'm excited about this year," said Jim Burton, a manager at the Native New Yorker, near the stadium. "It was a nice little boost, especially in the start of the spring."
Phoenix Suns assistant coach and restaurateur Dan Majerle in August opened a Majerle's Sport Grill in Goodyear, the chain's first in the West Valley.
"We're not far from University of Phoenix Stadium, and we're completely surrounded by spring-training stadiums," he said.
(c) The Arizona Republic.
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