Storm Clouds Over B-Mets

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At a surface level everything looked rosy at Tuesday night’s Binghamton Mets Welcome Home dinner. Over 450 B-Met supporters packed Binghamton’s Holiday Inn, rabid baseball fans eager for another baseball campaign and excited to meet this years edition of B-Mets. A video of last season’s Eastern League title clinching game played on a big screen at the front of the ballroom as a long line of fans snaked through the room gathering autographs from the B-Met brood.

Sales of the B-Met Booster Club’s “Six More Wins: A Team, A Town, A Rebound and a Championship,” a book penned by local author Jim Maggiore, were brisk. Few could complain about a twenty-five dollar night that included a delicious dinner, a meet-and-greet autograph session with an entire professional baseball team, a free ticket to opening night where fans would be presented with a copy of the championship video, a baseball and the B-Met players scattering to individual tables to dine with the fans.

Yet, underneath the surface anxiety churned. Most dinner patrons were worried, shaken by the recent news that the future of Double-A baseball in Binghamton is cloudy.

A lawsuit filed in court by a Florida ownership group against B-Met owners and their agents, Beacon Sports Central Projects, alleges the said owners had signed a deal to sell the team with the franchise moving to Wilmington, Delaware, and then reneged on that agreement. The lawsuit also lays claims the B-Met owners attempted to sell the team several times over the past four years. News of the lawsuit sent shock waves through the Binghamton baseball community.

Binghamton’s majority owner Michael Urda vehemently denies the charges and pledges to fight them in court. But, the lawsuit unveiled the fact that Urda and the B-Met ownership group has actively attempted to sell the team, something rumored in the past but always rebutted by Urda.

The breaking news was not ignored by the areas political leaders. Meetings were scheduled between Binghamton’s mayor David Rick and State Senator Thomas Lebous, a huge B-Met supporter, and Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo. “The important thing is that professional baseball remains in the city of Binghamton,” Rick told the Binghamton press.

Stipulations by the city regarding NYSEG Stadium require that Binghamton house a professional baseball team, but that does not assure that should the franchise exit the city, Double-A quality baseball would return.

For his part, Urda was upfront when he addressed the large Welcome Home crowd, explaining that the members of the ownership team are in their sixties and are seeking successors, purchasers committed to keeping the team in Binghamton. According to Urda, home owned minor league professional baseball franchises, once the norm, are now a thing of the past. In fact, according to Urda, his B-Met team is the only home owned team in the Eastern League.

An ownership change sends shivers down the spines of upstate baseball fans. In 2007, Sam Nader, the renowned owner of the Oneonta Tigers, formerly the Oneonta Yankees, a New York Penn League Single-A franchise Nader had owned for over 40 years, received a similar pledge by perspective buyers to keep the franchise in Oneonta. Nader made the sale, the city of Oneonta spent resources to upgrade Damaschke Field and, after a single season in Oneonta, the new owners exited the city.

Turning attention to the upcoming baseball campaign, B-Met manager Pedro Lopez, the winningest major in Binghamton history, was greeted by a long standing ovation from the capacity crowd. A year ago, Lopez coined the phrase “Six More Wins” at the dinner as he promised to bring the city an Eastern League title. Lopez made no such bold claims this year but is clearly excited about his team and their chances. Binghamton returns 14 of the 28 players on their roster and sports a promising pitching staff with an experienced returning infield. “Last year was special and this year we’re eager to continue our success on the field,” Lopez told the crowd. “We have a good group of guys and a lot of guys returning.”