Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 6, 1994 TAG: 9401060052
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR.
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
However, it is up to the Pirates to make the next pitch before Pulaski will know if it will join the Appalachian League in 1995 and return professional baseball to the town's historic Calfee Park.
Pulaski lost its minor league team, the Braves, to Danville in 1992. Now, the town and Beckley, W.Va., are the front-runners to get rookie league clubs when the Appalachian League expands from 10 teams to 12 next year.
"It's just a matter of us making a commitment," said Chet Montgomery, the Pirates' farm director.
"I'd say by [the end of] January, more than likely, it will be decided." Montgomery said he is waiting to talk to Pirates General Manager Cam Bonifay before touching base with Pulaski's potential ownership group.
"We're waiting for Pittsburgh," said Tom Compton, a Pulaski town building inspector and one of the potential owners. "I'd rather not say anything until I know they're coming or not coming."
The Chicago White Sox are expected to put a team in Beckley, although there are holdups in both towns' bids to gain minor league teams.
On Pulaski's end, the town must spend approximately $100,000 to upgrade Calfee Park. The park, built in 1935, needs improved lighting and a new clubhouse with training facilities and office space to meet specifications of the Professional Baseball Agreement that go into effect this year.
That's where the Catch-22 comes in.
The Pirates want to put a team in Calfee, but not until they are sure the town will make the improvements.
The town has assured the Pirates it will make those improvements, but not until it is sure the Pirates will put a team there.
Montgomery said the Pirates know that Pulaski will make the improvements. "That's not holding us up," he said.
Some folks in Pulaski aren't so sure about that.
"The town obviously is not going to improve the facility unless a team is going to be in there," said David Hart, Pulaski's director of parks and recreation. "We need to know something as soon as possible so we'll have enough time to do the work."
All parties are also waiting to see what happens in Beckley, which has no ballpark but plans to build one. If the Beckley-White Sox partnership falls through, Pulaski will be left in the lurch because the league will expand only if it has two new teams.
"It's gone from a Catch-22 to a Catch-44," said Hart.
If it can be worked out, a rookie league team in Pulaski would give the Pirates three lower minor league outfits within a 250-mile radius. Pittsburgh already has a Class A team in Salem and a Class AA team in Zebulon, N.C.
For the Pirates, a small-market club that has operated with tight purse strings in recent years, having all three teams close together would make it easier and cheaper to scout and move players among teams.
"That would be a pretty good circle," said Montgomery. "It would be a good situation to have a [rookie league] club close to the other [A and AA] clubs, but it's not a necessity."
The possible sale of the Salem club to an out-of-town buyer would not affect the Pirates' decision on Pulaski, Montgomery said.
Getting a Pirates affiliate in Pulaski would cap 1 years of discussions between the two parties. The Pulaski ownership group began talking with the Pirates almost immediately after the Atlanta Braves moved their Appalachian League team from Pulaski to Danville in September 1992.
Appalachian League President Bill Halstead has said he wants a commitment from both Pulaski and Beckley before the upcoming Appalachian League season begins in June.
"We only started this process three weeks ago," said Halstead. "So things are moving along about as well as you would expect."
Hart thinks he has a way to speed things up.
"I think the secret is to put five or six people in a room, lock 'em up for the weekend, and not let 'em out until they work this out."
by CNB