South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Daytona Beach fights for Tortugas
MLB has plans to soon eliminate 42 minor-league teams
Originally from Cincinnati, Dale Bowen grew up rooting for the Big Red Machine — those dynastic Reds teams that captured back-to-back World Series titles in the mid-1970s.
So when Volusia County’s Class A Florida State League franchise became affiliated with the Reds in 2015, Bowen and his wife, Tammy, purchased season tickets to the Daytona Tortugas’ games at Jackie Robinson Ballpark.
Now the Tortugas’ connection to Major League Baseball is being threatened. They were one of 42 minorleague franchises that reportedly could lose their affiliations to major-league franchises.
“We heard about the contraction way before they mentioned the teams,” Bowen said. “We thought, ‘Well, it will never be us.’ And then when we heard the Tortugas may be affected, we were all pretty much shocked.”
The Florida Fire Frogs, who played three seasons at Osceola County Stadium in Kissimmee, also were on MLB’s proposed list. But their lease already had been bought out to accommodate a training facility for Orlando City Soccer Club at Osceola Heritage Park.
Any contraction would not occur until after the 2020 season. Still, the reaction to the potential impact on baseball fans in Daytona Beach was swift.
“There’s probably not been a minute or two that’s gone by without our phones ringing off the hook, receiving an email or even walkins from season-ticket holders or even folks who haven’t been to a game for a long time that are mad,” Tortugas President Ryan Keur
Any decision regarding whether the Daytona Tortugas will remain affiliated with a major-league team won’t go into effect until after the 2020 season.
said. “They’re upset that they could potentially lose baseball here.”
Fans and others have flocked to social media (#SaveTheTortugas), while
106 members of the U.S. House of Representatives signed a letter that was sent to baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred. Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry said a video and letter-writing campaign are in the works.
Henry was asked to rate his level of concern on a scale of one to 10.
“It’d be a 10,” he said. “We’re still in the process of formulating what our formal reaction will be, but it will be whatever is necessary to persuade them that this is not a good decision.”
Jayne Fifer, president and CEO of the Volusia Manufacturers Association, said Daytona Beach would be affected adversely if the Tortugas’MLB ties ended.
“Even though they talk about how it’s just a tourism town, we’ve got a lot of families here,” Fifer said. “Baseball is the backbone of America.”
Daytona Beach — a city synonymous with its beaches and NASCAR’s signature race, the Daytona
500 — welcomed its first minor-league team, the Islanders, in 1920. A year before he
broke MLB’s color barrier, Jackie Robinson played his first integrated professional game there for the Brooklyn Dodgers’ top affiliate, the Montreal Royals, during spring training in 1946.
“The idea that they would even consider removing baseball from the place where professional baseball was basically integrated is unthinkable,” Henry said.
Keur said major- and minor-league officials plan to discuss the contraction idea at the winter meetings Dec. 8-12 in San Diego. No decision is expected then — or any time soon.
“This is going to be a long process,” Keur said. “This will probably be another year or so before anything is actually confirmed.”
In the meantime, Dale Bowen and his wife will watch Reds prospects pass through Daytona Beach for at least one more season.
“The part that is alarming to me is that they’re taking away future baseball fans,” Bowen said. “MLB is concerned about the future of baseball and dying interest on a granular level, but their reaction of taking away 42 teams. That’s hundreds of thousands of fans that may not become baseball fans to support them.”