San Diego’s minor league baseball team, the Surf Dawgs, lost the services of infamous former All-Star tell-all author Jose Canseco, but gained a much better player in a forced trade with the Long Beach Armada.
“We all would have loved to have Jose, and all the great publicity he was bringing us, but as far as his effect on our team, we really got a much better deal,” said Ronnie Singh, the Dawgs’ media director.
Canseco, whose book “Juiced” details the use of anabolic steroids in major league baseball, asked to be traded after playing just a single game for the Surf Dawgs. He said he wanted to be closer to his family in Los Angeles.
The Surf Dawgs traded Canseco for Yoankis Turino, a Cuban who used to pitch for the Cuban national team until he defected two months ago. Turino, 27, throws a consistent 90-plus mph fastball, and has already been signed by a top agent, Singh said.
The Dawgs have been playing well in the second half of this season, and were 5-2 as of July 25, in first place in the six-team Golden Baseball League. In the first half, they finished last with an 18-22 record.
The GBL playoff system pits the winner of the first half, the Reno Silver Sox, against the winner of the second half. Should Reno take first place again, they would then play the second place team.
Launched last year by a group headed by two Bay Area entrepreneurs, the Golden Baseball League pays its players modest salaries, ranging from $900 to $2,500 a month. The competition is at the Class A level.
The team makes no bones about not competing with the Padres and the major leagues. “We’re all about entertainment and providing it to families,” Singh said.
“Our seats cost $7 to $12, and you can get a hot dog, chips and a drink for about $5.”
The formula appears to be taking hold at Tony Gwynn Stadium on the campus of San Diego State University, the Dawgs’ home field. This season, the team is averaging 1,300 fans per game through 25 home games, down a bit from 2005. But as the team starts winning, the crowds should increase, Singh said.
One reason for the attendance dip was the Dawgs’ win-loss record, a direct result of losing three starting pitchers and one position player to other teams, Singh said.
But the second half has started well, and depending on the promotion, the crowds are getting larger, he said.
“We’re attracting the kids, and the families. On August 1 and 2 we’ll have a full-scale circus here, and that should be a nice crowd.”
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Gulls owners fold their wings and take off:
Hockey, along with basketball, has never drawn big crowds here, but the demise of the San Diego Gulls last month came as a bit of a surprise to even casual sports fans. That the owners never mentioned having financial problems and that the team was doing well in attendance made the closure even more curious.
In 2005, the Gulls said average attendance was 5,841. While that may not sound like much, the team had a strong core base of fans.
Winning was a big factor. Founded in 1966, the Gulls played in two different hockey leagues. In the 1990s and 2000s, the team that competed in the West Coast Hockey League won five of the eight championships, the most recent in 2003.
At last month’s news conference announcing the team’s ceasing operations, majority owner Ron Hahn (son of late developer Ernie Hahn) said it was just time to move on, and said attempts to sell the franchise were unsuccessful.
“We were deep into negotiations with a couple of solid groups. However, there was simply not enough time to move forward for this season,” Hahn said.
Sounds like he’s giving die-hard puck fans some hope for the future, but it’s difficult to say what the real story is or whether ice hockey will ever return to the area.
No one responded to numerous calls to what remained of the Gulls’ front office. The Gulls’ demise follows the burial of the San Diego Sockers, an indoor soccer team, a few years ago, and last year’s halt of operations by the Riptide, the arena football team, both of which played at the ipayOne Center.
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Take a car, take a train:
The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club has come a long way since the days when Bing Crosby and Pat O’Brien launched the horse track where the turf meets the surf in 1937.
The track now owned by the state but operated by the DMTC, a private group of horse owners, breeders and community leaders, has steadily increased in both attendance and cash wagered.
In 1970, when the DMTC began handling the operations, the daily handle (total bet) was $1.9 million and average attendance was 9,684. Last year, the daily average handle was a record $14.1 million, and average attendance passed 17,000.
Of course, that last figure includes just attendance at the track. If you count satellite wagering around Southern California, attendance would be more than 27,000, according to the club’s data.
Adding to all this is the growth of tracking the ponies online. Just how many gamblers are checking out the local races through streaming audio and video is unknown. The practice is illegal in this country, but online gaming sites are proliferating, and operating all aboveboard in places such as Costa Rica, the Bahamas and Great Britain.
Del Mar’s ponies don’t just create temporary jobs for jockeys, trainers and pari-mutuel clerks. About 3,300 are employed at the track; its payroll in 2005 was $17 million, according to the club.
And don’t forget the spillover effect. North County hotels report an average occupancy of nearly 70 percent for the year, but in August, during the peak horse racing season, that occupancy rate jumps to 87 percent, the club said.
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Short stops:
Despite recent headlines that Petco Animal Supplies Inc. is going private, don’t expect Petco Park to change names. The Padres sold the naming rights for 22 years to the ballpark in January 2003 for $60 million. And though you won’t be able to trade Petco’s stock in the future, the company still needs to sell lots of dog food, and apparently likes the PR it gets from affiliating with baseball Ironically, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) ranked Petco Park among the top 10 in the nation for the variety and quality of its vegetarian foods available at the concession stand. PETA was engaged in a long-standing lawsuit against Petco Animal Supplies, alleging that the firm mistreated the animals it sells. PETA says more fans are going veggie than ever before, and if they “knew about the pig lips and intestine in those meat hot dogs, they’d turn greener than the outfield grass in April.” The San Diego-based Vavi Sport & Social Club, which claims to be one of the largest operators of amateur sports leagues in the nation, is offering 15 sports this summer, including such popular pursuits as dodgeball, kickball, pilates and body toning.
Send any local sports business news to Mike Allen via e-mail at
mallen@sdbj.com
. He can be reached at (858) 277-6359.
