BG baseball more than Hot Rods

Published 11:10 am Friday, September 14, 2012

Sports- BG Baseball more than Hot Rods

The crack of the bat and cheers from the crowd echo through downtown Bowling Green on summer nights, signaling another season of Bowling Green Hot Rods baseball.

In its fourth season in Bowling Green, the Class A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays has re-established America’s pastime in the fabric of the community.

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The Hot Rods aren’t the first minor league team in the city’s history, though.

The Bowling Green Barons played from 1939-42 as part of the Class D Kitty League, which covered Kentucky, Illinois and Tennessee.

The Barons won the title in 1939 and were recognized as champions in 1940 even though they lost a playoff series to the Jackson Generals. BG was awarded the title by the league based on having the best overall record.

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Crowds were estimated at 4,000 to 5,000 a night. The team featured pitcher Dutch McCall, who went on to the major leagues, and player-managers Mel “Butch” Simons and Herbert “Dutch” Welch, who had previously played in the majors.

The Barons’ run ended when the league disbanded due to World War II, leaving Bowling Green without a professional baseball team for more than 60 years.

That began to change in 2005, when the Play Ball! 05 initiative was introduced as part of a plan to revitalize downtown.

The process was slow at first, but picked up steam when Art Solomon, owner of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, came into the picture. Solomon was looking to expand his baseball operation and wanted to find a town with the same vision and ideas that he had.

That town was Bowling Green.

Solomon headed a group that bought the Columbus (Ga.) Catfish before the 2008 season and later announced that he was moving the franchise to Bowling Green.

The franchise would arrive in April 2009, but a stadium had to be ready.

Hot Rods President Brad Taylor said most teams, when they move, try to give themselves 12 to 18 months to set up business and establish relationships in the community. The Hot Rods did it in seven months, with a staff that worked seven days a week, often until midnight.

Taylor said it was a hectic time filled with doubts. As close as two weeks before opening night, he wasn’t sure whether the stadium would be ready.

“What Alliance (Corp.) did over the last three days is still in my mind nothing short of a miracle, with how much they completed and how much they cleaned it,” Taylor said. “When we opened it, people walked in, and the look on their faces was priceless. They had no idea they were getting this in Bowling Green.”

Bowling Green opened against the Kannapolis Intimidators to a crowd of 6,886 on April 17, 2009. With Matt Moore, the only former Hot Rod currently in the majors, leading the pitching staff, Bowling Green went 64-74 in its only season in the South Atlantic League, drawing 232,980 fans.

The Hot Rods moved to the Midwest League in 2010 and drew 235,412 fans despite another losing record.

Last season Bowling Green earned its first playoff berth, falling in the first round to Fort Wayne (Ind.), and enjoyed its best season at the gate with 237,070 fans.

Currently, the Hot Rods are closing in on 200,000 fans for the season, are averaging more than 3,300 fans a night and have qualified for the playoffs for the second straight season.

Taylor believes the Hot Rods are here to stay – with a fan telling him at a fundraiser last month that he couldn’t imagine Bowling Green without the Hot Rods in it.

“That told me we are in the fabric of these people’s lives now,” Taylor said. “It’s not just a place where you sit on some wooden bleachers and go watch a game.”