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The stats and scores from one game to the next commix as you exit the turnstile and head home with one more punched ticket of baseball memories. The recollections that stick from game to game are the intangible occurrences as baseball nature takes its course: the smell of the green grass; seeing how many individual Cracker Jacks you can stack on the head of the dozing guy in front of you; the sting in the glove after you catch a line-drive foul ball; and the crown jewel of getting the star player to sign a baseball—or getting snubbed and feeling like a jackass for standing around for an hour.
Chiefs’ outfielder Russ Adams swings for the fences. Michael Davis photos.
When parents take their kids to the games, they reminisce at the same time the young ones are embracing future memories. The Syracuse Chiefs have been providing this kind of tradition in the city since they became a Triple-A team in 1935.
Before the first pitch, April 21, of the Chiefs game against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, longtime fan Ralph Seeber of Baldwinsville describes the experience of taking in a ball game from his seat on the third-base line. “What better way to spend an evening than to sit out in comfort and watch baseball,” he says. “You can come out and bond with your family and friends. When the game is dull you can talk and when it starts to get exciting, you stop talking and watch the action. It’s just a relaxing way to spend an evening.”
Seeber has been attending Chiefs games since “right around the time they came back to the International League.” That was 1961, when they re-emerged as the farm club for the Minnesota Twins after a 1956-1957 stint in Single-A followed by a three-year respite from all baseball operations. That lasted a year before they began a one-year relationship with the New York Mets in 1962, coincidentally the first season the “Amazings” competed in Major League Baseball and finished 40-120, a feat that still stands as a record of futility.
The Chiefs then began a four-year marriage with the Detroit Tigers before joining forces with the Evil Empire of the New York Yankees until 1977, when they started to fly under the radar with the Toronto Blue Jays as their parent club. There has recently been an air of speculation that the Chiefs are going to end their affiliation with the Jays and rekindle their relationship with the Mets—albeit under more favorable circumstances as the Mets have won two World Series titles since the ugly breakup and are heavy favorites to win the National League pennant this year.
The Chiefs’ current contract with the Jays ends after the 2008 season; so does the bind between the Mets and their Triple-A New Orleans Zephyrs. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y) is actively pimping for the Chiefs to hook up with the home-state boys of summer, a move he claims would make sense geographically and economically for everyone involved.
Many fans agree with Chuck. “I’m hoping they do it,” says Seeber of the possible switch. “I think it would be good for the fans here as well as the Mets, because their Double-A team is already in Binghamton and having Syracuse as their Triple-A instead of going way down to New Orleans would also seem like a no-brainer.”
Because of contractual obligations, nobody within the Chiefs organization is allowed to discuss the scenario. “We’re with Toronto and we really can’t say anything, especially to guys like you, but we’ll see what happens and we’ll make a decision at some point during the year,” says Chiefs general manager John Simone. “Obviously the longer we wait to make a move, the more likely something will change.”
Regardless of who they hook up with in the bigs, the matter at hand for fans in the area is the Chiefs and their performance on the field. “We’ve had way too many losing seasons here. What we need is a winner,” continues Seeber. “People come out if you give them a winner and the better the team does, the more fannies there will be in the seats.”
Foul Balls
The Chiefs have called Alliance Bank Stadium (formerly P&C Stadium) home since 1997. It has the capacity to seat 11,117 fans—nearly 3,000 more than the beloved Big Mac, alias MacArthur Stadium, the only other ballpark the Chiefs have called home since their inception. Their opening day game against the Louisville Bats on April 3 drew 6,465 people. Average attendance for each of the 10 home games that followed was 3,867, leaving the stadium looking a little barren as more than 7,200 seats remained unoccupied. In 2007, the average attendance was 5,759, which ranked 41st in all of minor-league baseball, falling well short of the Oakland Athletics’ farm club, the Sacramento River Cats, who topped the list with an average of 10,003.
Over the past two years, the Chiefs have made two major off-season changes. In 2007, the brass finally appeased many fans’ wishes and ditched the terminally unpopular SkyChiefs nickname adopted 10 years before; it was seen more as an undefined epithet rather than a posh appellation. And after playing the name game, the brainstorming honchos decided to remove the artificial turf surface in favor of Mother Nature.
Chiefs brass decided to initially install turf because it is the same surface that the Toronto Blue Jays play on at their ballpark, Rogers Centre (formerly the SkyDome). The Jays wanted the Chiefs’ players acclimated to it in case they got called up. But because of its nearly rock-hard surface, it wreaked havoc on many players’ joints and bones, causing unnecessary injury—not to mention the complaints from the fans that it wasn’t authentic. Finally, on Sept. 10, 2007, the removal of the AstroTurf began, followed by the installation of real Kentucky Bluegrass that now covers the field.
“On grass is the way baseball should be played,” says Jim Perrotti, an usher for the Chiefs. “You see true hops and, basically, it just looks like the way I remember seeing ballparks growing up.” As it is Perrotti’s imperative to interact with fans during games, he points out that the change to grass is all the rage this year.
“People just wanted to see natural grass and I think that’s what the general perception has been, which has made a heck of a difference with the way people perceive the game,” he continues. “With a day like today when the weather is good and you can smell the hot dogs and the team is winning, everyone is in a great mood and it’s a great time.”
Fans will always jump for joy and give a standing ovation for a home run swatted over the centerfield wall or for a diving catch on the newly laid grass. But there is one unsung hero who will never get the tip of the cap from the crowd he deserves for providing the game-long highlight of the sexy field those heroic feats are achieved on: head groundskeeper Wes Ganobcik.
“There are too many misconceptions that all we do is come out and cut the grass and rake the dirt,” says Ganobcik. “It’s six hours of work every game day and eight or nine hours of work when they’re on the road. And that’s everybody working all day, every day.”
He leads a five-man crew during the day and a different fab five at night and, except for a couple guys that worked the turf last year, they are all new hires, including Ganobcik. He’s there for the long haul both shifts, which usually means he’s driving to work listening to the egregiously hyper morning radio teams and heading home well after games’ end to hear the whispering monotone of late-night deejays. Groundwork begins at 9:30 every morning except when the Chiefs have a day game, in which case the crew has to arrive at the ballpark a couple hours earlier. Immediately upon punching his timecard, Ganobcik hops on a riding mower and spends the mandatory two hours cutting the outfield grass every day he’s on the job, which is every day.
“There’s no such thing as a day off during the season,” he notes. “I haven’t had a day off since March and probably won’t have one until October when the season is over.” Ganobcik, who along with his staff is contracted and paid by the county, estimates he’s usually at the stadium about 14 hours on game days because of pre-game preparation such as dismantling the batting practice equipment and watering and smoothing out the infield dirt. Post-game activities include covering the pitcher’s mound and home plate area with a tarp and raking and re-watering the dirt. When the team is on the road they do the majority of the big work like re-sodding the grass and re-sloping the pitcher’s and bullpen mounds.
“This is absolutely a science and my whole crew is agreeing with this,” says Ganobcik of the field upkeep. “They’re all brand new to this and for the six or seven weeks they’ve been working here, they’ve been floored at the amount of work that we do and the attention to detail and so many of the little, minute things we do on a daily basis to keep the field the way it is that nobody ever realizes or knows about.”
Before Ganobcik moved to Syracuse prior to this season, he spent five years on the grounds crew of the International League’s Columbus Clippers, then interned for a year with the Cincinnati Reds and most recently helped beautify the on-field scenery of Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles. It’s a place he describes as “one of the nicest facilities in all of baseball.”
And like other activities that involve rounding the bases, there are some things in this world you can’t learn from an instruction manual. “You pick this up from experience, you don’t learn this in the classroom,” professes Ganobcik. “It’s hard to actually teach the crew until we get out and start doing things and actually perform the maintenance activities. A big thing for me is teaching the crew why we do everything because a lot of things seem monotonous or unnecessary that they think might seem worthless.”
Obviously, the crew is not tending the field because they are botanical enthusiasts. It’s because they’re all fans of the game and hope their work directly influences the fans in attendance, as well as the in-game play of the Chiefs. Ergo, Ganobcik found it absolutely necessary to establish a good rapport among the players.
“I talk to the players and coaches every day,” he continues. “Players are always very quirky about things like if they like the dirt really wet or really dry, or the grass taller or lower depending if they have a quick team or slow team. There’s a ton of little things that they point out which I’ll check out and fix if need be. But it’s been a very respectful back and forth so far with many positive results.”
Chiefs outfielder Russ Adams agrees. “{Ganobcik} does a tremendous job and it seems like he really enjoys what he does and wants this place to be a top-of-the-run field and it is right now,” he notes. “It’s unbelievable, it’s like a complete 180. The turf was getting old, and it just didn’t feel like baseball playing on it. The game is supposed to be played on a natural surface; that’s the way it was drawn up and that’s the way baseball players grew up playing the game.”
Extra Innings
But there is more to the story than just the nine innings of ball on game days. “The average fan probably doesn’t have any idea how much time we spend together here at the ballpark and on the road and on the bus and on the plane and all those things,” continues Adams. “Most of us are here from 2 o’clock until 11 every night. Depending on your preparation for the game, you’re either down in the cage, lifting weights or stretching before taking an hour or so before the game to eat or do whatever. So it’s almost like working the second shift, I guess.”
Adams was named the International League Player of the Week for April 13 to 20, posting a .417 average during that span while hitting two home runs and driving in eight runs as the Chiefs tallied a 7-1 record. Since 2004, Adams has appeared in 278 games with the Jays, hitting .248 with 17 HR and 113 RBI, and was named to the annual Topps Major League Rookie All-Star Team in 2005. Like every player at the minor-league level, his goal is to get back up to the main stage and take swings under the spotlights of the big leagues. But for now, he’s content in the major league’s on-deck circle.
“The most important thing for all of us is to just focus on where we are and focus on coming here each day and trying to win ball- games,” he continues. “Everybody wants to be in the big leagues, but we’re all here and there’s not a whole lot we can do about it except play the game as hard as we can and hope to have the chance to get called up at some point.”
But real grass or artificial turf, major or minor league, rain or shine, Adams says the players get most jazzed by the crowd. But as recent attendance figures indicate, the sparse cheers during games pump them up as much as taking a fastball to the groin. “We need as much help from the fans as we can get. . . we need a little more help,” notes Adams. “We love having a crowded stadium and if we can continue to get better, hopefully the crowds will start coming out and have a nice atmosphere at the ballpark, which is always good.”
Simone, whose father Tex is executive vice president and chief operating officer of the club, agrees with Adams and is aware that a crowded house isn’t going to happen overnight. “Like a lot of things in life, we follow what’s hot and try to produce it in Syracuse with the Chiefs,” he says. “Numbers alone will not tell you whether you’ve had a successful year, but the one thing we’ve tried to do year after year is do more than we did the year before, and build from the past at working to make the future better for the fans.”
The Chiefs will still keep tradition alive with giveaway nights—such as hats and lunch boxes—but they are also going to be incorporating new promotions to help introduce less-than-casual fans to the game. “As the season moves along, we’ll be staging different things at the stadium to try and target all demographics,” says Simone. “We’ll try to get former major leaguers and former Chiefs to come in and sign autographs, as well as athletes from other sports and even a few non-sports related stars.”
Already slated to appear for an autograph signing for “Soap Opera Saturday” on July 19 is Cameron Mathison—a regular on ABC’s estrogen-fueled shows All My Children and Dancing with the Stars—who Simone hopes will appeal to the feminine demo. For the dudes, World Wrestling Entertainment diva Lillian Garcia will sing the national anthem before the June 25 game against the Toledo Mud Hens, then sign autographs in the concourse area afterward.
“We just want to give our fans something they can actually go home with that they will remember forever,” continues Simone. “The grass has been a great tool to promote the team, but being a winning team is just as important because when you have that, you don’t need promotions. The fans just seem to naturally follow when things are looking up.”
Things went south for the Chiefs this past off-season when The Post-Standard repeatedly reported the team owed the county nearly $500,000. Chiefs management retorted that they were owed nearly $300,000 for finances they invested. But regardless of who is Bogarting who, the population of Onondaga County consists of nearly 500,000 people, meaning the headline could have read: “Citizens of County to Pay Ballpark Figure of $1 Extra in Taxes to Cover Whoever is Right.”
Realizing that the ink was starting to smear the image of the county, first-year County Executive Joanie Mahoney simply announced to the crowd before she threw out the first pitch on opening day, April 3, that a deal had been brokered and the matter was over. A few faint cheers were heard, but the uproar of the crowd when the former Corcoran softball star was about to hurl the ceremonial pitch suggested they were more interested in if she could hit the strike zone or not. The pitch had the distance, but it was just a bit outside.
“Joanie made everything very simple because she put common sense to it,” says Simone of the resolution. “She had great ideas of what should or shouldn’t be included and was very influential in getting the deal done because she realized the negative publicity was unnecessary and bad for both of us. The deal is very good for both the organization and the county and it spells out the responsibilities for both parties very clearly.”
But Simone rationalizes that the game is ultimately a business and realizes that kind of attention comes with the territory. “Budget-wise, we’re operating on $3 million a year,” he notes. “And our goal is to meet the bottom line and pay the bills while still providing a professional and memorable experience for all of our fans. We’ve had a hot streak here to start the season, and a winning ball club and numbers on the stat sheet are something I would assume most baseball fans would want to pay attention to, not the numbers in a financial report.”
Since they are out of town half the season, Simone mentions that Chiefs players are often seen outside the ballpark engaging community outreach during home stints. “In my opinion, there’s nobody more immersed in this community than the Chiefs and there’s always something we’re doing out there,” he continues. “In the past, we have supported many different charities and have supported or staged fund-raisers for cancer, leukemia and the March of Dimes. We just don’t seem to get the recognition when we do things like that—apparently, good news doesn’t sell newspapers in this town. I’m sure if we were still fighting with the county, we’d be getting all types of press again.”
Catch the Chiefs in action at Alliance Bank Stadium, 1 Tex Simone Drive, as they cap off a four-game set against the Buffalo Bisons on Wednesday, May 7, and Thursday, May 8, at 7 p.m.
Tickets for home games cost $6 for general admission and $9 for lower-level seats and can be purchased at the gate or by calling 474-7833. Parking costs $3. Centro also offers services to and from the stadium; standard fares apply.
