Ballpark & team now both under construction.
Manager and players being selected soon. Concrete being poured.
By David O'connor
Published Oct 14, 2004 13:44
On Wednesday, construction crews poured the back walls of one of the dugouts at the Lancaster baseball park.
And the team that will play there starting early next year also is busy with its own building blocks.
The Lancaster Barnstormers conducted a first round of interviews with manager candidates in mid-September and will begin the second round in the next week or two, with the team’s first manager likely to be named in the next month.
Crews have poured the concrete foundations for the stadium at North Prince Street and Harrisburg Pike.
But that’s not all.
They’re installing underground plumbing and electrical work, and they’re doing preparation work for the park’s concrete slab floors.
And much of this has been under the watchful eye of a Lancaster youngster, Ricky Long.
He “is there a lot, he watches us a lot,” probably in anticipation of the park’s opening, the ballpark construction manager for Warfel Construction Co. said today.
“We’re coming out of the ground, in construction terms,” and while the progress is encouraging, “we have a way to go,” Jeff Smith added.
Meanwhile, other news regarding the team includes:
· The independent Atlantic League will hold its expansion draft Nov. 10, and the Barnstormers will be able to choose the league rights to players left unprotected by the current teams.
· Ticket sales are going well, and dugout box seats for the 5,700-seat ballpark are “very, very close to sold out,” team spokesman Andy Frankel said today.
· The Barnstormers will know by month’s end, when the league announces its 2005 schedule, who their first game and home game will be against.
· And on another front, the team is finalizing the design of the team mascot’s costume, with tryouts for all you budding Phillie Phanatics and San Diego Chickens to follow.
Meanwhile, the Lancaster County Redevelopment Authority, which is working to eliminate a $4 million shortfall in construction funding for the stadium, is “within striking distance of filling the gap.
“We just have to nail down a few commitments,” its executive director Randy Patterson said today.
Until the funding gap is filled, officials have said, they’ve put ballpark features like a scoreboard, video monitor and playground on hold.
But the construction is not being slowed by the funding gap, Patterson added, and fans should expect to see the scoreboard and other features when the ballpark opens in May.
The $28 million facility will host 70 Barnstormers’ games a season, high school athletic contests, concerts and community events.
The Barnstormers also have a display booth at today’s Lancaster Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s annual Business Expo, being held at Franklin & Marshall College’s Alumni Sports & Fitness Center.
More than 2,000 people were expected to attend the business expo, and the booth “will give us a nice visible presence in the community” at such events, spokesman Frankel said.
When the Barnstormers take the field next year, it will end a 44-year absence for professional baseball in Lancaster.
The Red Roses had left here in 1961. The Atlantic League is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, although the six-year-old league has featured stars from the majors such as Ruben Sierra, who’s now back in themajors with the Yankees, and Rickey Henderson.
