This is a great development. Its enough to make you forget about the piles of snow and think about summer again. . .
Baseball coming to Worcester
By Bill Doyle TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
WORCESTER ? Alan Stone confirmed last night that his ownership group will field a team in Worcester this season in the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball league.
?Yes, we will be playing baseball in Worcester in 2005,? said Stone, a Boston lawyer.
Stone said a press conference will be held tomorrow, weather permitting, at City Hall to announce that the team is coming to Worcester.
College of the Holy Cross officials met yesterday to determine whether they would allow the team to play at Fitton Field. Tivnan Field at Lake Park is another possible site.
?We?re still awaiting final details on that point,? Stone said.?
The team has opened an office on Main Street and has a Worcester phone number.
Stone?s partners in the ownership group are: Phillip Rosenfield, vice president of sales for J.N. Phillips Auto Glass of Woburn; Ted Tye and Tom Alperin, principals of National Development Corp.; and Brad Michals, who owns an insurance firm in Newton. The group has paid $500,000 to the Can-Am League to become its eighth member this season.
?Worcester is a terrific market that deserves a team,? Stone said.
Members of the ownership group met with City Manager Michael V. O?Brien on Friday after meeting with him the previous week.
Stone said no general manager or manager has been hired yet.
Lake Park has lights, but Fitton Field does not. Stone said the team?s owners would provide any needed upgrades.
?We?ll do whatever it takes,? he said.
Can-Am League commissioner Miles Wolff last fall met with city officials and toured ballparks. Last week, Wolff said he was comfortable with his league temporarily playing at an existing field in Worcester until a stadium could be built.
The lack of an adequate field hampered past efforts to bring minor league baseball to Worcester. Because it is within the protected territory of the Pawtucket Red Sox, the city has been unable to attract a Major League Baseball farm club. The Can-Am League is an independent league with no affiliation with MLB.
Holy Cross has a 500-car garage near Fitton Field and more parking up the hill at the Hart Center. Cars could be parked across the street from Lake Park and at the nearby skating rink.
News reports of the team?s interest in playing at Lake Park prompted nearby residents to form a group called the Lake View Neighborhood Watch and to invite city politicians to a Feb. 16 meeting at Lake View Elementary School to discuss such plans.
The other Can-Am League teams will play in Brockton, Bangor, Lynn, New Haven, Elmira, New Jersey and Quebec. Those seven cities fielded teams last season in the Northeast League, which folded in September and was replaced by the Can-Am League. An eighth Northeast League team, which did not have a home base and played every game on the road, folded. Stone said his ownership group purchased a new franchise, not the defunct traveling team.
The Can-Am League plays a 92-game regular-season schedule from May 26 to Sept. 5.
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