A Fond Farewell

Our good friend Spike sent me an e-mail today......this is the conents of it:

John asked me to mention this to the Faithful, but I haven't been on the blog for a while; David, would you please copy his letter there? As a Michigander, I replied that he will be one of the few migrant workers in that part of the state who is not picking cherries. And nashuapride.com says that our PA announcer and away webcaster, Ken Cail, is moving to the Lowell Spinners to do the radio broadcast.


Hello friends,
Well after many months of pounding away at the job hunt, I'm happy to say that once again I am employed. I today accepted an offer to become the new play-by-play voice of the Kalamazoo Kings of the Frontier League. As all of you know, the North Shore Spirit went out of business after the 2007 season. It has been a long, stressful process (the job hunt) and this was the best offer out there. I will be leaving for Michigan on the 7th of May for the four month baseball season. I want to thank all of you for your great friendship and support. It's great to be back behind the mike again!!

The Kings will be on ESPN 1660 AM and all games will be streamed at www.kalamazookings.net. Again thanks everyone and GO KINGS!!!
--John Leahy

www.staatalent.com/sports/leahy.html
www.johnrleahy.com

I think I speak for everyone who frequents this blog when I say what I said in a comment in the previous post.....
John,it's been a pleasure to have known you throughout these past few years and listen to your broadcasts. The Kings have just aquired a great talent.
You'll be missed here John,thanks for what you did and hope you enjoy it there.

NECBL: Fun is Good.

I've already given my take on the NECBL coming to Lynn in the comments, but I'd like to discuss it further here on the front page.

You won't find many people who were as emotionally attached the Spirit as I was, and thus, you won't find many people who will miss them as much as I will next year. I'll miss the familiar players and familiar opponents, I'll miss the length of the season, and I'll miss all the roster quirks of independent baseball.

I can't imagine for one minute that I will ever care about this new team as much as I cared about the Spirit.

But with that said, I am very pleased that the NECBL is coming to Lynn, for several reasons.

First of all, here's something we can all be happy about: the presence of the NECBL will help keep Fraser Field the beautiful park that it is. I was afraid that it would go to ruin when only the city held games there. Now that the field is held by a group that needs to appeal to paying customers, they will keep it at least close to the glistening condition the Spirit had it in, and for that, I am grateful.

Secondly, many people have mentioned the quality of play. I do think that the quality of play will be much spottier than Can-Am League ball, but we will also see players in the NECBL that are better than CanAm guys, younger than CanAm guys, and with way, way more upside. We'll also see many worse players. But it won't be too bad.

Remember, many people wouldn't come support the Spirit - they would rather drive to Manchester or Pawtucket, or just stay in and watch the Sox on TV - because they scoffed at the idea of going to see low-quality independent baseball, refusing to believe that entertainment could be derived from watching the 'riff raff' of the Can-Am League. We know that that wasn't true at all.

As far as the league being 'small-time,' well, it is, but so was the Can-Am; average attendance isn't that much lower than the Can-Am's, save for Brockton and Quebec.

Additionally, I am approaching this season the way I approached the Spirit's first season early on in 2003. I never expected that I would wind up going to every home game, taking road trips all over, making a blog, etc. etc. etc. I was just pleased that not only would I have something to do 20-30 times during the summer, I'd be able to see affordable, live baseball in a nice ballpark. What could be better than that?

Who knows, maybe I will develop the same affinity for this group that I did for the Spirit, but even if I don't, I'll enjoy having baseball to watch close from home.

Also, the fact that an NECBL team filled the vacuum right away proves that people still view this as a viable baseball market - meaning that some owner might plunk down here with an independent team in a few years if we adequately support this team.

Finally, remember how we felt when the final out was made against Nashua? We felt awful for a number of reasons. Obviously, I was upset that we lost, and upset that the team was going out of business, but as much as anything, I was upset that I probably wouldn't see all of the people who comprised my 'Fraser family' ever again.

I can't speak for everyone, but it seems like we all had that same reaction. Who didn't get emotional when reading the story about our group in the Globe? I was going to miss the experience of going to Fraser with some great people. Fortunately, this won't be the case - not even one dormant summer will pass at Fraser Field.

I just can't wait to get back to Fraser and watch baseball.

Won't you join me?

State of Fraser / Pride Updates

As I said,I went to Fraser yesterday after work. It was a sad sight.....
all of the outfield padding/ads are gone as is the big video/scoreboard. It looks pretty barren right now cause of those things missing.
Bobby K was able to get some pictures of them taking that stuff down. Here they are,althugh they dont show the fence as it is currently from the parking lot area lookign in........






And now for the Pride Update let's turn to our New Hampshire correspondent,Spike:
Further to the Pride's survival--nashuatelegraph.com has two articles. The Can-Am League has given the Pride extension--until way after the league meeting next week--to decide whether it is in; the owner says it's more than 50/50, but has abandoned selling part-ownerships in favor of a new push to sell season tickets; but Butch Hobson has been given permission to talk to other teams just in case. Whew!
--Spike

Thank you Spike. It looks like the Pride are still clinging to life,but barely. This is decision by ownership/management that looks like it may come down to a last-day choice.
I hope they stay,as do others--but there's no good or bad signs in my opinion (they kind of balance out). Anyone wanna weigh in on this?



IN OTHER NEWS: "North Shore: Sold the contracts of INF Gilbert Gil, INF Gary Roche and OF Joe Hough to Edinburg (United League). OF BJ Weed played out his option in 2007 and is now a free agent."--I think now we have no players left,or 1.....
='[

ALSO: FROM WBZ NEWSRADIO 1030.....

Wild Speculation

Remember last year when there was all of that buzz about the Atlantic League putting a team in Boston, but Nick was opposed to it and was going to block it?

Think that's back on the table again?

Why not?

cass@funisgood.net

At Sparky's behest, let's Email the Goldklang Group suggesting that they buy the franchise.

It can't hurt.

If you have two seconds, why not?

What's next?

This blog ain't going anywhere, folks. What will we be up to?

-Talking baseball, of course. This is gonna be a fun September & October for Red Sox fans, and I can't think of anyone better to talk about it with than our group of Spirit fans.

-Reflections & memories. Old pictures and videos & posts about our best memories from 5 amazing years at Fraser.

-Attempts to 'save our Spirit'. We'll be helping Victoria's dogged effort to keep the fight alive to save the Spirit. We'll also be looking at different routes (NECBL, getting a new team in 2009, etc.)

-Who's Now (HAHA): Yes, we're actually going to finish that, I promise. I put it aside because there was too much great Spirit baseball to talk about.

-Reunions, get-togethers, etc.: Whether it be going out to other sporting events (Pride, Worcester and Brockton games next year, Bruins games, BC games, whatever), or just going to dinner or hanging out, I'm sure we all have a desire to get together with the rest of the group whenever we can. We'll post ideas here.

-Can Am in '08: IF we don't get a team of some kind on the North Shore in '08, I'll personally be rooting for either Nashua or Worcester (I'm not really sure who at this point) but we can definitely talk about CanAm League baseball next year and check out some games together.

-Following our favorites: We'll keep up with the careers of guys like Trezza, Fischer, JOSUE, Bic, and the rest of our Spirit favorites.

A quick note about the future

I know I said I'd hold off on commenting about this until the season was over - and I still plan on waiting 'til the end of the season to reflect and discuss this whole experience - but I think it's important to quickly comment on some of the efforts to 'save' baseball in Lynn that have been bandied about in the comments.

As far as saving the Spirit, the die is cast on that one - there is no chance that they come back next year. Business is business. But that doesn't mean we give up going forward.

As I said last night, "This park is too nice to just be used by high school teams."

After Elmira lost its CanAm League team, they got a team in the NECBL. Now, it ain't the pros, but it's something. I'll get contact info for that league if anyone would like me to do so.

If we support that team, and get enough people to voice their desire to see pro baseball back in '09, '10 and beyond, then maybe there's a chance.

It seems like it would be foolish for an owner to try Lynn again after all these failed attempts - especially this one - but when you think about it, you kind of have to be foolish anyway to start an independent baseball team. They almost always fold or move, and rarely make money.

Take a look at some of the places teams have gone to in recent years: Sussex and New Haven had just lost affiliated teams the year before, and owners still came in and started teams. Allentown was a miserable flop, but a new AAA team is moving there next year. So you never know.

However, as we saw in the past 5 years, the stupid city of Lynn (I'm not insulting you Lynners out there, I'm insulting your government) is terribly unsupportive of the team and all the benefits it brings to the city, so it's doubtful that they would do much to help the cause since it's doubtful we'll ever find another owner who puts as much effort in as Mr. Lopardo.

Whatever --- we'll see what the city has to say when the youth of Lynn offer the familiar refrain of 'there's nothing to do here.'

Other towns further up the North Shore have a better chance of supporting successful teams because more people are apt to go to a Salem, Beverly or Swampscott than Lynn on an average night. But those towns also tend to have a lot of fancy pants NIMBY types, who would rather see another shopping mall built than a baseball stadium.

Thus, the future seems kind of bleak, but again, you never know. This is too good of a baseball market - and Fraser too nice of a field - not to at least see something come back here in the near future.

In the meanwhile, we need to make sure to keep this community together. Stay on the blog and talk baseball with us. Next season, we'll make some unified outings to Nashua, Worcester and Brockton games in all of our Spirit apparel --- it probably won't help our cause, but it can't hurt, and it would be a lot of fun.

Until then, let's hope the boys go out champions. GO SPIRIT