Outlaws Capture The City

2-19-10

Baseball Team Moves To City From Saratoga

By LAURA COX : & JIM KEVLIN

Joy has returned to O-ville.
Amid rounds of applause from 70 enthusiastic baseball boosters, Mayor Richard P. Miller, Jr., made it official Tuesday, Feb. 16:  A new team with the unlikely name of the Outlaws – as in train robbers; the new owners plan to build on Oneonta’s railroad heritage – will be coming to town less than a month after the Oneonta Tigers gang rode off into the sunset.
The team owners are Keith Rogers and Dan Scaring, and the team is the former Saratoga Phillies, a New York Collegiate Baseball League franchise. 
 As it turns out, the two dozen local potential investors won’t be needed:  The quality of Damaschke Field was sufficient to convince Rogers and Scaring that their team can be successful here.
Rogers joined Miller, NYCBL President Stan Lehman and state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, in the announcement/celebration at Stella Luna.
BASEBALL/From A-1
To pour oil on troubled waters – or scuffed infields –Miller has unveiled Seward Cup, aimed at promoting a friendly intra-county baseball rivalry.
The cup, named for the senator, would go to the Cooperstown Hawkeyes, the Oneonta Outlaws or Little Falls’ Mohawk Valley Diamond Dogs, whichever team has the best record in New York Collegiate Baseball League play next summer.  (Seward’s district includes Little Falls.)
The reception culminated two weeks of rapid-fire and sometimes rancorous negotiations, as Oneonta’s new mayor sought to attract a NYCBL replacement for the New York-Penn League Oneonta Tigers, which had been lured away to Norwich, Conn., Jan. 28.
Another flashpoint came Saturday, Feb. 13, when NYCLB owners, by a split vote in a conference-call meeting, granted Oneonta the franchise over the objections of Tom Hickey, Fly Creek, owner of the fledgling Hawkeyes, which is due to play its first season at Doubleday Field this summer.
In a widely distributed e-mail, Brian Spagnola, owner of the Amsterdam Mohawks, gave an indication of the content of that conference call, accusing his fellow team owners of a “lack of professionalism,” and changing his vote on the Saratoga-Oneonta move from “abstain” to “no.”
The debate centered on a rule, adopted by NYCBL owners last May, granting teams exclusivity within a 25-mile radius.  Damaschke’s home plate is 24.2 miles from Doubleday’s.
Reports had mentioned the possibility of a legal challenge, but Hickey said he has not yet decided whether to pursue that course or seek a settlement.
Miller’s first strategy, Hickey said, was to try to lure the Hawkeyes to Damaschke Field.  “I refused to do that,” the owner said.  “We have a commitment to Cooperstown.”
With the Tigers Single A franchise parting ways with Oneonta, it was their General Manager Andy Weber who first made contact with Rogers and Scaring through a common friend in Troy, Rogers said.
While the team owners decided to name the team themselves, without the help of the list of 85 names developed by Oneonta Elementary School students, Rogers said he would like to open up a competition for the elementary school students to name the new Outlaws’ mascot and develop a design for the mascot, with the winning school being awarded by the team.
The team members – 30 are already on the roster from colleges such as Pepperdine, University of Virginia, University of Washington, Oklahoma State and Vanderbilt – will become members of the community while in Oneonta for the summer, Rogers said.
Each will complete eight hours of community service to both familiarize themselves with the community and give back to it. They will be housed with local community members who will be given family season tickets and a $400 stipend for participating in the housing program. They plan to have the players host baseball camps for local Little Leaguers and in past the players have been known to stay for up to 30 minutes after the games to sign autographs for fans.
 Scaring and Rogers were collegiate baseball players themselves which is where they met when they were playing ball in Schenectady. Rogers described the action of owning as team as his life coming full circle.
Meanwhile in Cooperstown, Hickey this week announced the Hawkeyes’ management team, including David Pearlman of Cooperstown, a well-known youth-sports coach, who will be assistant general manager.
The team will be coached by Jake Denstedt, who follows the franchise from its former home in Brockport, where he coached the Brockport Riverbats.
Jesse Coughlan, former SUNY Oneonta catcher, is director of public relations, and Schuyler Pindar of Edmeston will handle marketing and sales.
Hickey also released the team logo, the result of a national contest circulated online: An antique “C” adorned with two feathers.
“It is simple and it fits the historical reference in our name,” said Hickey. “It was just perfect.”