SCRAPPERS

SCRAPPERS
Team GM responds
Fanfare:
I would like to take a moment to respond to the letter written last week by Patty Smith expressing her disappointment over the lack of a celebration for the Scrappers' recent championship. While I can sympathize with her and understand her disappointment, she is misguided in pointing her blame towards the Scrappers front office.
Nobody would have loved a large community celebration more than I would, but fans do not realize the time constraints that made this impossible. With the regular season originally scheduled to end on September 4, the team was scheduled to leave town the next day. A large majority of those players had scheduled flights to catch with the remaining players leaving town in their personal vehicles. In many cases, these players, who range in age from 19-23, had not seen their families in almost seven months and were anxious to return home. With the team ultimately making the playoffs and then the league championship, their departure date was continually moved back.
After the team eventually won the New York-Penn League Championship on the evening of Sept. 13, the bus was scheduled to return to the Mahoning Valley the following morning. Until we knew what time the bus would actually leave on Tuesday, it was impossible for us to promote a time as to when the fans and media could meet the team for their return. When the bus finally departed, we did contact the local media and estimated an arrival time of approximately 6 p.m., but there are obvious limitations on getting the word out on such short notice.
The Eastwood Mall did approach us about having a celebration that evening in the mall, but it is entirely false that we told the players not to attend. Please realize the team was returning from a nine-hour bus trip, some of the players were leaving that same evening in their cars, and the shuttle to transport the players up to the Cleveland airport was leaving the next morning at 4 a.m. It was the team itself that did not feel there was enough time to attend a mall event and still take care of their own affairs in order to meet their scheduled departure times. What more could we have done other than have people meet the team at the stadium?
It was our front office along with season ticket holder John Brown and his son John Jr. (Scrappers bat boy) that made the 1000-mile trip to the game to support the team. While I understand the reasons that fans could not make the long trip during either a school or work week, it was too bad that more people could not have been there to celebrate the victory. I only wish the team could have won the championship on our home field so the entire community could have shared in a well-deserved celebration. Unfortunately that was not possible.
So while I share in the disappointment that more people could not be part of a team celebration, to say the Scrappers front office does not care about the team or its fans is off-base and untrue. We have a staff that works its tails off putting in 16-hour days and a 90-hour work week throughout the majority of the summer to put out a fun and entertaining product for the people of this community. Believe me when I say it is not for the money, but for the love of the job. Our organization has received such tremendous community support over our six-year existence that includes host families, season ticket holders, and area businesses and nobody appreciates that support more than me and my staff. It has been a tremendous season -- one in which everyone should be extremely proud.
Dave Smith
General Manager
Mahoning Valley Scrappers