Two articles in the November 23rd Florida Today about the collapse of the Florida Winter Baseball League.

Click here to read the article by sports editor Lee Nessel.

Click here to read the article by yours truly.

From what I’ve been able to find, Florida Today seems to be taking the lead on this story. Nothing in the Miami Herald or Orlando Sentinel, papers that are on top of this story geographically but so far seem to not know about it, or not care.

Space Coast Surge players at their October 23 workout. Less than a month later, their league folded.

 

The breathtaking freefall of the Florida Winter Baseball League this week will go down as one of the more embarrassing chapters in independent baseball. It happened so fast, the league might not even get a chapter, just a footnote.

The record for indy league ineptitude appears to be the Golden State League, which folded one week after opening in June 1995.

The South Coast League operated in the southeastern United States for one year, folding after the 2007 season. It had two teams in Georgia, two teams in South Carolina, and two teams in Florida (Bradenton and Port Charlotte).

So in the annals of indy ball, the FWBL ranks right up there for ineptitude, if not worse.

FWBL President Mickey Filippucci insists his league hasn’t “folded.”

He told the Leesburg Daily Commercial yesterday that “We’re going to put this thing back together. We have not folded. We want to come back in a big way.”

Would you believe him?

Would you invest your money with him?

Would you show up to play or coach for one of his teams, knowing FWBL 1.0 couldn’t even meet its first payroll?

The Lake County Black Bears in Leesburg are becoming a melodramatic subplot in this mess.

Lake County General Manager John Harris was relieved of his duties on November 10 by FWBL Executive Director James Gamble, who is also president and founder of the Global Scouting Bureau. According to media reports, Harris was blamed for tensions between the Black Bears operation and the City of Leesburg, which owns the stadium leased by the team.

After the league suspended operations on Tuesday, a person claiming to be Harris posted a comment on a Daily Commercial news story stating “John Harris is back as the GM of the Lake County Black Bears.”

But in a story in today’s Daily Commercial, Filippucci said Harris “has nothing to do with the Black Bears. He’s not an employee of the Florida Winter Baseball League.”

The article continued, “By Friday evening, [Filippucci] had retracted his original statement. He said there was an oral agreement with Harris that he would continue on as the general manager of the team as the inaugural season wound down and possibly lead the team in a second season.”

In our neck of the woods, the Space Coast Surge managed to avoid any public melodrama, although Florida Today was on top of the story.

After three inconclusive conversations with Filipucci and unsuccessfully trying to cash his first paycheck, Surge field manager Jim Gabella spent the day ensuring his players they could cash their checks and find their way home.

“They should never be allowed to do anything with the game of baseball again because they tarnished its beautiful reputation,” Gabella said referring to league officials.

A Surge staffer told me that some players received two checks that bounced, while others managed to get one check to cash by heading straight to Walmart which apparently has a more liberal check cashing policy than banks. Other employees took cash on hand rather than risk a worthless piece of paper.

A news crew from Central Florida News 13 asked me to come by Cocoa Expo on Thursday to film a standup interview, since pretty much everyone else had left. They also used some of the video I’ve shot of the league. I recorded four segments that aired that night. Click here to watch the news reports. You need Windows Media Player and a broadband (cable modem, DSL) Internet connection to watch.

I doubt we’ve heard the last of this. Horror stories are sure to start emerging in the papers, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some enterprising lawyer organizes a class action lawsuit against Filippucci and his fellow investors.

Independent ball always has to survive in the shadow of “organized baseball,” a term that refers to minor league teams affiliated with major league parent clubs. The FWBL’s fiscal flop will only embellish the existing stereotype that indy leagues are untrustworthy. Some leagues, such as the American Association, are quite stable and financially successful. But those leagues don’t make headlines.

Failures like the FWBL do.

Florida Today just posted a story by Mark DeCotis reporting that the Florida Winter Baseball League has suspended operations.

DeCotis cites statements by Global Scouting Bureau staff claiming “non and delinquent payments dating back to November 1st, 2009.”

The article states that the Surge team bus cancelled its trip today to Miami, but manager Jim Gabella was told they should be ready to depart tomorrow at 11:30 AM EST.

It also says that management at Cocoa Expo, which leases their stadium to the Surge, has heard nothing about the league suspension.

I reported earlier that several league web sites were parked or partially inactive. They’re all working again, but who knows if that will last.

According to a press release on both the Florida Winter Baseball League and the Global Scouting Bureau web sites, GSB has ended its partnership with the FWBL.

“Due to a series of failed commitments by the Florida Winter Baseball League (FWBL) to the Global Scouting Bureau (GSB), we have chosen to announce a formal separation from the client,” the GSB press release states.

Web sites for the Miami Diamantes and Lake County Black Bears are still operating, although they also feature the press release. The web sites for the Seminole County Naturals and Space Coast Surge have been parked with GoDaddy.com, meaning they’re shut down for now.

The FWBL.com web site is still active, but some photos are missing. (Many appear to be photos provided by SpaceCoastBaseball.com.)

“GSB was hired as the management company to oversee formation, staff hiring, and eventual daily operations of the FWBL,” the press release states.

Nothing official has been announced yet about whether the league will continue operations.

If the plug’s been pulled, you may want to click here to access the league’s final stats. Lake County at 11-4 would be the league champion, I guess. The Surge finished 2-13.

League officials stated before the season began that their economic model assumed an average attendance of 750 per game. Many observers privately thought that number was wildly optimistic. The current average is 367, about half of that assumption, but it seems awfully early to be giving up. By January, when the league would be entering the final days of the pennant race, high school and college football would be over, the operations would be established, so perhaps they’d get more coverage in local papers that might result in increased attendance.

The GSB press release doesn’t say anything about not being paid, so we don’t know if that was one of the “failed commitments.” If it was, though, that suggests the investors failed to adequately capitalize the league to survive even a poor early return.

Hopefully Florida Today will have more information. I’ll post it here and on the SpaceCoastBaseball.com web site when available.

UPDATE November 16, 2009 9:30 AM EST — Click Here to watch Stantrel Smith’s three-run homer. You need Windows Media Player and a broadband (cable modem, DSL) Internet connection to watch.

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Meet new Surge first baseman Ernie Banks — no relation to that other guy. He’ll fill the roster slot vacated by Derrick McPhearson’s release.

 

The Space Coast Surge fell to 2-13 Sunday with a 4-3 loss at Seminole County.

The Surge lost yet again despite adding Ernie Banks to the lineup.

Okay, let’s move past all the obvious jokes. He’s no relation to the Hall of Famer, even though he’s a Junior. He’s just not a Junior to THAT guy.

The Surge roster has changed a bit in recent days. 3B-OF Derrick McPhearson was released. RHP Johnny Dillard is disabled with a shoulder injury, and C Gerard Haran is out two weeks with a broken finger. Banks took McPhearson’s slot on the Surge roster.

Banks was 0 for 4, striking out all four times at bat, but at least he had the excuse that he hasn’t played in a while. That excuse can’t be used by the rest of the Surge lineup, which struck out a team total of 15 times in this game. Naturals starter Steve McFarland struck out 12 in 6 1/3 innings, with reliever Anthony Moreno striking out three in 1 2/3 innings.

Center fielder Stantrel Smith got the Surge within 4-3 with a three-run shot off Moreno in the top of the 7th. I’ll have video of Stantrel’s dinger online shortly, and will post the link when available.

Naturals first baseman Chris Garcia homers in the sixth off Baron Short.

 

Surge starting pitcher Baron Short gave up four runs in six innings, including a solo shot to Naturals first baseman Chris Garcia. Short and Garcia were once teammates in the Angels minor leagues.

The win moved Seminole County (9-6) into second place, two games behind Lake County (11-4) which beat Miami (8-7) by a score of 7-5. The two teams with the best record at season’s end meet in a best-of-three series for the FWBL title. That means the Surge are at least seven games out from playoff contention, but with 45 games left they have plenty time to make up for lost ground if they can find some pride and go on a winning streak.

Speaking of former Angels teammates, Miami outfielder Trevor Pippin is undergoing an unusual transformation. Once an outfielder in the Angels system, he still plays the outfield for the Diamantes but he’s also pitched in relief. Today he pitched for the third time, and did it in a way that would convolute the inventors of the designated hitter (a pox upon them …) Pippin entered the game as a pinch-hitter for the DH, which automatically makes him the DH. Then he took the field in the 8th as a relief pitcher. If the DH takes the field defensively, then the DH is eliminated and the pitcher must bat. But if the DH becomes the pitcher, the pitcher is already batting anyway, right?! Of course, any pitcher who comes after him would have to bat, but I can’t recall any other time since the DH began in the American League in 1973 that the DH became the pitcher.

The Space Coast Surge take the field for the first time, on October 30, 2009.

 

Well, that could have gone better.

I’m not referring to the fan experience during the opening homestand of the Space Coast Surge. Sure, anything can be improved, and we’ll get to that in a moment.

No, I’m referring to the team losing all three games to Lake County — 8-0, 6-4 and 6-0.

The Surge committed ten errors in the series, six of them in Game #1. Five of the 20 runs given up in the series were unearned. Lake County committed five errors.

The team hit .135 for the series, with a .210 on-base percentage and .198 slugging percentage. They scored no runs until the bottom of the 8th in Game #2.

The pitching staff’s ERA is 5.00. If you’re looking for any cheery news, the pitchers have struck out 32 batters in 27 innings, which leads the league, although they’ve walked 14, which also leads the league.

The word you’re searching for is “pathetic.”

Still, it’s only three games into a 60-game season. They can take this embarrassment as motivation to go on a tear.

The level of talent in the league seems to be roughly equivalent in affiliated baseball to Advanced Class-A. (By “affiliated” we mean a minor league team affiliated with a major league organization. “Independent” teams sign and trade their own players.) The Brevard County Manatees are an example of Advanced Class-A.

The main difference, though, is that the teams lack any legit top prospects. Most of the players once worked for a major league organization, were released, and then signed with independent teams. Some of them have only played indy ball. With most Advanced Class-A teams, you’ll usually see at least one or two major league prospects.

Baseball America did a study years ago which concluded that only one of ten players in the affiliated minors will make it some day to the big leagues. The other nine fill out a roster so those prospects have someone to play with. You can consider the FWBL as being comprised of those other nine.

That’s not to say that none of these guys will ever play in the big leagues. Some indy players do make it back into affiliated baseball, and once in a while they’ll make it to the majors.

The FWBL’s goal is to prepare these indy players for an opportunity to win a job in affiliated ball, which will put them back on track for a big league career.

Viewed from the cynic’s perspective, it’s also the last chance before returning home to a life outside of baseball.

That’s on the field. The fan experience in the first three games went better than I expected.

Cocoa Expo Stadium, built in 1964, has been generally neglected by its current owners. The Surge lease the facility, so don’t blame them for the dirty bathrooms or folding chairs substituting for box seats. Cocoa Expo also handles the concessions.

Stadium management did put a lot of effort into some basic improvements in the last few days before Opening Night. The grandstands were pressure-washed. The pitcher’s mound was rebuilt and the infield dirt smoothed out.

The Surge provided some clever and innovative entertainment between innings to go beyond the typical minor league staples. The Surge Dancers boost the energy level performing routines from hip-hop to swing. Take Me Out to the Ballgame has been jettisoned during the 7th Inning Stretch in favor of a dance gag featuring fans dressed in straw hula skirts. An impromptu foot race was held Saturday night between two fans. After the game, the players remain on the field for 15 minutes so fans can come down for autographs and mingling.

Attenance was predictably sparse — 385 for Opening Night on Friday, 178 for Halloween Saturday and and 150 for the Sunday late afternoon game. Management didn’t do a Halloween promotion, which was a bit surprising, but for those who wanted to get away from the kiddie chaos it was a welcome respite.

It was also an opportunity for management to test-drive their product and make adjustments before the team returns in late November. The Space Coast State Fair has Cocoa Expo booked for most of the month, so the next Surge home game is Friday November 27. Staff describe that as “our second Opening Night.”

Five bucks for general admission is a pretty good deal, especially in a recessionary economy. The stadium has seen better days, you’re unlikely to see a future major league star, but it’s cheaper than a night at the movies and it’s easy to mingle with the ballplayers if that’s your thing. You’ll get your five dollars’ worth just from watching the dancers and other between-innings entertainment. Hopefully the team starts winning and that’ll be the bonus.

Below are photos from the opening weekend.

Surge players check out the game program on Opening Night.

 

Baron Short and Anthony Sullivan, once teammates in the Angels’ minor leagues, look at nothing.

 

Third baseman Derrick MacPhearson during the Opening Night roster introduction.

 

Surge players during the national anthem.

 

Surge manager Jim Gabella and Lake County manager George Foster exchange lineup cards.

 

Surge catcher Gerard Haran blocks the plate Saturday night to keep a Lake County runner from scoring.

 

Haran consults with reliever Anthony Sullivan.

 

Derrick MacPhearson hangs from the dugout roof while catcher Hank Lanto watches. Don’t try this at home.

 

Leadoff hitter Stantrel Smith waits for Sunday’s game to start.

 

Sunday’s starting pitcher Chris Bodishbaugh.