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...

Perplexing TRWD Land Swap Deal For Fort Worth LaGrave Baseball Park

A couple weeks ago, whilst I was in modern America, Arizona to be precise, Braig Prickley Facebook messaged me with a link which led me to the TRWD PRESS RELEASE you see partially screen capped here.

I read the press release and thought to myself what fresh ridiculousness is this nonsense.

I then replied to Mr. Prickley telling him something along the line of what with me currently being in modern America I just don't have the energy or desire to much care about fresh nonsense from back in backwards America.

And then I got back to Texas and soon found myself reading the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's "news" article about this fresh nonsense, with the article titled Deal to reopen Fort Worth Cats’ LaGrave Field full of dreams, but is there money?

Reading the Star-Telegram's question about money was not the question I was asking when I read about this "deal".

Before we get to looking at this deal let's look at what Mr. Prickley had to say after I replied to his message...

Yeah, looks like slimy Jim Lane got his way.  When they won the election, he said his TOP PRIORITY was getting minor league baseball back at Lagrave Field.

The slimy Jim Lane to which Prickley refers is one of the TRWD board members.

There is no mention made of it in the Star-Telegram article, but wasn't it Jim Lane who finagled an earlier "deal" regarding the land around LaGrave Field? A deal which had the TRWD spending multiple millions of dollars to rescue a bankrupt friend of Jim Lane. A friend somehow associated with LaGrave Field and its demise, if my memory is serving me correctly.

And then after the TRWD paid for that land, part of that land became the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century.

Any of this ringing a bell with anyone? No mention is made in the Star-Telegram article about the previous TRWD property purchasing shenanigans in the LaGrave Field area.

This Star-Telegram article about LaGrave Field tells us...

The Fort Worth-based water district, teaming with the federal government to split the Trinity and create the new island, also got $1.3 million in the trade plus 8.1 acres including the stadium.

The water district is teamed with the federal government to split the Trinity River and create a new island? Does the federal government know they have been teamed with the TRWD to split a river and create an imaginary island?

And then this about the land that was swapped so the TRWD could take over LaGrave Field...

In exchange, Houston-based Panther Acquisition Partners will get 15.3 acres along what is now a levee, giving the group a total of 26 acres on what will become Panther Island when the river is split.

What is this new nonsense about splitting the river?

Am I understanding correctly? The land which the TRWD swapped for the land including LaGrave Field is currently underneath 15.3 acres of Trinity River levees, which will be removed if the Trinity River Vision ever becomes something someone can see, with that land under the levees then part of the imaginary island.

And then there is this...

Right now, we’ve only heard lofty promises. If they come through, the new Panther Island development across the Trinity River from downtown will be anchored by a boutique ballpark and events facility built around the legendary 92-year-old ballfield. Here’s how iffy this deal is: It requires $4 million at signing from a charity foundation that does not even have a board of directors yet but is already collecting money.

The imaginary island development will be anchored by a boutique ballpark? And an events facility? Built around a legendary ballfield?

You reading this somewhere in modern America, have you ever heard of Fort Worth's legendary ballfield?

The deal required $4 million from a charity?

Why does Fort Worth never seem to do things the way towns wearing their BIG CITY pants get things done?

If you are reading this and have not seen Fort Worth's LaGrave Field, back when it re-opened, after reading what seemed likely to be hyperbolic exaggeration in the Star-Telegram about this newly re-opened facility, I ventured to the future imaginary island and took some photos, and then webpaged what I saw in Fort Worth's LaGrave Field.

During my multiple visits to the Phoenix metro zone this year, and last, I have seen multiple baseball parks, some beautiful big complexes, complete with a hotel and other amenities, such as the Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field at the north end of Dobson Road, in Mesa. Or my most recent last day in Arizona when Miss Daisy's driver drove us by the spring training ballpark for the California A's. Any of these Cactus League ballparks would be a worthy ballpark model for a big city like Fort Worth.

And why is the TRWD, as in Tarrant Regional Water District involving itself in something like trying to re-open a defunct ballpark?

Perplexing...

Fort Worth's Defunct Lagrave Field Is No Longer The Envy Of Its League

What you are looking at here is the home base view of Fort Worth's defunct Lagrave Field, where the Fort Worth Cats used to play baseball in an extremely minor league against towns a fraction of Fort Worth's size.

Over a decade ago I was motivated to check out Fort Worth's new ballpark after reading the following in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram...

In the late Winter of 2003, in the sports section of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in an article about the coming baseball season, the Fort Worth Cats and La Grave Field, the writer said that La Grave Field, in its short existence, had become "the envy of the league...". It was decided to have a look at this Ballpark which had become the envy of the league, as it was assumed it must be spectacular, what with the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington just down the road a few miles.

Well, it did not take me long to find out that the league of which Fort Worth's field was the envy consisted of teams and towns I had never heard of, such as the Alexandria Aces, the Jackson Senators, the Ozark Mountain Ducks, the Edinburg Roadrunners, the Coastal Bend Aviators and the Rio Grande Whitewings.

You reading this in cities of Fort Worth's size, give or take a few hundred thousand, I guarantee I am not making this up. This town, with a population over 800,000, prided itself on supposedly having a better ballpark than that which the Ozark Mouuntain Ducks, and others, play ball in.

Another look at Lagrave Field, the envy of its league, now out of business.

The above photos were taken back in 2003, back when the envy of its league was still in good shape, before deterioration and a broken scoreboard became the ballpark's norm.

Long ago I documented, via a webpage, my astonishment at this sad excuse for a ballpark in a big American city, in a webpage titled, Fort Worth's La Grave Field. Included among what I photo documented, was the fact that way back in 2003, when Lagrave Field was the envy of its league, it  had no indoor restroom facilities, instead using the Fort Worth standard for its parks.

Outhouses.

You reading this in other big towns in America, again, I am not making this up.

The Wikipedia article about Lagrave Field made no mention of it being the envy of its league, but did make note of the financial woes which drove the ballpark out of business....

Recent financial challenges

In February 2010, former Fort Worth Cats owner Carl Bell defaulted on $30 million in notes with LaGrave Field as collateral. Although Amegy Bank had the right to foreclose on the field and some of the adjacent acreage, the bank did not decide to immediately exercise that right. Former owner Carl Bell also owed over $195,000 USD in property taxes and penalties for 2010 and sought a buyer for the stadium. A scheduled (January 3, 2012) foreclosure auction was averted due to a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing by LaGrave Reconstruction Company. Several months later, the debt holder Amegy Bank of Houston finally completed foreclosure and became the landlord of the Cats. On Tuesday, October 2, 2012 it was announced that LaGrave Field had been bought by an affiliate of the team's new ownership group for $4.5 million USD.

This week's Fort Worth Weekly has an article about the Lagrave Field woes titled Needing a Forever Home.

I was a little confused by the Fort Worth Weekly article. Mention is made of the fact that former owner, Carl Bell, who brought the Cats back to Lagrave Field in 2001, had also bought many of the acres which surrounded the ballpark, anticipating this would become valuable land due to what is known now as The Boondoggle. However, when the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle project moved at a snail's pace, along with the Great Recession, Bell found himself having money woes, with the Fort Worth Weekly article saying Bell was rescued by a guy named Bryant and a former Texas Rangers President named Mike Stone, who bought the team in 2012 and paid off its debts. But could not afford the ballpark.

Which does not make a lot of sense to me.

What I am remembering is the reports that Bell got himself a sweetheart deal, arranged by a TRWD board member friend, with that deal purchasing a large chunk of Bell's land for a very healthy sum, with the TRWD then leasing part of that land to the entity which foisted on Fort Worth the bizarre first drive-movie theater of the 21st century, known as the Coyote Drive-In.

If no one comes forward to buy Lagrave Field the new owners have indicated it will be torn down in order to develop the property.

I think this would be a good thing to tear down that rundown eyesore. However TRWD board member Jim Lane thinks differently, quoted in the FW Weekly article as saying...

"If it gets town down, every elected official  in Fort Worth ought to be ashamed of themselves."

Well.

I think there are plenty of reasons every elected official in Fort Worth ought to be ashamed of themselves, but tearing down this ballpark is not one of them.

The fact that Fort Worth does not seem to know how to build a ballpark of the sort other big, and some little towns, do, well that is something for the elected officials to be ashamed of.

Just go to my old home zone of Washington and check out the minor league baseball parks in towns much smaller than Fort Worth, such as Tacoma's Cheney Stadium, Everett's Memorial Stadium, Bellingham's Joe Martin Field. Even my old home town of Mount Vernon has a baseball park, Sherman Anderson Field, where, while no minor league calls it home, the Skagit County Fair does. And Sherman Anderson Field has indoor restrooms of the non-outhouse variety.

Those elected officials who should be ashamed of themselves should just take a short drive north, to Oklahoma City and check out Bricktown, where they will find a new, but classic looking baseball park.

In Bricktown those elected officials who should be ashamed of themselves will also find a Trinity River Vision type project that has actually been completed. If I remember right the signage I saw at the time I visited Bricktown, well over ten years ago, indicated it was the result of around a $1 billion bond issue.

Yes. Oklahoma City voters voted to build Bricktown. Again, what a concept. And imagine that, voted on, approved by the voters, fully funded. And built.

Oklahoma got a lot for their billion bucks. A very cool San Antonio-like Riverwalk, with restaurants and shops. Another sporting venue, besides the ballpark. I think this may be where the basketball team Aubrey McClendon stole from Seattle plays. I don't know if Myriad Gardens was part of the bond issue which built Bricktown, but it is part of the complex, and very well done.

If only the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle had the vision to go about its project in the way Oklahoma City did, Fort Worth might be reaping the benefits at this point in time, rather than waiting for the slowpoke construction of Three Bridge Over Nothing, with another wait in four years, waiting for money to be found to start building the ditch so water can be added under the bridges....