The Price of Victory

How much would you pay for a champion baseball team?

Back in 1906 the Montgomery ownership announced on March 15th that they had "hung a $3000 purse" on the pennant - if the team took the flag the players would each bring in about the equivalent of a months pay.

Your 1906 Montgomery Senators

It behooved the owners to encourage their team. It shows well in the press in mid-March when baseball is starting to be on the minds of the fans, encouraging them to come to games.

The owners want lots of fans at the games, not just to sell seats. For in order to get to the ballpark fans ride the trolley - owned by the same firm that owns the team! The team plays many of its home games about two miles east of the city, near the enterprising entertainment and theater district known as Electric Park.



BAYBEARS PREZ BAILS TEAM

AND SO IT BEGINS...
Mobile BayBears team president Bill Shanahan announced his resignation from the Baybears front office this week. He is the only president in BayBears history.

This is the first of what could be many upcoming changes in Mobile, soon to be the third franchise in the gulf coast area. Its been a popular opinion that the arrival of the Wahoos in Pensacola and the impending arrival of the Biloxi Whatever-they-will-be-called don't bode well for the Mobile franchise.

The parent Dbax have asked/demanded improvements to the clubhouse and field, the city of Mobile has a shortfall of money to make improvements and the BayBears team had to negotiate out of a giant sized past-due rent bill last year.

The departure of the team president likely strains the already tenuous relationship between team and city, leaving fans in Mobile caught in the same spot as the fans in Huntsville found themselves. For them, its support a team in decline due to lack of organized, focused team and civic leadership - or become Wahoos fans.

Its looking abit grim for Mobile. The best the fans can hope for is a patch to the park problems, as a city in debt cant build a new field. Even the renovation of the clubhouse and playing field leaves the Hank as the old park between two brand new facilities.

The fans in Mobile should be very concerned by the change in their front office.