It’s official, Old Orchard has baseball once again

OLD ORCHARD BEACH — For many Old Orchard Beach residents, Oct. 5, 2010 will be a date that’s not soon forgotten.

It will be remembered as the day when the town officially regained a baseball team.

During the Old Orchard Beach town council meeting on Tuesday night, the council agreed by a 3-0 margin to allow the move of the Lowell All-Americans of the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) to Old Orchard for the 2011 season. The contract is good from June 1 through July 31, long enough for the team to play its 21 home games and six possible playoffs games at The Ballpark. Per order of the contract, the town is still eligible to host other games and events at The Ballpark during away games and days off.

Though the contract only has a two-month length, team president and general manager Doug Ayotte sees a long future for the team in Old Orchard.

“I can tell you that if the plans come out the way we anticipate they will, we’re going to be here for a long time,” Ayotte said.

According to the contract, the town will be paid a non-refundable fee of $10,000 for the move, and will also receive a 75 percent share in concessions sold, as well as 10 percent of ticket sales.

Ayotte said the Lowell ownership first heard of work being done at The Ballpark in June, and played a game against the Sanford Mainers, hosted at The Ballpark, on June 30. From that point forward, Ayotte and the ownership group have worked with the Old Orchard Baseball Commission and then finally with the town council to finish the process.

“The original conversation was by accident,” Ayotte said. “My brother, who sells scoreboards, through a connection, met (Ballpark Commission member and Old Orchard Beach High School baseball coach) Tom LaChance, and Tom mentioned about [The Ballpark] coming back, and said you guys should take a look at this if you’re planning to move. My dad [former general manager Harry Ayotte] and I were coming up to play Sanford within days of that conversation, so we set up a meeting with Tom at The Ballpark, just at of curiosity. What we saw was unbelievable. I did some research before, what it used to look like, was extremely impressed. Not just The Ballpark itself, but the community involvement, which in this league, is essential.”

The town is still making finishing touches to The Ballpark itself, such as enclosure to the press box, as well as some of the seating, but the field is already in good enough shape by NECBL standards to play ball. Though nothing is stated in the contract, Ayotte said he hopes to put future work into The Ballpark, including a sound system, a scoreboard, and a later-down-the-road possibility, a beer garden for fans. Ayotte, who said Lowell was averaging “on a good night” between 100-200 fans, said he expects an average of 700-1,000 fans per game at The Ballpark. Thought Ayotte lives in Lowell, he will make a seasonal home in Old Orchard and travel back and forth between both towns during the year, as well as having an office set up at The Ballpark. His father, Harry Ayotte, who has worked in baseball for 50 years and was the previous general manager of the team before having health problems, will stay in the group as the vice president of baseball operations.

It will be the first time in 22 years that Old Orchard will have its own baseball team, back when The Ballpark was the home to the Maine Guides (1984-1987), the Triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, before becoming the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies (as the Maine Phillies) for one season in 1988. The team was moved the next season to Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, PA., where they are now the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees.

By moving into Old Orchard, the team will have a natural rivalry on the field with the Mainers, which Ayotte said he is looking forward to.

“On the field, creating that true, cross-town rivalry, is tremendous,” Ayotte said. “They brought 200 people with them for the game we had here. We plan on doing the same for them. Filling up the ballparks or adding 200 more people to them is great. The players get more involved, too. It’s not Yankess-Red Sox, but it’s fun. And [Sanford general manager] Jon Webb has been tremendous. He’s been a great help to me and just a good sounding board to help out.”

Ayotte said the team already has the coaches set for the upcoming season. Inaki Ormaechea, an assistant coach for the University of Hartford, will be the manager of the team, and Jared Lemieux, a Maranacook Community High School and Bowdoin College grad who played five seasons in the Independent Can-Am League, will be an assistant coach.

Ayotte said the team will recruit players from within Maine, but as the reputation of NECBL continues to grow nationwide with Division I colleges, he will also recruit nation-wide.

Before leaving, Ayotte said the next step will be to find a new identity for the team, which will no longer be known as the All-Americans. He said a contest will be held within the coming days for the new identity, with season tickets to be given away for life for the winner.

On Tuesday night, Ayotte signed the contract with the town, to a rousing ovation from the councilors and town members in attendance.

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