No League of Their Own

By Stephen C. Smith
Publisher
November 19, 2009

 

Surge manager Jim Gabella directs his players at an October 23 workout.

“They should never be allowed to do anything with the game of baseball again because they tarnished its beautiful reputation.”

— Surge Manager Jim Gabella

Were we hoodwinked?

Hundreds of us, from league staff to paying customers, allowed ourselves to dream that a nascent professional baseball league might flourish in the Florida winter despite all the logical reasons telling us it should fail.

An independent scouting bureau was hired to acquire players and help run the league. Prominent former major league stars such as Ken Griffey, Sr. and George Foster came on board. Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez became a partner in the ownership group.

Uniforms were bought, memorabilia was ordered, stadium leases were signed.

The baseballs were even customized to read, “Florida Winter Baseball League,” and bore Commissioner Griffey's signature.

So we had reason to believe the FWBL would survive at least one season, perhaps even the two we were privately assured league investors were committed to funding if revenue fell below expectations.

With all this in place, how did it fail so quickly?

Nineteen days into the season, the Global Scouting Bureau ended its partnership “due to a series of failed commitments” by the FWBL. Games scheduled for Tuesday at Miami and Seminole County were cancelled. The next day, players and coaches were issued paychecks that bounced, according to media reports.

“They should never be allowed to do anything with the game of baseball again because they tarnished its beautiful reputation,” Space Coast Surge manager Jim Gabella told Florida Today.

Given professional baseball's recent history of strikes, steroid abuse and playoffs that drone on into early winter just to satisfy TV networks, I wouldn't be claiming the business has a “beautiful reputation,” but Gabella is right that the people responsible for this debacle won't be trusted again any time soon by the baseball industry.

The bounced checks weren't the first incident tarnishing the league's reputation.

Last week in Leesburg, Lake County General Manager John Harris was fired after “a series of disagreements” between the team and Leesburg's city manager. A loud fireworks display appears to have been the most public mishap in Harris's brief tenure.

League officials told the media their economic model assumed 750 tickets sold per game. Many of us privately thought that number was delusional, that it must have been for public consumption and there must be a true internal number. Based on the league's final statistics, actual attendance league-wide was about 367 per game. The Surge reported 713 tickets sold for their three home games, or 238 per game, although any observer could easily see the number in the stands was far less.

A press release by league president Mickey Filippucci stated, “We will be recapitalizing the Company to better accommodate the financial requirements to operate the league more effectively in the future.” This suggests they didn't anticipate losing so much money so quickly.

Filippucci is the chief financial officer for enChoice, an information technology company based in Arizona with a regional office in Miami. You'd think he'd know better. Filippucci also runs the adult amateur South Florida Baseball League.

Discussing this mess last night with a casual observer, he commented that sometimes investors are simply looking to take a loss on the books for tax reasons. My speculation has been that perhaps an investor had an unanticipated cash flow problem. Whatever the cause, there's simply no excuse for not making your first payroll. I wouldn't be surprised if someone initiates a class action lawsuit.

Left stranded, literally, are the players who gave up their winter for this league. They're not top prospects. For the most part they were players released from affiliated baseball who were struggling to revive their careers in independent ball. The FWBL was billed as a showcase for them to perhaps lure a major league organization into offering them a minor league contract for 2010.

“This thing has always been about the players,” Gabella told Florida Today, “young men trying to live their dream and then to have it crashing down because you have people that have no baseball feel and don't care anything, about nobody except themselves.”