Monday, July 8, 2013

Independent's Independence: Newark Bears

There are six independent leagues going at it these days- meaning the teams playing don't have any kind of direct affiliation with the Major League baseball farm teams. There might be some loose affiliations and relationships, but teams don't send players directly to and from...

The United, Can-Am, Atlantic, Frontier, American Association, and the 6th- the Diamond League- will start in 2014.

The homes for these teams are pretty far flung- everywhere from Winnipeg and Fargo-Moorhead to Houston and Edinburgh, Texas, Quebec City and the upper midwest near Chicago...

Some leagues have as few as five far-flung teams looking to expand with others locked into geography...

Dating back to 1999 (in it's newest incarnation), baseball has been back in Newark... hall of fame columnist Jerry Izenberg recalled it for the local papers in the Star-Ledger:

For almost a half a century now, the calendar has been a liar and a fraud and a cheat. It tried to sell us robin red-breasts and green-up time in Weequahic Park and cherry blossoms at Branch Brook.

That's okay for the garden club and the marathoners, But there is toughness to the soul of the city, no matter how many generations pass through it and no matter how its ethnic makeup may change, Collectively, it can spot a con job. Collectively, it has been waiting for something to call its own.

Tonight, it reclaims a long-gone spring. Tonight, they take down a 50-year-old "No Game Tonight" sign.

Tonight baseball- in a brand-new ballpark, hard by the Passaic River- returns to the city that once appreciated it with a semi-religious devotion.


And for its fourteenth season, the Bears are still trying to be an integral part of the Three Newarks that are around these days.

"You have the older generations who were born and raised here. You have the ones who have been here since the hard times of the 1970's and '80s. And you have the younger generations who are the new life around here these days," Bears Assistant GM Larry Josephs told the HQ recently.

And you can see how the three sections are flexing their muscles on a daily basis. It's an easy twenty minute train ride from Hoboken to downtown seeing the first one Josephs talks about. When you get off the platform to walk the block to the ballpark, you see the second version where office buildings are being converted to apartments and condos for the third group to be ready to understand that when you say "Newark, New Jersey" you think more of the reinvention and rebirth than the grey film you associate with the city in its down turn and the grimy behavior from that popular television show from HBO...

You remember it, don't you...???


And Josephs knows it's a simple reference point... but if you dig a little deeper than the stereotypes, you'll see a lot is under that surface...

"What a lot of people don't realize is that downtown Newark has a lot going on for it now," Josephs continues. "We have Rutgers Business School and NJIT downtown for schools and we have some of the best medical facilities around all in this area. We have the Prudential Center for the Devils home and other events that can be hosted there. There's a lot to see for it as a hub for a lot of activity- and the city is shedding all that reputation of the past."

And as the Bears take time in the Atlantic and, now the Can-Am league, the last time the HQ was around the team it was a last-chance motel for major leaguers, hanger-ons, and wanna-bes. Not much has changed from the days the Bears had the Canseco brothers, Lance Johnson, Jack Armstrong, and Jamie Navarro around on one roster. Managers are looking for a way into the show. Players are looking for a way in or back into it.

The Bears were trying to find a way to be different this season, and one of those ideas was to have first pitches at 10:30 in the morning. One problem with that this year- Sandy...

"School was supposed to be already out and we were hoping to attract a lot of campers to the ballpark," Josephs admits. "But Sandy pushed school back a few weeks and they just got out for the year. You can see the end result of that today."

The great idea to attract younger generations to the park resulted in an attendance of, maybe, 100 people- most of them rooting for the visiting Fargo-Moorhead squad who was on a New Jersey road trip.

It's all about community and the Bears want to keep being a part of it in as many ways as possible- all the minor league attractions and ideas are there- fireworks, discounts, giveaways, all that stuff...

We caught up with the Bears in the middle of their twelve-game losing streak and the arms that had to be used for two double-headers in a week caught up with the Bears in a game that was 6-0 Fargo after three, 7-1 after 4-and-a-half, an 11-4 final.

There were a lot of instances where it looked like there was a profound lack of effort... it could have been the 95-degree morning and matching humidity... could have been the "95-degree" strike zone as the guys in the press box called it- very apropos...

But the Bears were dealing with having their ace on the 30-day inactive list since they snafu'd his injury and their interpretation of the rule of putting him on the shelf...

Newark Bears manager Garry Templeton told us what it's like being a manager in these frontiers...


But you're also dealing with developing rivals which the Bears are doing with the New Jersey Jackals and the Somerset Patriots. And that's coming along nicely, thanks...

You could also tell Templeton wasn't mincing words when he said he was "frustrated as hell" in the post-game scrum. But he made a point to his guys:

"You think you've got it bad...? Let me take you over to the Children's Hospital... The measure of a good athlete is how you handle situations like this. Some can't. They'll bicker and get after one another. You find out who really wants to win.

Especially on bus rides that take you from Fargo to Laredo, El Paso, and back to Fargo when you're done...

Templeton told the HQ what it's like in the Independent Leagues as a skipper for some of his better (and printable) travel stories...


But when you talk to Josephs, it's all about becoming the fabric and being something that generations- and all three Newarks- can talk about as a part of the conversation as they all work forward...

And you see that as he makes a point to see that everyone who walks through the door is taken care of and treated with the respect they deserve as a fan- even if you're in Fargo-Moorhead red...

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