Okay, so a Triple A team and a downtown stadium for El Paso have been approved.
Judging by El Pasoans I’ve talked and listened to, they were divided about 50-50 on the project. I myself was on the shelf. I loved the idea of a Triple A team and a new stadium and the prospect that it would lead to beautifying downtown El Paso, starting new businesses there, attracting more tourists.
But like many other El Pasoans I worried about the cost and wondered if we can sustain the team for very long. One reader put it this way: “The cost of a ticket to a game will be around $20. If I take my wife and two kids, have to pay for parking and buy some refreshments, it’s going to cost me close to $100. I won’t be able to go to many games.”
And then there’s an article in Atlantic Monthly Magazine sent to me by another reader that points out that Glendale, Arizona, is losing so much money on a new stadium that it’s had to lay off public workers.
BUT IT’’S a done deal in El Paso, and we should all get behind the project now. At the very least, we should keep our fingers crossed that it all works out.
There’s still a lot of work to be done, like who’s going to run the team?
I was talking to Jon Teicher, who did the radio play-by-play broadcasts of El Paso Diablos games when the team was in its heyday and is still calling UTEP football and basketball games. He is one of the best sportscasters in the nation and one of the most knowledgeable baseball authorities in the city.
He was all for Triple A baseball coming to El Paso from the start and has two good names to offer for the office of club president: Rick Parr and Ken Schrom.
BOTH PARR and Schrom were key men on El Paso Diablos owner Jim Paul’s staff and have continued as executives in minor league baseball. They have first-hand knowledge of what makes baseball go in El Paso. That’s going to be a very crucial ingredient because, as I stated in an earlier column, many people before and after Jim Paul tried to make professional baseball in El Paso profitable and few succeeded.
Teicher, by the way, will not be available to do the play by play for the Triple A team. “It’s because of the traveling,” he says. He’s married and has two children.
I’m looking forward to seeing how things develop with a good attitude and I hope you are, too.
With fingers crossed, of course.
TRIVIA question: David Akers of San Francisco tied the record for the longest NFL field goal this year at 63 yards. A college player made one from even longer. Can you name him and his team? Answer at end.
MATT SLOAN, one of my golfing buddies, always takes two tee shots on par three holes to see if he can make a hole-in-one. We’ve been playing together for some time without his holing either one but he finally succeeded recently. He sank his second shot with a 7-wood on the 134-yard No. 16 hole of the Dagger Course at Santa Teresa Country Club. The flag was way back on the green so the distance was really more than 140 yards. He figuratively jumped up and down with joy. He didn’t seem to care when I told him it didn’t really count as a hole-in-one because it was his second shot but he seemed a little disappointed when I told him I couldn’t write about it. Shucks, it was such a great shot I changed my mind.
ANSWER to trivia question: Ove Johansson of Abilene Christian made one from 69 yards out in 1976 against East Texas State.