Lake Erie Crushers outfielder Tim Binkoski drops down a bunt during a recent Frontier League game at All Pro Freight Stadium. The team has been drawing an average of 2,863 fans per game in its first season in Avon. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

Crushers find success in Avon
By Jim Horvath
Sports
Published Aug. 5, 2009

Success has found a new home in Avon.

In less than a year, the Lake Erie Crushers professional baseball franchise has gone from the planning stages to one of the most successful organizations in the 12-team Frontier League.

Heading into last weekend’s showdown series with first-place Kalamazoo, the Crushers had won 10 of 14 games since the mid-July All-Star break and were making a serious bid to win a berth in the upcoming FL playoffs in September.

The team is winning at the box office as well, averaging just under 2,900 fans per game at the new All Pro Freight Stadium. The league average, according to Lake Erie general manager Ryan Gates, is around 2,500.

So far, so good at the intersection of routes 2 and 611.

“We’re very happy with our attendance,” Gates said last Friday afternoon. “We had a sellout for opening day, and once we got past that I think people got curious as to what we were all about.

“By the time the July 4 weekend came around, word of mouth had spread,” Gates said. “We had two great days in that stretch, with fireworks on Friday and Saturday night. Our parking, concessions and game day staff all ran very smoothly, and our overall numbers were great. Attendance wise, we had our best Thursday, our best Friday, our best Sunday and our best Monday of the season. On top of that, we just missed our best Tuesday by a few people.”

Gates said there was a distinct difference between starting the Crushers and getting a similar franchise started in West Virginia, his previous stop.

“I came from a totally different set of circumstances in West Virginia,” Gates said. “It had a different set of battles to win and a different fan base. There, the team meant a lot to the people from a social aspect.

“Here in Avon, the people really get into the game and how the team is performing. They also get into the players here. They get to know them and follow their progress game to game. It’s been a great surprise, and great to see,” he said.

The view behind home plate is always best, but there isn’t a bad seat in the house when watching a Crushers game at Avon’s new All Pro Freight Stadium. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

About the only glitch, Gates said, was the team’s attendance figures for Saturday night games.

“Saturdays have been an anomaly,” Gates said. “Our numbers aren’t bad, but we’ve actually been drawing more fans to our Sunday games than the ones on Saturdays. We’ve bounced a lot of ideas against the wall to try and remedy that.

“We’ve had a great response to our 5:05 p.m. start time on Sundays,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of cover from the sun at our park, so starting later allows a more comfortable setting for our fans. It also gets the game over sooner so parents can get their children to bed and get themselves ready for work the next day.”

Gates said the team has toyed with the idea of an earlier start time for Saturday games and may try something different next season.

“We’ve done some day games this season, so we’re not ruling that out for next year,” said Gates. “We don’t have the preliminary schedule yet for 2010, but once we do we’ll check out all of our options.”

Gates is also pleased with the performance of the team on the field. Led by manager John Massarelli, the team has steadily improved throughout the season and has put itself in contention for the FL playoffs. The two division winners, as well as the two teams with the next best records, will make the playoffs, which should begin Sept. 8, according to Gates.

“Putting together a team for the first time always presents an unknown,” said Gates. “You bring together who you think are the best 24 players, but you don’t always know how they’ll mesh.

“One thing we noticed early is that this group seemed to have a solid team mentality,” he said. “They took that onto the field with them once the season started and have kept it going since then. I think that’s a tribute to Mass, his leadership and the successful approach he brought with him from his years at Washington. He won’t bring this up, but he led that team to the playoffs all four years he was there.”

Gates noted the slump prior to the All-Star break, but said the team has been playing solid baseball since then. He mentioned players like pitchers Paul Fagan and Brent Lysander and position players Andrew Davis, Tim Binkoski and Gordie Gronkowski as players who have brought a level of consistency to the team night in, night out.

“We got off to a solid start, and consistency has been the key so far,” said Gates. “A couple of pitchers have been wild cards for us. We didn’t know, for example, that Fagan would be 10-1 at this point and lead the league in wins. And Lysander has really come on lately to give us a nice boost to our rotation.

“Our other pitchers feed off that. And we’ve got players like Davis, Gronkowski and now Tyler Johnson who have been solid contributors. We added Johnson not too long ago, and he brings a nice combination of power and speed. I think within a month you could see him move into the league lead in stolen bases.”

The Crushers also added Westlake native and St. Ignatius graduate Chris Rigo to its pitching staff on July 17, adding a local flavor to the team.

With the league drawing relatively well, Gates said independent league baseball has begun to find its nitch in the world of professional sports.

“I don’t know if the independent leagues are growing, per se,” said Gates. “There’ always been a lot of hopping around by certain teams. But there is a trend of newer stadiums in our league, for example. I think that leads to more stability and allows teams to get more recognition than in the past.”

The Crushers are a case in point. The expansion team replaced the Chillicothe Paint and brought with it the brand new ballpark in Avon. Lake Erie is sure to eclipse the attendance mark of 67,253 set by Chillicothe last season, ranking the Paint dead last in the FL.

Attendance, however, has climbed league wide since 2003. That year, the FL attracted more than 1.1 million fans for the first time since the league began in 1993. That number grew to 1.3 million in 2004, 1.2 million in 2005 and just under 1.3 million in 2006. Another boost came in 2007 as a record 1.5 million attended gamed throughout the league. Last summer, the FL drew 1.46 million fans and drew over 9,000 to its All-Star Game festivities at the new Wuerfel Park in Traverse City, the home of the Beach Bums.

Construction on two new stadiums is slated to begin this year. One of those stadiums will be built in Waterford Township in Michigan and house the Midwest Sliders. The Sliders are currently playing their home games on the campus of Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti.

All 12 teams, of course, run a steady diet of promotions throughout their respective seasons. The Crushers are no different.

On Fri., Sept 4, the team will host Pack the Park for the Cure when they host Midwest for a 7:05 p.m. game. The Crushers will wear pink jerseys and donate $2 per ticket sold that night to the fight against breast cancer.

“We want people to pack the park that night so we can write a nice, big check for breast cancer research,” said Gates.

On the Web:

• Lake Erie Crushers