Defenders no longer patrolling Holman Stadium

Friday, August 28, 2009

By TOM KING

Staff Writer

NASHUA – At nearly the same spot, Holman Stadium’s home plate, where 11 years ago former Boston Red Sox slugger Mo Vaughn and first-year manager Mike Easler embraced to begin the then-Nashua Pride era, a city tractor was parked on Tuesday afternoon.

It signaled the sad end of that era, shared with the Pride’s lame duck successors, the American Defenders of New Hampshire.

Nashua Mayor Donnalee Lozeau, as she had promised on Monday, prevented the Defenders from playing their regularly scheduled game Tuesday night against the New Jersey Jackals, with the tractor parked at home plate and new locks put on the stadium gates, presumably to prevent the team from allowing fans to come in the ballpark.

Defenders players had access to the stadium itself, including the clubhouse, but everyone had to enter from the stadium attendants’ gate down along the right field picnic area. Players stayed in civilian clothes, mingling on the party deck or in the clubhouse.

Finally, at around 4:30, word came that there would definitely be no game, that the city and Defenders owners, Boston Baseball All-Stars LLC, could not come to an agreement over the $45,064 owed in rent, and Nashua Police Dept. detail work as well as Nashua Fire-Rescue. According to Lozeau, legally the team could not play a game without a police detail, and none would be forthcoming because of the money owed.

But Lozeau said late Tuesday afternoon she wasn’t going to allow the team, which received an eviction notice late last week that would take place on Aug. 31, to play a game until it paid all of its bills to the city, or, in her words, “guarantee the payment in a way that’s acceptable to us.” She said the city could simply not be allowed to lose more money.

“I’m not happy about it,” Lozeau said. “It is what it is. There were no options. The agreement (with the city) does not give them the right to play a game. It’s unfortunate. They (the owners) had multiple options. The four principals (team owners Buddy Lewis, Terry Allvord, Dan Duquette and Jerry O’Connor) could have made a decision to make it right. They chose not to make it right.”

Instead, the Defenders will use Brockton’s Campanelli Stadium tomorrow for a 2 p.m. doubleheader against the Jackals, as the Brockton Rox are at Quebec. The postponed game Tuesday is actually a forfeiture on the part of New Hampshire to New Jersey. The teams will finish the series with the doubleheader on Wednesday, so there will be no game needed to be played on Thursday.

As for compensating ticket holders to these games, Duquette said that’s “under consideration right now.”

“We tried to avert this with discussions we had with the city,” he addedd. “We couldn’t seem to satisfy the city and forestall the inevitable. We’re doing the best we can. It’s been a tough market and a tough year. It’s disappointing for everybody. You try to do the best you can with what you have and where you are.”

Duquette added the team will try to work out a further payment plan with the city and its vendors, but will indeed vacate the offices at Holman Stadium on or before Aug. 31. The remaining four home games scheduled for Labor Day weekend vs. Sussex have been moved to Augusta, N.J., in the form of doubleheaders on Sept. 4 and 5 to finish the season.

“It was a tough situation from the beginning,” Defenders assistant general manager John Tochas said. “We just tried to stay afloat and make it work for the city as best we could. Unfortunately, we just kind of ran out of time. We were hopeful we could get something done. But we couldn’t.”

Meanwhile, the players weren’t too happy. They’ve seen the team unload some of their better players to save money and they already had to make a road trip to Quebec for a series that had originally been scheduled for Holman, simply so the Can-Am League could showcase itself – and perhaps the franchise – in the city of Three Rivers. And now they’ll be on the road the remainder of the season.

“It’s tough,” Defenders starting pitcher Rob Riley said. “It’s just a tough day for everybody. It’s a tough day all around. I came to the park and saw a tractor sitting at home plate. We just want to be done, pretty much. Get this over with, put the season behind us, and move on. It’s been a turbulent season.”

One of the team employees hit the hardest by this had to be Bev Taylor, the only one who worked there from that inaugural 1998 season until now.

“This is my 12th season, and I thought we had some bad times before, but this is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” she said. “I was just hoping against hope like a lot of us have that they’d be able to work something out. But it looks like this really is the end.”

A fan walked along the gate and asked a team employee “Is the game on tonight?”

“No,” he was told. “That’s it. No more baseball.”