Money Rules, Moving Tigers Away Proves

STATE COLLEGE, Pa.

A curious fan base, gleaming stadium, relationship with a major university and owner who created the capital to purchase the Texas Rangers shields State College from the nightmare Oneonta, N.Y., is experiencing.
After 44 years, the New York-Penn League has officially left Oneonta.
The reason for the move to Norwich, Conn., is $imple. The timing is wretched.
The Oneonta Tigers became the Connecticut Tigers less than five months before Opening Day. At least the State College Spikes had time to prepare for their first New York-Penn League season.
The league planned its move from New Jersey to State College less than a month after the 2005 season, giving management most of the fall and an entire winter and spring to prepare for 2006.
...Leaving Oneonta is one more sign the New York-Penn League will abandon its roots for the right price. Only three cities – Jamestown, Batavia and Auburn – remain from the league’s 14-franchise lineup in 1990.
... The players competed in Damaschke Field, which opened in 1906. The ballpark never had a videoboard, party deck or luxury suite. But baseball trudged along in Oneonta, giving its former owners and the NY-PL 44 solid years.
State College can only hope it develops a comparable minor-league history.

Cipriano covers the Spikes for the Center Daily Times.