YANKEE STADIUM – The most loved and most hated team in Major League Baseball opened its new $1.5 billion stadium Thursday with “The Boss” who built it shining in the spotlight of his huge royal suite high above home plate.

With George Steinbrenner were wife Joan; sons Hal and Hank, who now officially run the place; daughters Jennifer and Jessica; and dozens of admirers and friends.

My first games in the old Yankee Stadium were during the 1955 World Series, which the Yankees lost to the Brooklyn Dodgers, four games to three.

Back then, I came from South Dakota and bought from scalpers upper left-field bleacher seats for $15 each. The face value was $2.10. Now those officially sell for $14, but scalpers got $100 or more per ticket.

For nearly 27 years, since we started USA TODAY, I’ve been a regular guest in Steinbrenner’s suite. When you’re around him now, you realize he’s still The Boss at age 78, despite turning over official management to his two sons.

The old stadium was labeled “The House that (Babe) Ruth built,” by New York sportswriter Fred Lieb. This one ultimately will become known as “The House The Boss built.”

Contrasts between the Babe and The Boss:

• Ruth joined the Yankees in 1920 and left in 1935. In his 15 seasons, the Yanks played in six World Series.

• Steinbrenner became principal owner of the Yankees in 1973. Since then, they’ve played in 10 World Series, although they’ve had a drought since 2003.

Steinbrenner and his family still are willing to spend whatever it takes to give New York a winner, which is why the Yankees in this new stadium will likely outshine those in the old.

Even if you are a Yankee-hater, you grudgingly should credit The Boss for his will to win and for the house he built.

Al Neuharth is founder of USA TODAY.

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Feedback

“He’s the reason why we are here today. He’s the greatest owner in the history of sports. The reason we are playing in a great facility is because of all the things he’s contributed to our organization.”

- Derek Jeter, Yankees shortstop

“My dad, also George, played hooky and went to the first game at Yankee Stadium. I thought about him on this opening day. That’s how baseball works – the elders teach the youngsters to love the sport.”

- George Vecsey, sports columnist, The New York Times, born a Brooklyn Dodgers fan

Alex Rodriguez

The steroid users can’t wreck the game. They never could.

They can have the records, the awards, the money, the mansions – and, God bless them, they sure have all that – but the taint is on them.

Mark McGwire is basically in self-imposed exile. Sammy Sosa? As easily forgettable as his English.

Barry Bonds, the most hated man in baseball, forever will have an asterisk next to his home run record, the little postscript that Hank Aaron – the real Home Run King – never deserved.

Roger Clemens, denying, denying, denying, appears intent on going down with his ship. Let him.

Then there’s New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who wants us to believe that he’s now so sorry, so earnest to tell the truth, that he didn’t even bother with any of it until Sports Illustrated outed him last week with reports of a positive test for performance-enhancing drugs.

Figures that the guy who lied to Katie Couric in a “60 Minutes” interview, the guy who has a hard time hitting in the clutch, wouldn’t fully own up to anything.

Instead, he whines about being naive about steroids and the terrible, terrible woe-is-me pressure of having to live up to his $252 million contract while with the Texas Rangers.

Want pressure, A-Rod? Try living paycheck to paycheck.

Nice try, all of you.

We have become by alternate turns outraged and disappointed about our major league steriod freaks. But apparently we didn’t much care about who was using and who wasn’t because we kept voting with the one thing that matters – our pocketbooks.

Through all of the blind-eyed steroid era and now its aftermath, while commissioner Bud Selig fiddled with the All-Star Game and earned his way up to around a staggering $18 million in annual salary, attendance soared across the major leagues.

The numbers dipped slightly last season – it’s the economy, stupid – but only after the major leagues reported attendance records in each of the previous four years.

That’s because A-Rod’s revelation and all the rest of the unseemly mess doesn’t change the symphony of the game, the perfect math of the diamond, the intricate, delicate drama of I-pitch-it, you-try-to-hit-it.

With major league spring training beginning another round in Tucson on Saturday, as pitchers and catchers report for the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies, there are all the old reasons to head out to the ballpark.

No. 1: Sunshine.

No. 2: . . . uh, it’s baseball.

It marches on just fine.

A-Rod and the rest of the All-User team traded in a lasting legacy for short-term glory. They’re winners in that regard.

Did you know that 14 of the past 26 Most Valuable Players – counting both leagues – have either admitted to using steroids or been implicated?

Congratulations, fellas. Your kids must be so proud.

With their wretched excesses, these guys have swung a hammer to the record book as if it was a Jamie Moyer fastball down the middle. It’s regrettable, but, shoot, who much cares anymore?

Your childhood heroes are still your childhood heroes.

You can take them out of the record book, but not out of your memory.

It’s a truth that baseball, more than any sport, is steeped in tradition, its statistical bridges to the past. But at the end of the day records are for suckers anyway.

Comparing eras is always troublesome, and while advanced mathematical models can make some sense of it, it’s mostly an intellectual endeavor that produces chatter, not results.

The steroid beasts – the liars and cheaters – don’t win.

They will live on in the record books, but not in our hearts.

We know which is more important.

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com

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KEY DATES

Spring Training begins this weekend for the Diamondbacks and Rockies:

Saturday: Pitchers and catchers report

Wednesday: All players report

Feb. 25: Opener, D’backs at Rockies, 1:05 p.m., Hi Corbett Field

Feb. 26: White Sox at Rockies, 1:05 p.m., Hi Corbett; D’backs at Indians, 1:05 p.m., Goodyear

Feb. 27: White Sox at D’backs, 1:05 p.m., Tucson Electric Park; Rockies at Angels, 1:05 p.m., Tempe

Joe Torre (left) with Alex Rodriguez in 2007

When Joe Torre announced he was going to write a book about his Yankee years, I hoped it might display his better side. Instead, it shows off his bitter side.

“The Yankee Years,” by Torre and Tom Verducci (Random House) was released Tuesday, although portions were leaked last week to the friendly New York press. Highlights:

• The book claims popular Yankee third-base star Alex Rodriguez, generally known as “A-Rod,” was sarcastically called “A-Fraud” by teammates behind his back.

• There is repeated bashing of the top brass – Boss George Steinbrenner, President Randy Levine and General Manager Brian Cashman. They paid Torre more than $44 million in 12 years.

While Torre was Yankee manager, I often criticized him during his last seven years for failing to win a World Series even though he had the best and highest-paid players in baseball.

When the Yankees kissed him goodbye in 2007, I said good riddance, but later I apologized more for maybe sometimes having been a bit too harsh on him. Now, I apologize for that apology.

Torre’s criticisms of many of his former associates confirm what I had consistently written: He was overrated, overpaid and sometimes overbearing.

His book should have referenced his dismal pre-Yankee years as a manager. Before Steinbrenner hired him, Torre was manager for 14 seasons with the Atlanta Braves, New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals.

All three got rid of him. He never made it to the World Series with them, and in nine of those years he had losing seasons (below .500).

This “non-fiction” book by Torre and Verducci (of Sports Illustrated) is written in such a way it’s sometimes tough to know which co-author wrote what.

But it’s easy to understand that some of the telltales belong in the “fiction” category.

Al Neuharth is founder of USA TODAY.

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Feedback

“Sadly, Neuharth, often seated in Steinbrenner’s box, oozes the only bitterness. The book is, as the Los Angeles Times put it, ‘the consummate insider’s view’ and ‘thoughtful, even nuanced, history.’ ”

— Tom Verducci, co-author, “The Yankee Years”

“It’s astonishing to me that Torre is portrayed as ‘bitter.’ Torre should be portrayed as candid and honest. Why would anyone have a problem with that?”

— Nick Cafardo, columnist, The Boston Globe

Never has the overused sports phrase “coaching carousel” been more accurate than this year with three Tucson-area baseball coaches.

Ready to take a spin?

• Nick Allen, the former Ironwood Ridge baseball coach, has been hired to take over the Amphi baseball program left vacant by Allen’s best friend, Todd Naskedov.

• Naskedov, the 2007 Tucson Citizen Baseball Coach of the Year, stepped down from his successful stint at Amphi to become pitching coach at Pima Community College, replacing Jason Hisey.

• Hisey, who won 252 games at Catalina Foothills from 1995-2005, stepped down over the summer as Pima’s pitching coach to take over at Ironwood Ridge, replacing Allen, who resigned after last season.

“I hope the situation works out for all three of us,” said Allen. “It’s interesting how it’s turned out and we all just sort of swapped jobs.”

Allen, 29, and Naskedov coached together for five years in Washington before Allen moved to Tucson to take an assistant coaching spot on Naskedov’s Amphi squad for two years.

He then went on to take Ironwood Ridge to the state playoffs in two of the three years he was head coach there before returning to Amphi last fall to again serve as an assistant to Naskedov.

That was until Naskedov took the job with Pima baseball coach/athletic director Edgar Soto.

When that happened, Allen was the natural successor to take over an Amphi program that has won more games than any program in southern Arizona in the past three years.

The three-way coaching carousel could be a win-win-win situation, although Allen could have the hardest time this spring carrying on the success of his predecessor, for two reasons. First, Naskedov has set the bar at Amphi very high. Second, Amphi graduated nine varsity players from last year’s region championship squad.

And Naskedov hasn’t missed the opportunity to remind his good friend that he left behind an 18-game 4A Gila Region winning streak dating back to the 2007 season.

Allen, however, hopes to one up his friend by bringing home Amphi’s first state baseball title since 1980. Naskedov took the Panthers in the 2006 4A-II state title game.

“If that happens, he’ll probably get two things from me,” Allen said. “He’d get a sarcastic ‘ha ha’ from me, but then he’d get a ‘thanks’ for getting this program on the right track.”

Tucson-area baseball teams start spring practice Feb. 9.

Catalina to hire soon

Catalina athletic director Ken Harcus said he hopes to have the school’s new baseball coach hired within the next two weeks.

Three-year head coach Shane Folsom stepped down in December to take over the head-coaching duties of the University of Arizona Club Baseball team, a member of the National Club Baseball Association.

Football openings

Speaking of coaching searches, there are at least four football searches in southern Arizona this offseason, and likely at least one more coming.

They include (school and last year’s coach): Canyon del Oro, Pat Nugent; Douglas, John Necas; Marana, Willie Dudley; and Sahuaro, Chuck McCollum.

Don’t be surprised if when Nugent is confirmed Jan. 14 as the new coach at Pima Community College – his hiring there is not official until the school’s governing board meets and puts its stamp of approval on it – he taps one or more of the area’s hot coaching prospects to help rebuild the Pima program.

First in line, how about former CDO assistant Pat Ryden to be his defensive coordinator?

If Ryden does rejoin forces with Nugent, that will make the Rincon/University football job the fifth big-school opening this offseason in southern Arizona.

Hall discusses UA

Former Ironwood Ridge volleyball star Kara Bauman (class of 2006), who reports for GoAZCats.com, has a lengthy video interview on the Web site with Palo Verde football star Adam Hall.

In the interview, Hall discusses, among other things, the possibility of playing safety for the University of Arizona. While many people have assumed he only wants to play receiver in college, he has from the beginning of his recruiting process maintained he is undecided where he wants to play in college.

On Tuesday, he was named a MaxPreps.com second team All-American at running back. He played safety in one postseason all-star game and wide receiver in another.

Hall also said that while the University of Southern California is not out of the question, his favorites are UA, Oregon, Oregon State and Cal, where he is being recruited by Santa Rita graduate Ron Gould, the Bears’ highly regarded running backs coach.

Salpointe’s appeal soon

Salpointe’s appeal to the Arizona Interscholastic Association on its 2009 football postseason probation will be heard Jan. 20 in Phoenix.

(ggrammer@tucsoncitizen.com)

Have some news or notes on Tucson-area high school sports? E-mail ggrammer@tucsoncitizen.com

Hi Corbett Field needs to be made more accessible to handicapped people.

I cannot believe the uproar about baseball and sports in Tucson.

The city of Tucson has 500,000-plus residents with about 1 million living in Pima County. Compare that to the city of Pittsburgh, which has just over 300,000 people.

Pittsburgh has pro baseball, hockey and football teams and Penn State University. What does Tucson have? The Tucson Toros, an independent league team, and the University of Arizona.

It is time the City Council realizes Tucson is no longer a small town where you come to die. We need professional companies, not call centers, and professional sports teams from Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League.

The only reason Honeywell is here is because an airline company paid Honeywell to stay in Tucson. Otherwise it would have moved to Phoenix.

It is time for the City Council to open its eyes and realize that Tucson may have 1.5 million people by 2012. It needs to quit relying on Raytheon Missile Systems and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and bring in companies such as Motorola, Sony and other types of industries.

We need a City Council that is visionary enough to see this and start making the necessary moves to do this.

One of the first is to make Hi Corbett Field more accessible to handicapped people by enclosing the ballpark. That would eliminate the direct sunlight and lack of shade for people with medical conditions.

Right now, handicapped people are seated in front of the bleachers. For my wife to go to Hi Corbett, I would have to put a shade cover over her scooter and make a misting system that would make it difficult for fans sitting in the first three rows to see.

At least at Tucson Electric Park the sun was blocked by the building. The smartest thing would have been to enclose TEP, and the Sidewinders would have been profitable because it would have been 75 to 80 degrees instead of over 100 degrees.

It is time for change and smart thinking, not the attitude that we are a small town anymore. We can be better than Phoenix and larger. We are a big city. Get over it.

Mark Walton is an electronics technician who has lived in Tucson since 1973.

Mark Walton

The departure of the Chicago White Sox doesn’t signal the end of spring training baseball in Tucson.

But it might be the beginning of the end.

Tuesday, Pima County took $5 million from the White Sox to allow the team to break its contract and run to Glendale in 2009.

The move paves the way for Tucson’s two remaining spring training teams to play elsewhere, as both have contracts binding them to the Old Pueblo only if at least three teams train here.

The Arizona Diamondbacks, who train at Tucson Electric Park, say they’ll likely remain in Tucson until their contract expires in 2012.

The Colorado Rockies want Tucson to spend $10 million to refurbish Hi Corbett Field, where they play. The city doesn’t have the money, and the team is exploring its options in the Phoenix area.

Tucson needs four teams to make spring training here economically feasible, the president of the D’backs says.

That’s not likely to happen, because – bottom line – it makes economic sense for teams to relocate in Phoenix. Teams can reduce travel and hotel expenses if they play there.

Who’s to blame

Some Citizen readers blame Pima County’s administrator, Chuck Huckelberry, and its Board of Supervisors for letting the White Sox slip away and for building TEP at an unattractive location in the city.

But it was the Arizona Legislature’s creation of the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority that turned Phoenix into a magnet for spring training baseball.

The authority, originally conceived to raise revenue to build a new home for the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals, has generated money to help fund a $100 million baseball complex in Glendale and a $108 million facility in Goodyear.

Tucson can’t currently compete with that kind of money.

Given what the county was up against, the supervisors made the best of it Tuesday. The White Sox had given the county a choice: Take the $5 million, or let the Sox help create and fund a youth and amateur sports tournament facility at TEP.

It wasn’t much of a choice. The likelihood that the White Sox could turn Tucson into a youth baseball mecca was small. The youth baseball tourney market is hypercompetitive, with well-established complexes throughout the United States.

What’s next?

What should the county do with the $5 million? Take the advice of advocates of amateur athletics and pump the money into improving youth sports in Tucson. The area’s shortage of soccer fields has been well-documented; that might be a good place to start.

In the longer term, the city and county need to press the Legislature to establish a funding mechanism similar to the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority.

But given the Phoenix-centric nature of the Legislature, and the fact that the state’s $1.2 billion budget deficit likely will occupy its attention in the upcoming session, don’t hold your breath.

We wish such pessimism were not in order. We’re Cactus League fans. It is as much a part of springtime here as the Rodeo Parade. The $30 million infusion into the local economy was only part of the allure; having “Big Unit” Randy Johnson, Ichiro Suzuki and their colleagues here each March made Tucson cool.

We built Tucson Electric Park, and they came. Now they’re leaving. The Tucson Sidewinders will play in Reno, Nev., next year. The White Sox are going up the interstate, and the Rockies and Diamondbacks seem poised to follow.

Maybe Tucson just isn’t that much of a pro baseball town.

With rain falling, Tampa Bay's B.J. Upton scores on a single by Carlos Pena as Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz waits for the throw in the sixth inning of Game 5 of the World Series. That tied the game at 2 before it was suspended.

PHILADELPHIA – Those catwalks back in Tropicana Field don’t seem so bad now, do they?

Welcome to the World Series, baseball’s showcase event . . .

Don’t mind the small pond forming behind third base at Citizens Bank Park, and the basepaths turning into swampland.

Welcome to the Fall Classic . . .

Don’t be alarmed if a popup goes up in one ZIP code, gets caught in the wind, and comes down in another. Or, with the rain pouring down, the infielder acts as if he’s trying to make a catch in the shower.

We’re here at the most important moments of the summer game . . .

Was that the Tampa Bay manager popping from the dugout to make a pitching change wearing a drenched coat and cap with earflaps, looking as if he’s headed out to hunt ducks?

Or B.J. Upton sloshing into second base as if he were going down a water slide?

It’s the Phillies and Rays . . .

Not to mention a cast-of-a-thousand grounds crew, putting down more sand on the muddy spots than they used in Lawrence of Arabia.

Football has decided championships in blizzards and deep freezes, where the game was reduced to surviving the weather. Should baseball be different?

But at what point does coping with the elements turn into a travesty?

The World Series was right at the line, if not over it, when they pulled the plug in the sixth inning of Game 5 Monday night. This had ceased being a recognizable baseball game.

“Borderline pathetic,” Tampa Bay pitcher David Price said. “You don’t want a World Series decided because someone slips or loses a popup because he’s being pelted in the face by rain.”

“This is one of those situations in life,” commissioner Bud Selig said, “where it’s very easy to second guess.”

As it turns out, it was only a minor humiliation. Imagine if the Tampa Bay Rays had not scored a run in the sixth to tie 2-2. Game called at the end of 5 1/2, with Philadelphia ahead 2-1.

Congratulations world champions Phillies! Get the champagne!

How might that have played with the general public, starting in the general vicinity of Tampa-St. Petersburg? It would have been Bud Selig’s darkest moment since he called a tie at the All-Star Game.

“No, sir,” Selig said afterward, “I was not going to allow that to happen.”

All parties beforehand had decided the baseball rule of a game being official after five innings was not going to get in the way of finishing Game 5. No matter how long it took. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thanksgiving.

Baseball, by ad hoc regulations. So Game 5 picks up in the bottom of the sixth inning Tuesday, or whenever – the first time in history a World Series game has started and not gone nine innings.

Not that major league baseball had a lot of wiggle room but to try to play Monday night. The forecast for Tuesday is wind and rain. For Wednesday, it is wind and rain and snow. They are in the dome-less portion of this World Series matchup, so there was considerable motivation to slog it out.

Best they called it though, since no one has ever drowned at a World Series. Afterward Selig sounded ready to slap a fine on every meteorologist who had told him earlier in the day that weather would not be a big factor.

The World Series has gone on hiatus before, the longest for 10 days after the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco. The Red Sox and Reds waited out a nor’easter for three days in a delay that nearly killed interest in the 1975 World Series. But those who stayed around were rewarded with the famous Game 6.

So now we wait. Did the Phillies lose momentum? Did the Rays get second wind?

“I don’t know what to think,” Tampa Bay’s Carl Crawford.

And no one knows when the World Series will have the answers.

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WORLD SERIES SCHEDULE

• Oct. 22 – Philadelphia 3, Tampa Bay 2

• Oct. 23 – Tampa Bay 4, Philadelphia 2

• Oct. 25 – Philadelphia 5, Tampa Bay 4

• Oct. 26 – Philadelphia 10, Tampa Bay 2, Philadelphia leads series 3-1

• Monday – Tampa Bay 2, Philadelphia 2, 5 1/2 innings, suspended, rain

• Tuesday – Tampa Bay at Philadelphia, 5:29 p.m., completion of suspended game

• Wednesday – Philadelphia (Myers 10-13) at Tampa Bay (Shields 14-8), 5:35 p.m., if necessary

• Thursday – Philadelphia at Tampa Bay, 5:29 p.m., if necessary

Last April, when the Major League Baseball season began, I predicted that the New York Yankees, having finally dumped "overrated" manager Joe Torre, would win it all. But they didn't even make the playoffs.

In case you’re wondering why I didn’t stick my neck out as usual this year picking a World Series winner, here’s why.

Last April, when the Major League Baseball season began, I predicted that the New York Yankees, having finally dumped “overrated” manager Joe Torre, would win it all. But they didn’t even make the playoffs.

This month, in a mea culpa to Torre, I apologized for my past criticism and congratulated him for winning the National League West in his new role managing the Los Angeles Dodgers. He immediately went out and lost the playoffs to Philadelphia four games out of five.

With that record, no prediction on a World Series winner, but here are some tidbits about the two cities involved that are sure bets you can make:

• The Philadelphia metro area population is 5.8 million. Tampa’s is 2.7 million.

• The annual median household income in the Philadelphia area is $58,309. For Tampa it’s $46,607.

• The median value of family homes owned in Philadelphia is $240,300. In Tampa, it is $203,300.

• Average time it takes Philadelphians to get to work is 28.2 minutes. For Tampans, it’s 25.6 minutes.

• Philadelphia area people ages 5 and older who speak a language other than English, 14 percent. In Tampa 24.5 percent.

• Philadelphia’s poverty rate 11.5 percent. Tampa’s 11.3 percent.

None of that stuff may have anything to do with who wins the World Series. But it might help you in your office water cooler conversations and win you some bets.

Best bets: We are much more alike than we are different. It’s usually a close call between winners in sports, elections or any other competition.

So bet what you can afford, but don’t bet the rent money. Just relax and enjoy it all.

Al Neuharth is founder of USA TODAY.

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Feedback

“Yes, our teams are more alike than they are different. But with Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and the greatest fans, there’s only one safe bet: Go Phillies!” – U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa.

“I would bet on the Rays. From a terrible record to the best — they have done it the old-fashioned way — through hard work and teamwork.” – Pam Iorio, mayor of Tampa

Glory days: The Tucson Toros' infield, circa 1970 (from left): Mickey McGuire, Steve Huntz, Luis Alcaraz and Bob Spence.

Hi Corbett Field is more than a ballpark. The Toros are more than a nickname. And the reunion of these icons means more to Tucson than simply good news.

Bring out the fireworks, the mariachis, children singing and dancing. Send a squadron of fighter planes low across the city, shaking light poles, windows, chandeliers and apathy.

Break out a keg of cheer, folks – happy days are here again.

May the Triple-A baseball franchise we’ve just lost amuse the newly divorced of Reno. Let those fans pour out their die-hard devotion on players not around long enough for anyone to catch their names.

We’re getting a bunch of kids who’ll bust their britches all summer to get discovered, young players who won’t complain about sharing their wonders with such things as piñata-busting, pie-throwing, three-legged races and hot dog-eating contests.

And if the storks at Reid Park Zoo get diarrhea again – as was diagnosed once, due to a July Fourth fireworks exhibition in nearby Hi Corbett – well, bring the birds to the ballpark and feed them popcorn.

We’ve lost Pacific Coast League baseball but we’re getting a team in the Golden Baseball League. We’re back in the minors and darn proud of it.

Jay Zucker couldn’t sell Triple-A baseball down on Ajo Way, so he sold the Tucson Sidewinders to Nevada interests.

But Jay refused to yell “uncle,” and he’s bringing a Golden League team to town next season. He’ll call them the “Toros.”

I think Tucson will buy this brand of baseball.

Maybe Jay will patch up the old “Tuffy” costume and get someone dumb enough to wear it for four hours on a hot summer night, hugging children and posing for pictures.

Remember years ago when Tuffy and a fan who was trying to outrun the mascot down the third base line got into a fight? Fists flew and they rolled in the dirt. That video still turns up on highlight – and low-light – shows on TV.

We all have our memories of Hi Corbett Field and the Toros. Some of us are old enough to remember teams called the “Lizards” and the “Cowboys” of long-ago summer nights at the ballpark between Broadway and 22nd Street, west of Alvernon.

I remember the San Diego Chicken and Max Patkin, the Clown Prince of Baseball. I remember talking to Ricky Nelson along the third base line before a postgame concert in 1985, shortly before the singer died in a plane crash in Texas.

And “Tucson Lenny” Rubin, the greatest go-fer in minor league baseball history.

And Ray McNally, print and broadcast journalist, PR man and golf hustler. Jack Donovan, the first of a string of remarkable general managers. Mike Feder, another GM and his wife, Pattie, who was part of the front office.

Little Dave Bell, so devoted a fan that he brought a scorebook to every Toros game. Dave knew all the ballplayers, even visitors such as future big leaguers Steve Garvey, Ron Cey and Mike Marshall – and they knew him, on a first-name basis.

Lee Marvin made it to a lot of Toros games. Michael Landon, James Garner, Kevin Costner, Phil Harris, Robert Duvall, Pat Paulsen and other entertainment figures showed up in the grandstand from time to time.

Pitching coach Brent Strom taught actor Kevin Kline how to pitch for some movie.

“Major League” was filmed there in 1989. Forty years before that, “The Kid From Cleveland” used Hi Corbett for a lot of background shots.

A decade ago, 91-year-old Roy Drachman threw out the first pitch – ever – at the new Tucson Electric Park. But Roy saw a lot more games at Hi Corbett over the years and was instrumental in talking the Cleveland Indians into training there, beginning in the 1940s.

But the old ballyard’s most memorable character was a cat, Garfield. He owned Reid Park, and for years haunted Hi Corbett nightly in search of squirrels, gophers and world-class cockroaches.

Then one night Garfield discovered baseball. Actually, he discovered fans in the grandstand naive enough to share their nacho-cheese-jalapeno snacks, their hot dogs and their beer. Garfield loved them all – the food and beer, not the fans.

When Garfield died in May 1985, Rubin, in his best Brooklynese, delivered this moving eulogy over the public address system:

“Dey put da cat to sleep, folks. He had distempah and – whatchacallit? – no white corpuskies or somethin’. Now, I know yous’ll miss da cat, but please don’t bring no cats to da ballpock. I don’t want no tree-hunnerd cats here tomorrah night.”

Ah, minor league ball at Hi Corbett Field. The legend lives on, thanks to Jay Zucker’s love for baseball and the fans of Tucson.

Corky Simpson is a retired Tucson Citizen sports columnist who attended an untold number of games at Hi Corbett Field.

Will fans pay to see lower level of ball?

A crowd of 6,033 showed up for the final game in Tucson's 40-year Triple-A history Monday at Tucson Electric Park. The Sidewinders, who are leaving for Reno, Nev., drew a total of 245,121 fans this year - an average of 3,552, worst in the Pacific Coast League.

Perhaps you missed it. A couple of Saturdays ago, the independent league baseball team in Yuma, in its big end-of-year promotion, gave away a ton of manure.

You might have a different word for what the Scorpions were giving away.

Like it or not, that same level of minor league baseball – the Golden Baseball League – is coming to Tucson. Whatever you call it, it sure beats the alternative: nothing.

The Triple-A Tucson Sidewinders and the reborn independent league Tucson Toros were two tumbling tumbleweeds passing in the desert Monday, one going, one coming and Tucson baseball fans left to wonder what was being shoveled.

Jay Zucker, who owned the Sidewinders from 2000 to 2007 before selling to a group that is relocating the team to Reno, is doing two positive things:

He’s bringing back the Toros name and playing the games at Hi Corbett Field.

“It’s a new chapter of professional baseball in Tucson,” Zucker said.

At 8:29 p.m., when Phil Avlas fouled the ball for the final out in a 7-2 loss at Tucson Electric Park, the Sidewinders wrote the final line of the last chapter, ending 40 consecutive years of Triple-A baseball in Tucson.

A few hours earlier, public address announcer Dale Lopez introduced the team as “Youuuurrr Tucson Sidewinders!” But if they were truly our Tucson Sidewinders, then attendance would have been better, and they wouldn’t be Reno bound.

A few hours before that, Zucker said he was hopeful of being able to lure comparable crowds to see the new Toros.

“We believe we would draw similar to what we did with the Sidewinders during the week,” he said. “And on the weekends, we’d be looking at several thousand, which might be a little bit shy of the Sidewinders.”

Which might be a little bit optimistic.

We’ll see.

The Sidewinders’ average attendance this season was 3,552.

The best attendance in the eight-team GBL: 2,175 for the Chico Outlaws. The Long Beach Armada was next at 1,640.

As for the quality of baseball . . . well, who much cares?

If you’re a baseball fan, you’ll care. Baseball is baseball.

If you didn’t much care about Triple-A baseball and the Sidewinders’ affiliation with the Arizona Diamondbacks, then you won’t much care about the Golden Baseball League. And that’s OK.

Because while it is nice to see the occasional rehabbing star in Tucson and a few fast-rising prospects, minor league baseball is often just about a night out.

It’s not about being able to name more than three players on the field.

It’s not about a pennant race.

“Our research tells us the fans are going out there for the family fun and value, and not just professional baseball,” Zucker said.

Zucker will be a busy man until late May 2009, when the season begins (it ends by Labor Day). He hopes to pick a manager by November, and then attend baseball’s winter meetings to help hunt for players.

The Golden League is not affiliated with major league baseball, but the level of GBL baseball is comparable to the Double-A level, said David Kaval, founder and chief executive officer of the Golden Baseball League.

“You’ll have three or four guys with major league experience,” Kaval said. “Our Long Beach team had seven players with major league experience.”

There are 25 alums of the GBL who are in major league organizations, including six in Triple-A. Ex-major leaguers are in the GBL, including 43-year-old Felix Jose, who hit .391 this season.

Remember Nick Bierbrodt, the Diamondbacks’ No. 1 pick in 1996? The left-hander pitched for Long Beach this season.

The real stars are the managers, including former major leaguers Mike Marshall, Steve Yeager, Garry Templeton, Corey Snyder and Jeffrey Leonard.

Each team’s salary cap for the season is $83,000 – less than the cost of one night from Manny Ramirez – but, hey, the franchise does arrange housing for its 22 players. Franchises have sold for $1 million. Zucker declined to give the exact figure of his buy-in.

“The independent leagues are very focused on the fans,” Kaval said. “Affiliated baseball is very focused on the players.

“We’ve had a lot of wild promotions over the years. We have given away a funeral in Yuma. We’ve done Michael Vick Animal Awareness Night. We have done some crazy things that created some buzz and excitement.”

Which brings us back to the manure and Barnyard Night in Yuma.

“We had a nursery come to us and said, ‘Look, we want to give away manure,’ ” Kaval said.

“We said, ‘Well, what are you going to give away, like a ton of poop?’ He said, ‘Yeah, we’ll give away a ton.’

“That’s not like a Tucson promotion, but it was a great Yuma promotion.

And, I’ll tell you what, if you had an affiliated team there and you tried to do that, they would have said, no.”

Zucker says he will retain the usual alliterative promotions: Thirsty Thursdays, Fireworks Fridays, Souvenir Saturdays, etc. The average cost of a ticket around the league is $5.50.

And the games will be at Hi Corbett, where at least you’re not far from an In-N-Out Burger, or somewhere else to take the family and meet friends, before or after the game. Can’t really say that for games at TEP.

So, adios, Sandy Sidewinder.

“We focus on having fun,” Kaval said, “not taking ourselves too seriously and giving people reasons to come back.”

Eventually, you’ll be the ones to decide if that’s the straight poop or not.

———

After the game got under way, a very composed Steinbrenner greeted dozens of guests in his luxurious owner's suite.

He stayed, chatted and watched the game until well after midnight, anything but the "frail" 78-year-old that some sportswriters keep deriding.

YANKEE STADIUM, N.Y. – Whether or not you stayed up until 1:37 a.m. Wednesday to watch the end of the longest ever baseball All-Star game, you know the night here was historic.

Thoughts about the history-makers:

Sports scribes long ago dubbed this stadium “The House That Babe Ruth Built.” But The Babe played here as a Yankee for only 12 seasons, from 1923 to 1934.

George Steinbrenner has been the Yankees’ major owner/boss for 35 years.

He bought the team from CBS in 1973 for $10 million, a steal. Since then, the Yanks have won 10 pennants and six World Series titles.

He may be the most loved and most hated boss in baseball, just as the Yankees are the most loved and most hated team.

Tuesday night, after All-Star players and old-time Hall of Famers had been introduced, The Boss swept in across the outfield to the pitcher’s mound in a golf cart, with some family members.

He became a little misty-eyed after he presented the baseballs that were then thrown out in ceremonial first pitches by his former Yankee greats Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Goose Gossage and Reggie Jackson. They showed some emotions, too.

After the game got under way, a very composed Steinbrenner greeted dozens of guests in his luxurious owner’s suite.

He stayed, chatted and watched the game until well after midnight, anything but the “frail” 78-year-old that some sportswriters keep deriding.

The talk here now is mostly about the new $1.3 billion Yankee stadium next door, which opens in April.

That should unarguably be called “The House The Boss Built.” Although he has made sons Hal and Hank Yankee co-chairmen, he’s still The Boss. Even New York sports scribes should understand that.

Al Neuharth is the Founder of USA TODAY.

———

Feedback

“Those of us who worked for The Boss when he was in his 40s never thought we’d get sentimental over him. Oh, he was tough. But the legacy he has built can be nothing but admired.”

- Marty Appel, Yankees public relations, 1968-77

“New York is our Rome, Yankee Stadium is its Coliseum, and so Steinbrenner is the Yankees’ emperor. He’s willed the franchise to greatness and, in getting its iconic home replaced, used his powerful influence to solidify his legacy for generations to come.”

- Larry Smith, “Headline News” sports anchor

Scouts initially overlooked CDO shortstop

ESPN's Jayson Stark picks Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler, a former Canyon del Oro star, as the American League midseason MVP.

Keith Francis was starting his new job as an assistant baseball coach at Canyon del Oro High School in 2000, in charge of the infield, when the head coach made a request.

“We have two shortstops,” Kent Winslow told him. “You decide.”

The shortstop candidates were both good players who would someday be picked in the baseball draft. Scouts were always around. CDO baseball is the program in town.

The program had recently produced future major leaguers Shelley Duncan, Chris Duncan, Scott Hairston, Jason Stanford and Colin Porter, as well as several other draft picks.

There was more to come.

That 2000 state championship team featured outfielder Brian Anderson, who would become a first-round pick of the Chicago White Sox in 2003, and hard-throwing right-hander Ryan Schroyer.

As for the shortstop Francis eventually picked?

“Not even on the scouts’ radar,” he said.

That kid was Ian Kinsler.

Sometimes things are just funny that way. If you had asked Francis in 2000 about Kinsler’s pro potential he would have said what the scouts thought: “Nice player; not flashy. I don’t know if he is going to make it.”

Francis would have added this: “Whatever opportunity he gets, he’ll give it his best effort.”

Perhaps Kinsler just bloomed late. Perhaps he was just overlooked in high school because of his extremely talented teammates. Perhaps he has just worked his tail off.

Perhaps it’s all of the above, which has led to this:

Ian Kinsler, a 26-year-old second baseman for the Texas Rangers, might very well be your American League Most Valuable Player.

He leads the league in batting average (.337), is fifth in on-base percentage (.397), seventh in slugging (.548), has the most extra-base hits (52) and has stolen 23 bases in 24 attempts. The only time he was caught stealing was on a pickoff.

Kinsler is hitting nearly .400 with runners in scoring position.

He has a majors-best 25-game hitting streak.

ESPN’s Jayson Stark picks him as the American League midseason MVP.

Others go with Kinsler’s teammate, outfielder Josh Hamilton, who has 95 RBIs and the Hollywood story, having overcome years of drug addiction to make the majors last season.

It’s right about here that these two rags-to-riches stories diverge.

Hamilton was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1999 draft.

Kinsler?

“Nobody was interested,” Francis said. “Not even Arizona or ASU.”

Well, the Arizona Diamondbacks did take Kinsler in the 29th round after his senior season in 2000, but Kinsler went to Central Arizona College in Coolidge for a year. ASU became interested. He was a Sun Devil for a season, then transferred to Missouri for a year.

Kinsler improved his way up to a 17th-round pick in the 2003 draft.

“Now . . . wow, there he goes,” Francis said.

And here Kinsler is at his first All-Star Game – at Yankee Stadium. On Monday, he wore the jersey number (5) of another guy who could hit, Joe DiMaggio, as AL players honored former New York Yankee greats in the stadium’s final season.

Kinsler deserved to start, but narrowly lost the fan balloting to Boston’s popular Dustin Pedroia, who finished with nearly 1.3 million votes. Kinsler, making a late charge, was 34,243 votes behind.

Coming off the bench, Kinsler will be trying to become the first player from a Tucson high school to get a hit in the All-Star Game.

Sabino grad J.J. Hardy walked last year in his only at-bat. Rincon’s Tom Pagnozzi was hitless in one at-bat in 1992. The only other All-Star from Tucson is Amphi pitcher Alex Kellner, who did not play in the 1949 game.

Kellner went 20-12 that season for the Philadelphia Athletics, finishing 18th in balloting for the American League MVP award. None of the 38 major leaguers from a Tucson high has ever finished better in MVP voting.

You would think Kinsler is going to change that in a big, big way.

“I’d rather talk about the team. We’re playing good baseball,” Kinsler told MLB.com after Sunday’s game. “It’s tough to talk about MVP and that kind of stuff. The guys around me make it easy to do what I’m doing.”

Kinsler signed a five-year contract extension worth $22 million this offseason. The team has an option for a sixth year at $10 million. At today’s rates, the Rangers have themselves a heck of a bargain.

“I’m going to play the same regardless of whether I’m making $5 or $1 trillion,” Kinsler said in spring training.

That sounds like the kid with the good work ethic and positive attitude that Francis remembers.

“He just did everything right,” Francis said. “He wasn’t the most gifted player at that time, didn’t have the best tools of anyone. But he listened to the coaches who have helped him, gave it his all and did the things he needed to do to get better.

“No way did I have any idea all this was going to happen, but I couldn’t be happier for him.”

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com

Ian Kinsler, who played shortstop when CDO won the 2000 state championship, will try to become the first player from a Tucson high school to get a hit in the All-Star Game.

———

IAN KINSLER’S STATS

2008

AB H 2B HR RBI SB AVG. OBP SLG

398 134 34 14 58 23 .337* .397 .548

CAREER

1,304 382 83 48 174 57 .293 .365 .478

*Leads American League

Note: .974 career fielding percentage (.970 this year)

———

TUCSON’S ALL-STARS

Year Player Pos. Team

2008 Ian Kinsler 2B Texas-AL

2007 J.J. Hardy SS Milwaukee-NL

1992 Tom Pagnozzi C St. Louis-NL

1949 Alex Kellner P Philadelphia-AL

DETROIT – I took a drive last week to say goodbye to an old friend. I came off the highway, turned down a familiar street and there she was, right in front of me.

She did not look good. She was pale and broken down. Even the work she’d had done a few years ago now had decayed.

She was spilling out, peeling, her fabrics were torn, and she looked none too steady on her feet. The summer sky was gray and she seemed to have a cloud affixed permanently over her head – along with cranes, tractors and trucks by her sides.

There was a small hole in her body. But she will break and crumble much more in the weeks to come. She was born in 1912. Death is inevitable now.

Her name is Tiger Stadium.

They are knocking her down.

For the love of the game

I parked beyond some orange cones by a fence that had been constructed to keep scavengers from getting too close.

A security man wearing a wool cap jogged over and said no one was allowed in, but when I told him I only wanted a last look at a place where I’d spent so many years, he relented.

He looked to be in his 20s. I asked if he’d seen the Tigers play here. His face lit up. “Oh, yeah,” he said, “my dad took me back in the day.”

Of course, back in the day we didn’t say “back in the day.” But at that moment, smiling widely, the guy was not a security guard, he was an excited kid with a glove, certain the next foul ball would be his.

Somewhere inside us, aren’t we all?

There are few romances like the ones with a ballpark. Unlike lovers, you don’t mind sharing them. Unlike boyfriends or girlfriends, they do not fade with the crush. And unlike most summer flings, you get to renew your love every year.

It was Fourth of July weekend, a time when fireworks flew over this ballpark.

There are no fireworks left.

Her name is Tiger Stadium.

They are knocking her down.

The legends of Motown

I glanced at the fading logo on her wall, a tiger crawling out through an Old English D. I remembered how her hallways smelled of sausage grease and her dim tunnel lighting was out of a Bela Lugosi movie.

But this was a place where you could walk with the players on the way to their cars, a place where you crawled up into a hanging pinecone of a broadcast booth to say hi to Ernie Harwell and Paul Carey, a place where sitting behind a pole was part of the charm, because if you leaned to the side of that pole, you might see Ty Cobb getting his 4,000th hit, or Hank Greenberg, just back from the Army, hitting a home run.

You might see Mark Fidrych chatting with a baseball, or Jack Morris glaring down a hitter before striking him out.

My first assignment for the Detroit Free Press was here. I interviewed Lou Whitaker. We talked for a few minutes, and it would be my longest interview with him ever.

I saw Frank Tanana here nearly lose his chewing gum in celebrating a final, playoff-clinching out. I saw Cecil Fielder clock monster home runs into the night sky.

I saw a tireless, elderly, ueber-fan called The Brow charge up and down the aisles, urging people to cheer even when there was nothing to cheer about.

Tiger Stadium was mine and it was yours and it was anyone’s who lived in this area over the last century. It belonged to your grandfather and your barber and your neighbor’s aunt.

It belonged to Cobb and Greenberg and Al Kaline and Kirk Gibson and Sparky Anderson and Frank Navin and the Briggs family and Tom Monaghan and Mike Ilitch.

It belonged to the earth it sat upon.

And soon, that is where it will return.

You don’t save a building for the building’s sake. Tiger Stadium has been empty for nine years, rotting and crumbling while people wrangled over plans. In the end, as with certain medicines, the plans could not save the patient.

She deserves a dignified end.

I rarely have taken a photograph of a workplace. But I raised my camera and snapped one before I left. It is not her best look, but with old friends, you gotta take the whole picture.

That Sinatra song goes, “And the air was such a wonder, from the hot dogs and the beer. Yes, there used to be a ballpark, right here.”

Her name is Tiger Stadium. They are knocking her down.

Say goodbye if you get the chance.

She’d like that.

Mitch Albom is an award-winning journalist and radio host who writes a column for the Detroit Free Press. He is the author of nine books. His first novel, “The Five People You Meet in Heaven”, is the most successful U.S. hardback first novel ever. E-mail: malbom@freepress.com.

Lopez

Andy Lopez has a good résumé. If his University of Arizona baseball team could have gotten just one more victory over the past several years it would be even better.

Even though Lopez has gotten UA to the College World Series only once in seven years, people should take more notice of what he has done.

Some will.

Lopez will surely have other schools calling him now that the Wildcats have been eliminated from super regional competition with a 4-2 loss to No. 1 seed Miami on Sunday night.

Schools have called him before. Both UCLA and Oklahoma sought his interest level over the years.

Don’t be surprised if Auburn makes a call to find out his availability this week. The Tigers’ Tom Slater resigned under pressure May 17. He had a salary of $130,000, plus incentives.

Other schools also may take note of what Lopez has been doing in the desert.

Lopez is making below the going rate – $96,615 – of the more highly successful coaches in the Pac-10.

It has to be frustrating to look across the diamond and see Arizona State coach Pat Murphy pocket almost $275,000 each year. John Savage is making $185,000 at UCLA, a job Lopez probably could have had after Arizona’s 2004 CWS appearance.

Oregon’s George Horton is making $400,000, including television and shoe deals, according to published reports. Oregon State’s Pat Casey nearly tripled his salary after OSU won national titles in 2006 and 2007.

Attendance has been another problem because fans don’t support the program like they did in the school’s glory years.

Lopez hasn’t won a championship at Arizona, but he certainly has done enough to warrant more notice.

There is still work to be done for Lopez at Sancet Stadium, especially with 11 players and seven recruits getting selected in last week’s Major League Baseball draft.

UA finished 42-19 this year, placing fourth in the Pac-10. The Wildcats had the No. 7 RPI heading into the NCAA Tournament, but were sent on the road for both rounds they played in.

Lopez says he will be “working on next year” immediately. The brunt of the power is gone from the starting lineup if they all sign, and the entire starting rotation was drafted, plus two key relievers who helped formed what was one of the nation’s best bullpens.

The toughest part for the Wildcat skipper might be dealing with the inability to get one more victory. It’s become a trend.

Arizona was one win away from advancing in the 2005 regional at Cal State Fullerton. The Wildcats were a win away at Wichita State from hosting a super regional a year ago.

UA, ranked No. 1 in the preseason, couldn’t get the clutch hit needed against Miami in Coral Gables, Fla.

All three failures since 2005 came on the road. Lopez has openly questioned what more the program needs to do to host postseason games. Arizona was the only No. 1 seed in the regionals not to host this year.

Arizona has not hosted a postseason game since Lopez came into town with his 1992 Pepperdine team that eventually won the national title.

The Wildcats were second in the Pac-10 in 2005 and 2007, yet despite playing in one of the top three conferences in the country, were sent on the road.

Stanford finished second this year and hosted a regional, and then a super regional. The Cardinal will be playing in Omaha, Neb., this week at the CWS.

Coincidence?

Arizona went to only one regional playoff in the nine years before Lopez was hired in 2002. The Wildcats have earned a postseason berth five of the last six seasons.

The fifth-place CWS finish in 2004 was the first time the Wildcats advanced to Omaha since winning the national title under Jerry Kindall in 1986.

Lopez has a proven track record. He’s one of only three coaches to take three different programs (Arizona, Pepperdine, Florida) to the CWS. Only nine active coaches have won a national title.

Maybe he’d be better appreciated if he had advanced to another CWS here. But most coaches would love his track record. Arizona should appreciate him more.

Zucker with Sandy the Sidewinder

Turning 40 years old never looked so glum. In fact, whoever said 40 is the new 30 knows nothing of the Tucson Sidewinders.

It’s been that kind of season for Tucson’s Triple-A franchise, which in four months will no longer be here, as it heads to Reno, Nev., to start up shop.

In what should be a celebration of Triple-A ball here, there’s no feel of it at Tucson Electric Park.

Anniversary or not, minor league baseball in Tucson continues to suffer what has been its biggest problem for a long time – apathy and poor attendance.

“Has it hit yet?” asked former-owner-turned-team-consultant Jay Zucker, almost jokingly, about people realizing this is the final season in Tucson as well as the 40th anniversary of Triple-A ball here.

“We don’t know yet but we’ll know (soon). We never know what the season is going to turn out like until after Memorial Day weekend.”

So far, well, so bleak.

Tucson goes into Monday’s homestand last in the Pacific Coast League with average attendance of 3,404 fans per game.

Zucker, however, offers a disclaimer. Historically, he said, pro baseball in Tucson doesn’t work in April or May.

What? To me,, it’s near the best time of the year in that it’s not too hot and surely not too cold.

To wit: Two weeks ago when UA went through an unusual cold front, temperatures in the 70s and 80s, few fans took advantage.

To borrow a phrase, fans came dressed as “empty seats.” The crowds were anywhere from 1,500-5,000 (capacity is 11,000). It was so bad one night during Tucson’s 23-2 drubbing by Las Vegas, a local sports anchor said the good thing was that only a couple of hundred fans watched the debacle.

Ouch!

We’ll see what happens the rest of the way. June is here and July is soon to come and Zucker is convinced that with school out, people “will be looking for something to do.”

Zucker, who has been with the team eight seasons and sold it last year for $15 million after purchasing it for $8 million, offers a few reasons Triple-A baseball didn’t/hasn’t worked in Tucson, despite it lasting 40 years in the Old Pueblo.

They include:

• Weather, although he still contends June and July are the attendance measuring sticks. “Could you imagine if we didn’t have the heat and the monsoons? That’s why (Triple-A baseball) works in every other market but this one.”

• UA’s success in athletics (OK, not this season, but years past).

“Although we believe UA athletics is a compliment to baseball, it competes with baseball for the dollar and media space,” Zucker said.

• Perceived poor location of the stadium. Let me say that the same number of people went to Hi Corbett Field in the so-called good old days in what many think is a better location.

• Spring training dilutes the fan’s need/want to see professional baseball.

“This is the only Triple-A market that has three spring training teams,” Zucker said.

• Combine all that and Tucson is truly a minor league city. In “every (other) Triple-A market (the team) isn’t thought of as minor league. They are THE thing and has the same respect of (a city that has a major league team).” Zucker said.

“We’re branded as minor league.”

Yet, Zucker, the ultimate salesman, still believes he can bring a quality minor league product to Tucson and is willing to give it another go next season with an Independent League team.

It’s still early in the discussions, Zucker said, not wanting to talk about specifics.

The first question is: Is he crazy in even trying?

“A lot of people think I am,” he said.

Zucker continues to say his driving force is his achieved “mission statement,” one where he’ll be able to reach thousands of youngsters.

“(And) if I can do this and make a couple of bucks that would be great,” he said of possibly bringing another team here. “Now I know the problems and am no longer naive.”

Admittedly, he said, he lost millions in the early years, not realizing a profit until his fifth year, despite doubling revenues in that time.

But he realized in 2007 that no matter what he tried – fireworks, cheap beer, gimmicks galore, all longtime gimmicks – it just wasn’t working.

That was the season that the Sidewinders, just a season removed from a Pacific Coast League title (the team’s third) still had poor attendance.

And it has “flat-lined” ever since, he said.

“Everywhere else attendance grows after a championship . . . 20 percent,” he said.

It just didn’t happen in Tucson.

“Jay has done everything within his power to make this work and I feel badly that it’s not,” said Cathy Johnson, longtime Tucson Toros/Sidewinders Booster Club president. “We’ve been coming here in the summer for so long it’s hard to imagine not coming to a game or having nothing to do.”

Manuel Quintero, 57, agreed, although he’s not an everyday Sidewinders fan. He did have a prime seat at a recent game.

“What more can you ask for?” Quintero mused, ” . . . Well, I guess, people.”

Indeed.

Steve Rivera’s e-mail:

srivera@tucsoncitizen.com