NEW BRITAIN, Conn. – When Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers threw out a ceremonial first pitch Sunday, the New Britain Stadium crowd offered polite applause.

The final ceremonial pitch was reserved for the New Britain Rock Cats’ mascot, Rocky, and fans hopped to their feet to cheer.

A standing ovation – and a goodbye.

Rocky and the Rock Cats made their final appearance in New Britain, beating the Portland Sea Dogs 7-5 in 15 innings as another Connecticut city loses an Eastern League team.

But this move, unlike the departures from New Haven and Norwich, is not bad news for Connecticut. The team is moving 12 miles north to the capital city, Hartford.

Next year the Sea Dogs will visit the new 9,000-seat, $56 million Dunkin’ Donuts Park to play the Hartford Yard Goats.

“We think our fans will enjoy what a state-of-the-art stadium can deliver – which can’t be provided here,” franchise owner Josh Solomon said.

The move is another example of the might of minor league baseball. Small stadiums in small towns are becoming rarer, especially at the highest levels of Triple-A and Double-A. There are crowds to attract and money to be made.

When Portland and New Haven joined the Double-A Eastern League as expansion teams in 1994, the fee for each franchise was $3.5 million.

The Ravens were sold in 2003 for $10 million and moved to Manchester, New Hampshire, the next year, becoming the Fisher Cats.

When Solomon and his siblings – children of Fisher Cats owner Art Solomon – bought the Rock Cats in 2012, the reported price was $15 million.

Elsewhere, teams are going for big bucks.

Double-A Huntsville, Alabama, of the Southern League was bought for $16 million last year, moved to a new stadium in Biloxi, Mississippi, and is now worth $22 million. The Double-A Frisco Rough Riders in Dallas were recently bought for $32 million.

Teams are headed for the cities. When Richmond, Virginia, lost a Triple-A franchise, Norwich’s owner jumped at the chance to move, and the Richmond Flying Squirrels joined the Eastern League in 2010.

That left New Britain as the state’s lone Double-A team. And now New Britain has no baseball.

“We had the opportunity to get a ballpark in the capital city,” said Rock Cats radio announcer Jeff Dooley, a graduate of St. Joseph’s College in Standish. He’s been with the team since 1998.

“Around the league I go to ballparks like in Akron and Altoona, and I see what they have. I always said Rock Cats fans deserve the chance to sit in the kind of luxury that these ballparks provide.”

The city-owned New Britain Stadium, with a capacity of 6,146, is 20 years old. It is not fancy but is comfortable.

The field is in rough shape. Drainage has been a problem and games are quickly rained out. Another game was postponed because of a sprinkler soaking. A broken irrigation pipe caused another postponement.

The Minnesota Twins, apparently not happy with the facilities, left after last season. The Colorado Rockies filled the vacancy.

“They haven’t kept up the stadium,” said Andrew Wojcik, who was a stadium usher for 10 years. “Just look at (the field). And the bathrooms flood. … Now they’ll have a new stadium with more amenities.”

Longtime Portland baseball followers may remember that New Britain got a team in 1983 only after Portland whiffed on a chance to get it.

Back then the Bristol Red Sox were looking to move, but the Portland City Council balked at the idea of spending money for a needed overhaul of Hadlock Field.

So the team moved 10 miles east to New Britain.

That 1983 New Britain Red Sox team featured a promising right-hander named Roger Clemens, but he was one of the few prospects. Boston continually thinned out its farm system, trying to trade for a championship, and New Britain routinely finished at the bottom of the standings. New Britain ownership ended its relationship with the Red Sox in 1995 and signed with the Twins.

When Portland eventually overhauled Hadlock and brought in the Sea Dogs in 1994, it led the league in attendance with a total of 373,197 fans.

Even though Portland’s regional population of 204,000 is one of the smallest in the league, the Sea Dogs annually rank among the best in attendance (third this season, with 341,074, with four home games to go).

The Rock Cats, despite being part of Hartford’s regional population of almost 1 million, never have drawn 370,000 fans. They have dropped in recent seasons, to 302,865 last year and 267,377 this season.

While some local fans naturally begrudge the team’s move, others are excited.

Longtime Rock Cats fans Mike McGarry, 70, and Walt Butler, 85, sat in their box seats Sunday, looking over a brochure and seating chart of the new stadium.

“We’ve watched this team from the beginning, and this (new stadium) is going to be so much better,” said McGarry, a Hartford native. He said the population base – as well as the new stadium – will mean more fans.

“Just draw a circle around Hartford and one around New Britain.”

Hartford will draw more people as another team heads to a better stadium in a bigger town.

Meanwhile, the lights are out in New Britain. Rocky has left the building.

 

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