Published: June 10, 2006 09:57 pm      

Perfect match

BLUEFIELD — In less than a week, the 2006 edition of the Bluefield Orioles will roll into town.

There’s lots to be done in preparation, but Orioles’ president and general manager George McGonagle is confident they’ll be ready.

“It’s just a major, major process and we’re now about a week from the players coming in and we’ve got about three weeks of work to do, but we’ll get ready,” McGonagle said. “Every year, you don’t think you’ll ever make it, but somehow we always make it.”

Since 1937, with the exception of 1943-45 and 1956, Bluefield has had an organized Minor League team. They started as the Blue-Grays in the Mountain State League from 1937-42 before joining the Appalachian League in 1946.

In the early days of the Appy League, the affiliations included the Boston Braves, Washington Senators, Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Red Sox.

Since 1958, it has been the Orioles. It is the longest affiliation with one club in baseball, and the Bluefield Baseball Club and the Baltimore Orioles don’t even have a contract. A handshake is good enough.

It’s been a good partnership. The Orioles have won 14 Appalachian League pennants, and have produced such Major League stars as Eddie Murray, Cal Ripken, Jr., Boog Powell, Don Baylor and Bobby Grich.

“It is a mutual respect, there is no written contract here,” said Cecil Smith, the vice-president of the Bluefield Baseball Club. “George shakes hands with them and everybody says see you next year.”

“They’ve been here 49 years, why do I want to worry about a contract,” added McGonagle. “I’m happy, I’m not complaining, we shake hands when they leave here the first of September and we’ll see them next year.”

Another year begins on Saturday morning, when the Orioles arrive on a bus from Sarasota, Fla. The first pitch will be thrown on June 21 at Pulaski. Bluefield’s first home date is June 24 against cross-country rival Princeton.

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Much will have taken place to prepare Bowen Field for another season. McGonagle, a native of Bluefield, knows that all too well.

“I’ve been coming down here since the late 1940s,” said McGonagle, of Bowen Field, which opened in 1939 on what was the site of the old Bluefield airport. “I sold peanuts and popcorn primarily in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s for (general manager) Mr. (George) Fanning. My family had box seats.”

An avid baseball fan, McGonagle was helping out the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce in the late 1980s when he was appointed as a special projects coordinator. One of his first tasks was Bowen Field.

“This facility had really deteriorated very badly...and I was given the responsibility of looking into this down here and seeing what it would take to get this place updated,” McGonagle said. “We did that, we went out and raised sufficient funds locally from foundations and corporations and individuals to get us where we are today.”

Since then, McGonagle estimates the Bluefield Baseball Club has spent an average of $125,000 a year on improvements, a combined tally of more than $2 million. And, other than a $250,000 grant for lights, it has all been raised by club officials and the board of directors.

“We’re on our own, the money comes from foundations, corporations and individuals or we couldn’t survive,” McGonagle said. “We couldn’t survive on ticket sales, program sales and wall signs, can’t do it.

“When we want to do work like we’re doing now, we have to go raise the money before we can do it.”

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The Appalachian League has a 68-game schedule, usually running from the middle of June to early September. That might not sound bad. Work three months, take the other nine off.

That’s not the way it is. Not even close.

Bowen Field is a popular place in the spring. It serves as the home park for Bluefield College and Bluefield High School, and also hosts the 16-game, week-long Coppinger Tournament. McGonagle estimates the field has hosted at least 100 games before the Orioles ever arrive in town.

That means wear and tear on the field. McGonagle puts a stop to all activity in mid-May, having moved the stop date back from June 1. That still gives his small staff limited time to re-sod parts of the field, paint, clean and do whatever else is needed.

“It takes us four or five weeks to prepare and getting the place cleaned up because you come through the winter and it is bad and you have no time to work because when there is a pretty day, you’ve got someone wanting to play,” said McGonagle, who replaced Allen Coppinger as president and then assumed Fanning’s duties as general manager in the mid-90s. “When the weather gives us a pretty day, we want to work and they want to play.

“Work takes a second seat and that’s really why we have to shut down.”

Bowen Field did finally get some relief this year. A practice field, located above the field, has been completed after nearly 12 year of work.

“Bluefield College is really happy with it as a practice field. We’re keeping all practice off of this one down here which ultimately make this place a lot nicer,” McGonagle said. “Hopefully that will cut down on some of the repair and maintenance that we have to do every year. Practice is harder on a field than a game.”

Fans who attend games this year will notice a bigger park. During the offseason, the Orioles moved the center field wall back 35 feet.

“Right now we’re doing a tremendous amount of painting and cleaning, and we’ve moved the outfield wall back this year from 365 to 400,” McGonagle said. “That makes the park a lot bigger, but we had to do a lot of sodding out there and we’re trying to get our first and second tier signs back up.”

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There’s more to attend to than just the diamond. McGonagle starts raising money around the first of January, soliciting money through the sale of wall signs, program ads and box seats. That, in addition to ticket sales, concessions and souvenirs, make up the bulk of the Orioles’ income.

Both McGonagle and Smith are concerned with keeping the product on the field affordable. Tickets are still just $3.50 for adults, and a season ticket for 34 games can be bought for $50, which is just $1.67 per game. They can be purchased by calling (304) 326-1326.

“One problem we have is trying to hold our pricing down so people can still afford to attend,” Smith said. “We were in a meeting recently and one of the speakers was a concession manager (from Salem, Va.) and he was telling us how to have a profitable concession area.

“I looked down through there and the first thing I saw was a bag of peanuts for $3. I asked George and he said we wouldn’t need many peanuts.”

“We probably need to go up, but I don’t care to go up,” added McGonagle. “Most of our board doesn’t want to go up as long as we can pay our bills every year and be able to have enough money to start out the next year with and then do all these projects we do.

“We just have to raise money. We don’t borrow money, we raise money and then we do it.”

Plans have already been made for 2007. The Orioles hope to put in a five-star drainage system in the field at an estimated cost of $250,000.

“We have to find that money,” McGonagle said. “We do plan on starting on Sept 1, but whether it happens or not, we don’t know. We won’t until we have $250,000 in the bank.”

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All this work is done to provide a place for the Orioles to play. Outside of contributing about $20,000 for league dues, umpires, bus bills and hotel rooms, Baltimore provides the players, equipment and that’s about it.

“The way I kind of put it, we take care of everything on this side of the foul lines and the Orioles take care of everything inside of the foul lines, meaning the players,” McGonagle said. “They pay the wages, they buy the bats and balls and the uniforms and the hats and jackets.

“There is talk that somewhere along the line we’re going to have to share in that and that’s when we’re going to see a big problem. I don’t think that as long as Baltimore is here that they’re ever going to ask us to do it, but I think will be an option for these clubs one of these days.”

McGonagle estimates that each player receives about $1,000 a month, not counting extras like the $1.7 million signing bonus Bluefield’s Brandon Snyder signed last year. He added that any money made here and or in Princeton with the Devil Rays stays in Mercer County.

“All that money stays here because it goes for rent, food, travel, gas, and we always have one or two that buy a car while they’re here,” McGonagle said. “Between us and (Princeton), there’s $6-to-$7 million a year out of 34 home games that comes into this economy.”

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A typical Appalachian League game last about three hours. McGonagle works much more than that. Usually on a game day, he arrives at 7 a.m. and leaves after midnight.

“The biggest thing is the long days and there are so many different things to do,” said McGonagle, whose Orioles will be inspected by Minor League Baseball on opening weekend. “It’s not just come in and play baseball anymore, we’ve got to run the scoreboard, we’ve got to run the message center, we do on-field games that all have to be scheduled.

“We probably have 80 percent of our games this year scheduled with special promotions and making sure they’re all fine-tuned and ready to go. We work now and have always worked with a very limited staff.”

McGonagle and the Orioles’ booster club, which sponsors the Adopt-a-Oriole program, do their best to help the players feel welcome. It helps that Baltimore has provided Bluefield with many years of good players. Early this season, 17 players on the Orioles’ 40-man roster played here.

“I have just enjoyed the quality of play over the years and the number of people that have come through here over the years,” McGonagle said. “The quality of the people that come, the majority of them are super-nice, they’ll anything you ask them to do.

“This is rookie ball, it will always be rookie ball. It is a major difference in coming here and coming out of high school or college so it’s kind of a learning curve for everyone.”

Once the season is over, the preparations for the next season begins.

“We look at our evaluation very closely and we just continue to work until the college comes back with a fall schedule,” McGonagle said. “There is very little time, I try to get a few days off, but that is hard to do around here.

“We start preparing for next year, what we’re going to do, what we need, what we’ve got to buy, where the money is coming from, and what our project is for this year.”

Why do people like McGonagle and Smith do this? The hours are lengthy and the work never seems to stop. It’s actually pretty simple.

“It’s a satisfying thing,” Smith said. “I don’t get anything out of it other than the satisfaction of putting a good product out there for people to enjoy.”

“Being crazy, I guess,” added McGonagle. “I enjoy it, I enjoy being around the kids.”

—Contact Brian Woodson at

bwoodson@bdtonline.com