This ran in the Albq Journal Sunday on the Pecos League. I thought this quote was interesting and it does mention Artesia as a place for expansion.
www.abqjournal.com/sports/2011/07/24/dreams-are-staying-alive.htmlOr the league having to scrap plans to put a team in Carlsbad when the hometown of Cody Ross, postseason star of the 2010 World Series champion San Francisco Giants, couldn’t secure a field for the season’s duration.
“It’s supposed to be the baseball capital of New Mexico,” Dunn said. “I doubt it.”ALAMOGORDO — It’s past 10 p.m. on a full-moon Friday at Griggs Sports Complex, and the baseball drama is heating up.
The host White Sands Pupfish — trailing the Carlsbad Bats 5-4 in the ninth — have just put the potential winning run on base.
But additional late-game heroics are going to have to wait. Not for a pitching change. Not for inclement weather. And not for an injured player.
Action halts because players have spotted a furry black spider near second base.
It’s a tarantula timeout. Nobody will swing a bat or steal a base until it’s gone.
Players, officials and fans alike turn their gaze to second base, where Bats infielder Greg Perret fails to glove the bug. Carlsbad catcher Kieran Bradford finally jogs to the scene. He corrals it in his mitt and releases it near the fence. Pupfish pitcher Brandon Glazebrook then finishes the job, snuffing out the arachnid’s life with the tip of his bat. (“A love tap,” he says later.)
Game on.
The rally resumes. The Pupfish plate the tying run — prompting “the wave” from the announced crowd of 231 — and win 6-5 in 11 innings.
A smattering of autograph-seeking young fans approach the players, who sign obligingly. The athletes pose for photos with a woman dressed as Cinderella before heading home — “home” meaning a bedroom provided rent-free by a local family.
This is what independent professional baseball looks like in New Mexico.
A fledgling venture
The first-year Pecos League has teams in Alpine (Texas), Alamogordo, Las Cruces, Roswell and Ruidoso. It also includes the Carlsbad Bats, who, despite the name, are a traveling squad with no home field.
Independent leagues have no connection to Major League Baseball or its affiliated minor leagues. The Pecos League is one of six in North America.
Pecos League commissioner Andrew Dunn — who also owns the four New Mexico-based teams — calls the league a venue for rising stars, shooting stars and falling stars. He’ll also tell you it’s the lowest rung on the independent ladder — at least financially.
Dunn said players make $100 weekly plus housing and meals, though some athletes say it’s even less. And that’s for playing up to seven days per week.
“It’s definitely not (about) the money,” said Pupfish catcher Ernie Muñoz, a Californian who played for San Francisco State and spent two summers in other independent leagues. “I’m just playing to have the opportunity to play at the next level, which is after college. And if that means I start here, then this is where I start.”
Players come to the Pecos League from across the country and even Australia. Many signees had never heard of New Mexico, Dunn said. He’s fielded the infamous “Do I need a passport to get there?” question numerous times. Once here, though, they’re generally content.
“Guys actually like it here,” Dunn said.
Pecos absorbs players released from higher-level independent organizations and those out of college. Only about 10 players have ever signed a contract with a major league organization, Dunn said.
The vast majority come to cities they’ve never heard of — Ruidoso? Alpine? — and play for a pittance mostly because they love it.
“A lot of them come out here with nothing and leave with nothing, and they do it because they love the game,” said White Sands manager Keith Essary. “That’s why I love this level so much.”
But Essary, 34, said there’s the aspiration factor, too. Most see the Pecos League as a steppingstone.
“Everybody wants to go (up),” he said. “Even me as a coach.”
Approximately 25 Pecos players have been promoted this summer, mostly to higher independent leagues. Pitcher Adam Osteen caught the biggest break, getting plucked from White Sands by the Arizona Diamondbacks two weeks ago.
Osteen serves as a validation for other Pecos players.
“We know we’re not out here doing it for nothing and there’s a possibility for some of us,” said Muñoz, 25. “He’s living proof of that.”
Bright lights (sometimes), little city
Independent leagues are a dying breed, Dunn said. So why start one in New Mexico?
“We ask ourselves every day,” Dunn said. “It’s the hardest place to do business and one of the poorest states in the union.
“I think the honest answer is the cities are close together and the community support is better than people think.”
Local enthusiasm has atoned for some of the challenges — like the Ruidoso Osos having to play only afternoon games because their stadium has no lights. Or the league having to scrap plans to put a team in Carlsbad when the hometown of Cody Ross, postseason star of the 2010 World Series champion San Francisco Giants, couldn’t secure a field for the season’s duration.
“It’s supposed to be the baseball capital of New Mexico,” Dunn said. “I doubt it.”
The nomadic Bats are now perpetual visitors to the rest of the league sites.
Attendance varies at the $6-a-ticket games. Dunn said the Roswell Invaders — whose alien-themed merchandise is a top seller — can get 300 fans. Las Cruces often struggles to attract 100.
In Alamogordo, the Pupfish get support from both the general public and local officials.
The city helped stretch an existing youth facility to suit pro ball, extending center field from 320 feet to 405 and erecting 40-foot nets in right and left field. Assistant City Manager Matt McNeile said the Pupfish use the field — referred to as “The Aquarium” — rent free. In return, the city gets a cut of game-day concessions.
McNeile initially had doubts about the Pecos League but is now one of its most devout volunteers. McNeile — who named the team after a fish species found only in southern New Mexico — serves as half of a two-man grounds crew. He’s also worked on marketing, helping to plan theme nights like ’70s disco or military appreciation.
Cinderella was the theme of last week’s Pupfish game against Carlsbad. Local actors came in costume to promote their production of the classic tale. Cinderella herself even took center stage. In a spectacle not unlike the presentation of a high school homecoming court, Muñoz escorted Cinderella onto the diamond. She took the mound and threw the first pitch, the wind tugging at her sky-blue satin gown.
“It’s independent baseball,” McNeile mused. “It’s quirky. It’s fun.”
Wally Anderson wholeheartedly agrees.
“I love (having a team in Alamogordo),” the 56-year-old said. “Growing up, people used to say there’s nothing to do in Alamogordo and Otero County. This is the perfect opportunity for the community to come together for a common cause.”
The Cinderella game drew a diverse crowd, from young families to retirees like Ron and Gloria Burch.
Taking in their first Pupfish game, the Burches had nothing but praise.
“The players look better than I thought,” said Gloria, who admitted she was lured in part by the Cinderella theme. “Of course, the last time we were here (at the field), our grandsons were playing city ball, so this is a nice surprise.”
Some regular fans actually open their homes to players. Host families such as Diane and Rick Ragen agree to provide players a rent-free bedroom with kitchen and laundry access but often end up in a more familial relationship.
“We all cook, we all clean, we all do grocery shopping,” Diane said of her two summer sons, Muñoz and Glazebrook. “I don’t take care of them any more than they take care of us.”
Pupfish second baseman Ruben Sanchez said he wouldn’t be playing without his host family, who paid for his medical care when he recently came down with a staph infection.
“I thank them every day,” said Sanchez, a native Californian and New Mexico Highlands grad. “I’m pretty sure they’re sick of me telling them thank you.”
What next?
Financially, Dunn said, the league is close to breaking even. He has plans to expand to eight teams in 2012. Potential future home sites include Pueblo (Colo.), Del Rio (Texas), Artesia, Carlsbad, Clovis and Santa Fe. Dunn’s particularly excited about Santa Fe but said he’s so far struggled to start a dialogue with city officials.
As for this year’s players, the future is less certain.
Muñoz — who, in the offseason, works in San Francisco counseling at-risk youth in a group home — said he’ll likely give himself a year or two longer to chase the baseball dream. He wants a full-time career but loves baseball too much to quit now.
“This is where I want to be until somebody tells me I can’t do it anymore,” the 25-year-old said.
Sanchez, too, is giving himself a similar timeline — now 26, he thinks he’ll play another year or two.
Pupfish pitcher Chris Smith, 22, said he’s already wrestled with the question of whether to keep playing. The Louisville, Ky., native has played for and been released by the independent Lake Erie Crushers and Traverse City Beach Bums. He was about to call it quits in June — days away from starting a new job — when Essary phoned. Smith was on a plane to New Mexico the next day.
Smith, a right-hander, went 3-0 in his first three White Sands starts, all complete games. Teams have previously dropped him for being inexperienced, and Smith said the Pecos League should help solve that issue. It apparently has. Dunn said Friday that Smith is in the process of being promoted to the Washington (Pa.) Wild Things of the Frontier League.
Smith said he’ll know when he’s one of the falling stars on his way out. Most players do, he said.
“It’s tough though. It’s a young man’s sport and it’s everybody’s dream,” he said, adding that his current plan is to give himself until age 24 or 25. “Once you hit 25, 26, 27, affiliated ball becomes (something) you have a very short chance at. Not everybody has a story like that movie ‘The Rookie.’ That’s once in a blue moon.”
— This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal
