Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 22, 1995 TAG: 9503220052
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Should the new Salem baseball stadium not be ready for the Avalanche's April 14 Carolina League home opener, team owner Kelvin Bowles has a contingency plan.
``We're going to meet with officials from the city later this week for a reality check, and if they tell me that there is absolutely no way [the stadium will be ready,] then I'm going to go to the Carolina League and the Colorado Rockies and ask and plead to be allowed to open at Municipal Field,'' he said. ``I don't want to open on the road.''
Bowles thought he had seen the last of decrepit Municipal Field after the old Salem Buccaneers shut down at the end of the 1994 season. Neither he nor anybody else can say for sure now whether the old ballyard might be open for business one more time.
Bowles wasn't at all convinced the definitive answers he was seeking on the new stadium's construction schedule would be available to him this week.
``We may be a week too early,'' he said. ``We may not know anything until the end of the month or even after that.''
Whether the ballpark is ready for occupancy or not on Opening Day depends on whom you talk to. Doc Shane, the project's architect, has said that the facility will be ready enough to play ball in. Salem city manager Randy Smith said he has his doubts.
``The main issue is safety,'' said Sam Lazzaro, the Avalanche's general manager. ``We know what the minimum standards will be. Safety is No.1. The lighting system has to be working. We'll have to have electricity and a working public address system. We'll have to have a restraining fence outside the stadium. We'll have to have a backstop, which is another safety feature.''
Temporary provisions are available for concession and souvenir stands, toilets and ticket booths. The teams can dress at either the nearby Salem Civic Center or at the football stadium across the parking lot.
``We can live with that hardship,'' Lazzaro said.
The other absolutely essential part of the project, which already has been done, is having a suitable playing surface.
Should the worst-case situation develop, Bowles said he must first approach the league and president John Hopkins to gain approval to play at Municipal Field. The approval of major-league baseball and the Rockies, the Avalanche's parent organization, would have to follow. Bowles said that the league would make the appeal to major-league baseball.
``The Carolina League will go along with it,'' Bowles said. ``I'm sure of that. The league won't play hardball with me. It's major-league baseball that might play hardball with me.''
Hopkins was traveling Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.
The Rockies aren't likely to block Bowles' plan.
``I don't see why we wouldn't approve it,'' said Dick Balderson, Colorado's farm director. ``I learned a long time ago not to worry about what you can't control. We'll leave it up to the judgment of Kelvin Bowles and Sam Lazzaro.''
Major-league baseball already has said Municipal Field does not meet the standards of the Professional Baseball Agreement, which governs minor-league facility specifications. An extension was granted for Salem to stay in Municipal Field in 1994, supposedly the final season there.
``I'm not totally upset,'' Bowles said. ``Some things could have been done differently; I think everybody knows that now. But I'm not looking at the way it is now. I feel good about the way it's going to be.''
There is precedent for putting up new parks in a hurry. The stadium occupied by the Carolina Leagues's Wilmington Blue Rocks was built in less than a year with the last stages of construction proceeding despite the famous spring blizzard of 1993, described as the storm of the century in Delaware. The Eastern League's Bowie (Md.) Bay Sox moved into a stadium last year that was far from complete. In Hickory, N.C., the Crawdads moved into brand new L.P. Frans Stadium after securing the occupancy permit from the city the day the gates were supposed to open.
``I'm just glad we didn't have bad weather this winter,'' Bowles said. ``We wouldn't have moved into this stadium this year.''
If Bowles is frustrated about the situation, he isn't letting on publicly.
``You won't get me to say anything bad about the City of Salem,'' he said. ``They've done everything they've said they were going to do. They're easy to get along with and cooperative.''
by CNB