Does Fort Worth Need Trash Pandas Or Sod Poodles Playing Baseball?

It does grow old, even for me, making mock of something I read in Fort Worth's pitiful little newspaper, the Star-Telegram.

This time the subject was Fort Worth's storied baseball ballpark, LaGrave Field, and Fort Worth's equally storied baseball team, the Fort Worth Cats.

Need I mention I am being sarcastic with the use of that "storied" word, which I saw used at least once when reading today's  What will it take to make the Fort Worth Cats a home run? Not baseball article?

Let's read through this article together, copying out some choice bits for your reading amusement...

Baseball won’t save the Fort Worth Cats or LaGrave Field. Experts in minor league sports branding say a team can stack the roster with former Major League Baseball names or young talent looking to make their mark with home runs, but that likely won’t sell tickets. Instead, a resurrected Cats team should focus on entertainment and definitely not be something they’re not: The Rangers.

Okay.

So, apparently there are minor league sports branding experts. And those experts do not think baseball will save Fort Worth's baseball ballpark. So, if the Fort Worth Cats are brought back to life they need to focus on being entertaining, and not focus on something like baseball, which the Texas Rangers are already focusing on, a few miles to the east, in Arlington, in the same county as Fort Worth, with the Rangers playing in a beautiful ballpark, soon to be replaced by an even better ballpark.

You are probably wondering what is this entertainment these minor league sports branding experts are recommending. Well, one of those experts used another town's ballpark entertainment as an example for Fort Worth...

The focus isn’t baseball. It’s family fun, he said. People pay for the sideline antics. Among the circus-like performances: A character called “Coach,” the epitome of the high school P.E. teacher cliché, clad in short shorts and constantly doing calisthenics. Rather than a ketchup, mustard and relish race, fans have donned ears, nose and throat costumes to race around the park. The gags are kid-friendly with jokes that parents enjoy too, he said. “The biggest complaint in baseball these days is how long it lasts,” he said. “You’re not going to complain about a three hour movie if you’re entertained. That’s what we do in the ballpark.”

Oh yes, I see the value in consulting these minor league sports branding experts. What fun that will be, being entertained at the revived LaGrave Field whilst being bored by baseball. I would love to spend three hours watching a "Coach" character goofing around in short shorts whilst doing push ups. What a fun time that will be in Fort Worth, with fans donning ears, nose and throat costumes to race around the park. People will be coming from all over the world to see this.

And then there is this...

Scott Berry, a former Cats executive, hopes his Save LaGrave Foundation can pump new life into the decaying LaGrave Field with the Cats as the cornerstone. This week the foundation reached a 10-year agreement with Tarrant Regional Water District that secures the field for baseball and not redevelopment for the time being.

My eldest cousin is Scott Barry. He used to report regarding baseball for the Seattle Times. But, I think this Scott in the Star-Telegram article is not my cousin, due to the last name being spelled slightly different.

Anyway, isn't it interesting how an article in the Star-Telegram just casually mentions that to play baseball in LaGrave Field one needs to reach an agreement with the TRWD.

But, the Star-Telegram does not tell its readers in this article that the TRWD did not control that piece of land back in the previous era of LaGrave Field being in operation mode. The land was then owned by a friend of TRWD Board Member, Jim Lane, named Carl Bell.

Carl Bell filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

Jim Lane then finagled financial shenanigans which resulted in the TRWD buying Bell's land for millions of dollars. I think the sum was $22 million, if I remember right. And this then somehow resulted in the nearby opening of the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century, the Coyote Drive-in.  How this drive-in escaped the fate of getting the infamous Panther Island label is not known.

Why it is considered okay for an agency responsible for flood control and providing water owns a baseball ballpark is a mystery. Perhaps this is yet one more example of what is known locally as The Fort Worth Way. Which has come to mean, to many, a corrupt crony controlled way of operating a town.

Back to the article...

Brandiose recommends clubs, even those with a history, start with a naming competition. It sounds quaint, but getting the community involved at the onset is crucial, he said. And he recommends clubs abandon traditional names like Lions, Eagles or anything vaguely associated with the Majors. This process birthed teams like the Rocket City Trash Pandas, a Double A minor team in Alabama or Amarillo’s Sod Poodles. These names are something that can’t be ignored, appeal to kids and foster a storyline, Klein said.

Oh yes, I can see why this is why this ballpark has failed repeatedly. It's all about the name. Cats. What a terrible name. Who would want to watch Cats play baseball? Yes, Trash Pandas or Sod Poodles. Now that would be get me in a ballpark, no matter how boring the baseball playing might be.

Well,  read the entire What will it take to make the Fort Worth Cats a home run? Not baseball article to get the full dose of this latest Star-Telegram goofiness, while we end this by starting that community baseball team naming competition.

How about the Fort Worth Goofballs? Or the Fort Worth Crony Crackpots? Or the Fort Worth Outhouse Keepers? Geez, the best name just came to me, instantly obviously the perfect name...

The Fort Worth Boondogglers...

Are Fort Worth Feral Cats Restoring LaGrave Field?

I first saw reference made to that which you see here this morning via Facebook.

My reaction to the question asked in this Fort Worth Star-Telegram headline was to wonder why.

As in why would any sane entity want to restore this rundown ballpark one more time? I have seen this ballpark already restored once since I have been observing that special American town of Fort Worth.

Years ago I made a webpage showing what I was appalled to see when I visited this imaginary jewel of a ballpark, in a town of over 800,000. That revival did not last long, and now, in 2019, this pitiful ruin of a ballpark is now located on that equally pitiful imaginary landmark known as Panther Island.

Now, I am aware there are locals who are baseball fanatics who loved watching their hometown Fort Worth Cats play baseball in this pitiful ballpark in a league of teams located in small towns a fraction of the size of Fort Worth.

But, really, this decrepit rundown ballpark is not worthy of any town with pretensions of being a Big City. even before LaGrave Field once again became a rundown eyesore it should have embarrassed locals to have it as their "professional" ballpark.

And then we mix in all the financial shenanigans associated with LaGrave Field. This Are the Fort Worth Cats coming back to a restored LaGrave Field? article does not detail any of those shenanigans of the past.

But, the article does make mention of present day shenanigans. Such as in the following...

The Fort Worth Cats could be coming back to the ballpark north of downtown. Jim Lane, a Tarrant Regional Water District Board member, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Tuesday he expected the board to vote on a contract next week that would bring back the team and restore the stadium.
“Hopefully we’ll be approving a contract to bring the Cats back,” Lane said.

Few other details were available Tuesday afternoon. Water district spokesman Chad Lorance said nothing definitive had been set for the meeting.

The water district agreed to swap the property with the previous owners, Houston-based Panther Acquisition Partners, last July.

Read the entire article for all the land swap shenanigan details.

Now, my memory may not remember all the details, but was not TRWD board member, Jim Lane, instrumental in a previous multi-million dollar deal which helped rescue one of his friends from the bankrupt financial straits he was in as a result of the previous LaGrave Cats failure? And didn't that TRWD deal result in some of that LaGrave land turning into the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century, located adjacent to the now defunct LaGrave Field?

And then there was that more recent TRWD land swap, referenced in this Star-Telegram article, where land currently under Trinity River levees was swapped for other land, all assessed in the millions.

By what criteria is this property value assessed? What with this property all located in the industrial wasteland location of the imaginary island, which likely will never be developed to any higher quality level than what we currently see, unless somehow the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision finally becomes managed in an effective, responsible, timely, properly engineered fashion.

And why is the Tarrant Regional Water District involved in all this property speculation? Let alone having anything to do with reviving an old baseball park...