The Cobb Field story

Cobb Field (top) by trimworksconst; Dehler Park via Baseballparks.com

I put the Golden Globes on the backburner last night to watch Cobb Field: A Day at the Ball Park on MLB Network. Part of the Reel Hardball series ("Movies Out of Left Field"), the documentary chronicled a game day at the home of the Billings Mustangs in Montana back in 2007, Cobb Field's final year after six decades of American Legion baseball and six decades minus six years as a minor league park. The production offered much in the way of history and insight to the field's contribution to the national pastime.

The Cobb name in baseball usually prompts thoughts of the Georgia Peach, but perhaps not for students of Hollywood history. The Cobb name on the Billings ballpark came from Bob Cobb, a Billings native better known as the Tinseltown-based owner of the famous Brown Derby and the inventor of the Cobb salad. He had baseball in L.A., too, as the owner of the Pacific Coast League's Hollywood Stars. To raise money for the ballpark in his hometown, Cobb turned to his Hollywood connections for investments, getting money from Bing Crosby, among others.

A ballpark built in the '40s, however, doesn't offer much for the 21st century. By 2007, Cobb Field was the only ballpark in the eight-team Pioneer League that had not been replaced or renovated. The visitors' clubhouse consisted of little more than a bench beneath a high shelf along three walls. The visiting manager's "office" was nothing more than a plywood table attached to a wall, the cramped shower room contained a mere six units and the bathroom consisted of one sink, one urinal and one toilet -- all for a team of 20-plus players, coaches and traveling staff.

The nature of the short-season circuit, which starts play near the end of June and finishes just over a week into September, allowed for a unique circumstance for the Mustangs. Cobb Field was demolished in one week in September 2007 and its replacement, Dehler Park, was ready for the 2008 season -- on the same spot. Those fans who had been coming to N. 27th St. in Billings to watch baseball as children will continue to come to the same spot with their kids and grandkids. There may be no easier snapshot of the great distance from short-season A-ball to the Major Leagues than this Cobb-to-Dehler transformation of that plot of land.

Dehler Park shows up at the end of the movie for a comparison. Fans and staff are asked their thoughts and some wide shots provide a chance to compare and contrast. The photos above are the best I could find that showed a similar vantage point. Dehler is visibly smaller than its predecessor. The grandstand doesn't rise as high as Cobb's did, and the press box (not visible) fits into the concourse behind the plate rather than sitting perched atop the roof over the fans. Dehler, though, spreads out more down the lines, including grass berm seating. While Cobb fit 4,200 on its bleachers, Dehler has 2,571 seats and 500 bleachers to go along with the berm seating.

Over the years, Billings has seen the likes of George Brett, Paul O'Neill and Trevor Hoffman, and the movie features Toms River's own Todd Frazier. The game featured in the film was actually Frazier's professional debut after he was drafted from Rutgers. He singled in a run in his first at-bat, helping the Mustangs on their way to a victory on the featured night.

For those of us who have never seen a game in Billings (or Batavia or Greensboro or any other number of low-minor league towns), the film's relevance is in the fans' relationship with the ballpark and its team. As historic and quaint Cobb Field was, Billings probably needed a new ballpark to remain viable (here's the oft-used comparison) in an age where digital movies, the internet and increasingly technical leisure-time pursuits provide a less interactive entertainment experience. Dehler Park gives Billings what Cobb Field couldn't, just as Lakewood, N.J., did for the BlueClaws, who before 2001 were playing on a community field (it could hardly be called a stadium) in Fayetteville, N.C., as the Cape Fear Crocs. Fayetteville wouldn't approve a new ballpark, Lakewood did, and new ownership bought the franchise and moved it north. Billings won't have to worry about that now.

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Callan Films' Cobb Field: A Day at the Ball Park airs again this morning at 10:30 ET on MLB Network and Thursday at 2:30 a.m. It's also available for purchase.

Lakewood's minor league team is a major loss for Cape Fear

Uh ... "welcome" to J.P. Riddle Stadium.

This is the sixth in a series. Previous posts are:

Newark Bears
New Jersey Cardinals
New Jersey Jackals
Staten Island Yankees
Somerset Patriots

August 15, 1999

It's sad, really.

In the spring of 2001, Lakewood will join six other New Jersey towns and cities on the minor league baseball map. Many people along the Shore are already excited about the team coming to Lakewood, but it comes at the expense of fans in the Sandhills region of southeastern North Carolina.

As excited as New Jersey fans will be to welcome the franchise to Lakewood, that's how sad the fans down Interstate 95 will feel when they say goodbye to their Cape Fear Crocs.

The Class A Crocs will finish this South Atlantic League season and the next in 11–year–old J.P. Riddle Stadium in Fayetteville, N.C., a city of 75,000 that lies halfway between New York and Miami on I–95. Then the organization will leave, re–emerging at the start of the 2001 season in Lakewood, with a new nickname.

After a two–game visit to Riddle Stadium, I can see why Crocs owner Greg Padgett decided to sell his team to the American Baseball Co., the same group that owns the Class AA Eastern League Trenton Thunder and Reading Phillies. It's a small stadium with metal stands, seats and bleachers. There is no covering over the seats, no concourse, no concession or souvenir stands other than separate, free–standing sheds behind the stands. The six–person Crocs staff has a trailer set up at the end of one building to use as its office.

The scoreboard has no video screen and lists only the bare essentials – line score, pitch count and batter's uniform number.

It's minor league baseball like it used to be, really. Just like in "Bull Durham," only without the big bull beyond the outfield wall. But not even that landmark stadium could avoid the progress of the wrecking ball, and now the Class AAA Bulls – in a higher classification – play in a new park.

These days, no–frills baseball does not cut it for a public that expects to be entertained wherever it goes. In fact, we prefer to be entertained while waiting to be entertained. A mere baseball game is not going to be enough to satisfy a culture that produced a demand for minivans with videocassette recorders and video screens. Seems the journey is no longer half the fun, we just want to get there.

The journey to Carolina's Cape Fear region covers a little more than 500 miles and takes nine to 10 hours, depending on speed and stops. I spent the entire trip down with Bruce Springsteen – someone who knows about small communities hitting hard times – in the tape deck. I later checked how far his entire roster of albums would take you – easily from here to Miami, with 19 hours of Boss music from the start of "Greetings from Asbury Park" to the end of "Tracks."

City on the rebound

I toured Fayetteville on Tuesday before that night's game with the Delmarva Shorebirds. It's an old city, established in 1783 and one of many U.S. cities named for the Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette. Before establishing Raleigh as the state capital, the North Carolina Legislature met in Fayetteville, and it was there in 1789 that it ratified the U.S. Constitution and chartered the University of North Carolina, the oldest state university in America.

Dozens of miles from the ocean, Fayetteville is North Carolina's most inland port, thanks to the Cape Fear River that lends its name to businesses all over the state's southeastern corner. The actual Cape Fear lies about 80 miles south, which would make a long ride for Robert DeNiro holding onto the bottom of a car.

Eight historic churches are scattered about town, along with other significant buildings and landmarks. The Old Market House now occupies the site of the old State House, where the Legislature ratified the Constitution and founded UNC. The Market House is a national landmark, centered in a traffic circle at the intersection of four downtown streets. It's a bittersweet picture with such an elegant building sitting among abandoned storefronts.

Leading west from the Market House is Hay Street, a cobblestone, tree–lined avenue with storefronts along either side. It's the type of street that should be blocked off on weekends with hordes of people shopping, eating, sightseeing, but there are only a few stores to attract any crowd; one of every three buildings is occupied, with the others whitewashed and boarded.

But Fayetteville is making a comeback. I had watched a city–produced tourism pitch on television and recognized many of the projects under way or about to start. Storefronts and entire buildings are under renovation. The only problem is the city may not have baseball to help with the rebound, the way Trenton and Newark are pulling themselves up with the help of America's pastime.

Still fighting

If baseball does not return to Fayetteville for some time after the Crocs leave, it won't be because of a lack of effort by team management.

General manager Brad Taylor and the director of media and military special events, Buck Rogers, know they need to make a push for baseball in the region. Every home date left on the 1999 Crocs schedule has some promotion attached to it, and there's certainly going to be a lot planned for next season.

But despite their efforts, the Crocs rank last in Sally League attendance. Through 52 home dates, Cape Fear was averaging 1,202 fans with a total of 62,523. The Shorebirds, an Orioles affiliate playing in Salisbury, Md., led the league with 236,068, an average of 4,216 for their 56 home dates.

"We have 55,000 people stationed at Ft. Bragg," Rogers said. "Every Monday home game is Military Monday, where anyone with any kind of military ID gets in free. But we had only 620 people here last (Monday)."

That's about all the Crocs got for each of the three games on last week's homestand – 620 to 670 people per game. After winning Monday's game 7–3, Cape Fear dropped the second game 6–1 to fall into a three–way tie atop the standings with Delmarva and the Hagerstown (Md.) Suns. The Shorebirds won Wednesday's game 8–3, sending the Crocs to third place.

It seems that the record on the field has nothing to do with it.

"The bottom line is, a facility will make or break baseball in Fayetteville," Rogers said. "No team will even remotely consider coming here without ground being broken and ongoing construction."

A little more than a mile up the road, back toward the city, the new $55 million Crown Coliseum draws 3,000 for Fayetteville Force ice hockey games, and sells out the 10,000–seat arena for professional wrestling.

"Around here, if it's not NASCAR or All–Star wrestling, they don't care," Rogers said.

So next summer, while we watch the progress on Lakewood's 6,500–seat park, baseball fans in Cape Fear will be counting the days until J.P. Riddle Stadium finally falls silent for good. Just don't call the Crocs lame.

"People are saying we're going to be a lame–duck team next year," Taylor said. "It's only lame duck if you make it that. If the fans make it, if the community makes it, if we as a staff let it. But if we don't give a push at the end and show people that we want baseball here, it could be 10 years before anyone looks at this region again."