Tuesday, August 27, 2002
Hamilton open for baseball team
By Steve Kemme, skemme@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — City officials are ready to step to the plate to see if Hamilton can lure a minor league baseball team to town.
City Councilman Richard Holzberger wants to see a Frontier League team based in Hamilton and has been talking to other local officials to gauge support.
He's touting the city-owned parking lot at the northeast corner of High Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive as a possible site for a ballpark. The site would be easily accessible.
“It would draw people to downtown Hamilton,” he said Monday. “Hamilton is a great baseball town. I'm sure the following would be there.”
Mayor Donald Ryan and other city council members like Mr. Holzberger's proposal for a Frontier League team. But Mr. Ryan prefers the old Mercy Hospital Hamilton property along the Great Miami River, just north of downtown, as a site for a ballpark.
The hospital closed last year. Mercy Health Partners, which owns the facility, and Hamilton officials have been unable so far to line up tenants for the complex. If a baseball stadium were built there, the hospital buildings would have to be torn down.
But Mr. Ryan said he's not opposed to the site at High and Martin Luther King.
“My first choice would be the Mercy Hospital site, but it doesn't matter where the ballpark goes as long as we get it,” he said.
Mr. Holzberger has asked City Manger Mike Samoviski to gather preliminary information to see whether it's viable for Hamilton to make a pitch for a Frontier League team.
Hamilton, the hometown of Reds radio broadcaster and former Reds pitcher Joe Nuxhall, wouldn't be the first city in the Tristate to have a Frontier League team.
The Frontier League, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, appears likely to place a team in Florence next year. The team would be managed by former Red Chris Sabo and would play at a proposed $4 million, 4,000-seat stadium has been proposed for a site at Interstate 75 and U.S. 42.
Nearby Richmond, Ind., also has one of the 12 Frontier League teams this year.
Mr. Ryan and Mr. Holzberger said Dayton's success with its Single-A minor league baseball team makes them optimistic about minor league baseball in Hamilton.
The Dayton Dragons have sold out every game in their three-year existence, and the new ballpark has drawn new restaurants and other businesses to the downtown area.
“A minor league ballpark would fit in extremely well with our scheme for developing the riverfront, revitalizing downtown and bringing economic development to the city,” Mr. Ryan said.
Butler County Commissioner Chuck Furmon said a Frontier League team in Hamilton would be a boost to the whole county.
“It would be a plus for the area if we could get something going,” said Mr. Furmon, a former fast-pitch softball third baseman who was inducted into the Ohio Softball Hall of Fame last year. “I'm sure it would be a good draw.”
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