This will be the third season for the inter-collegiate Tarp Skunks squad, which plays in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball league and is owned by a group of investors known as Jamestown Community Baseball.

This year the team has a new Director of Business and Sales Operations with the hiring of Christian Dolce in January.

Dolce tells WRFA he and his staff have been busy during the off-season getting everything ready for opening day, “Our number one goal here is to make it a great experience for fans. So, whether that’s in our merchandise store, providing a lot of merchandise, from season tickets, that aspect of it. We added on our Tarp Skunks Kids Club with our sponsors: Pepsi, Collaborative Children’s Solutions, and the Rotary Club of Jamestown. We wanted to give kids a great experience and behind the scenes we’re tying up all the loose ends and we’re ready to go to create a good experience for all our fans.”

Dolce adds that there will once again be plenty of promotions and special activities planned for this year to keep fans returning to ballpark all season long, “You come to the ballpark and there might be a promotion, there might be a giveaway. If you come to us on the weekend game, kids and parents, all fans can run the bases for free after games on the weekends. We have a number of firework games that happen after the fact. We have some more in-game stuff like $2 nights with the $2 beer and hotdogs and popcorn, as well as bleacher tickets.”

As for the team, the coach of Tarp Skunks will once again be Jamestown native Jordan Basile, who is now in his third season with the club. There will also be a few returning players on the squad, although most of them will be new players from across the country who are looking for an opportunity to sharpen their skills during the summer.

Jamestown’s regular season play begins on Saturday with a game on the road in Newark, NY. The first league game at home will a special Kids’ Day game next Wednesday, beginning at 11 a.m.

Tonight’s exhibition game begins at 6:30 p.m. and once again, all home games will be broadcast on WRFA.

For a complete broadcast schedule, visit WRFALP.com/TarpSkunks. For ticket information, visit TarpSkunks.com.

Jamestown Community Baseball

Dolce will join manager and Director of Baseball Operations Jordan Basile in leading the Tarp Skunks this season. He interned with the Tarp Skunks for one season and worked as the Assistant of Business Operations last year.

Dolce is a Jamestown native and recent graduate of John Carroll University where he earned his Bachelors of Arts and Science in Sports Studies and Athletic Administration, while minoring in Business.

In addition to his two years of working with the Tarp Skunks, Dolce has held positions working with the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, Babe Ruth World Series Baseball, John Carroll Wrestling, and the 2021 NFL Draft.

Former Director of Business and Sales Jacob Kindberg will continue to work with the Tarp Skunks as an advisor while Mike Ferguson will be brought in as a Marketing Executive focusing on sponsorship and activation.

The Jamestown Tarp Skunks are a member of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, a collegiate summer baseball league with teams across New York state. The Tarp Skunks will be back playing baseball this summer at Diethrick Park in June 2023.

JAMESTOWN – A book capturing the history of professional baseball in Jamestown has been updated and republished to include additional details since its first launch over 20 years ago.

The Jamestown Tarp Skunks and members of Jamestown Community Baseball held an event Saturday morning at the Robert H. Jackson Center celebrating the official launch of the book “Our Game: From Unknowns to Tarp Skunks, 155 Years (And Counting!) of Baseball in Jamestown, New York.”

A discussion on a new book about the history of baseball in Jamestown NY took place on Saturday, Oct. 3 at the Robert H. Jackson Center, featuring co-authors David Mulei (via webstream) and Scott Kindberg (seated left); Randy Anderson from the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame (seated right) and moderated by Greg Peterson (seated, back to camera).

The book is of reprint of the 1998 book “Across the Seams” by Dave Mulei, with new, additional chapters contributed and edited by Scott Kindberg, long-time reporter and current sports editor of the Jamestown Post-Journal.

The event featured a discussion involving Mulei and Kindberg, along with Randy Anderson, Executive Director of the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame. It was moderated by Jamestown Community Baseball founding member, attorney and local history buff and baseball fan Greg Peterson.

Kindberg explained that while he helped to choose much of the content that went into covering the 25 additional years of baseball in the community, much of it was actually written by the former Post-Journal Sports editor, the late Jim Riggs.

Image from Jamestown Post-Journal

“Fortunately, Jim clipped out every article and every column he ever wrote. So Randy suggested, ‘Well. Since Jim’s stuff is all cataloged, why don’t we see what we can find that relates to his coverage of the Jammers from 1995 to 2014.’ And then myself and the staff at the Post-Journal picked up the coverage of the collegiate wood bat league from 2015 to the present,” Kindberg said.

The book not only includes coverage of professional baseball in the city until the Jamestown Jammers Single-A team’s departure in 2014, but also the return of baseball by the Jammers’ summer collegiate team the following year and the announced “Jamestown Tarp Skunks” team of 2020.

Anderson also helped to create a database of all players who ever made it to the major league level, explaining those players are an important part of sports history in our area.

“Our guys are in that book. And that’s our job at the Hall of Fame, it’s to honor and preserve the sports legacy of Chautauqua County and nothing says it better than the history of baseball,” Anderson said.

Mulei, who joined the discussion from the New York City area via zoom webstreaming, explained that his original book – along with the expansion provided Kindberg – does more than just cover the year-by-year history of the teams that played, saying it also explains how community leaders and various stakeholders worked to keep it going over the years.

“I think this is a story that is about more than just the game on the field in Jamestown. I think what you have all been part of – that continuum that you’re on – is crucial and essential. I think it’s a playbook for other folks in other towns committing to other projects and things that are bigger than themselves,” Mulei said.

In addition to the release of the new book, Peterson said that the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame also has posters now available for sale that feature the baseball cards of all major league players who ever played for a Jamestown team, from the early 1940s all the way to the present day. That includes Hall-of-Famers Nellie Fox and Randy Johnson, along with an estimated 180 others.

Many of the cards were provided by Jamestown’s “Mr. Baseball” – Russ Diethrick.

“Russ was gracious enough to extend to the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame his collection [of baseball cards]. His collection has now been captured for the first time in posters, which are for sale. That is a collection of folks who played baseball in Jamestown and came to go on to the majors,” Peterson said.

The book and two separate posters featuring the baseball players who made it to the “Big Show” are all now available for sale at the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame.

Jamestown Tarp Skunks General Manger Frank Fanning (right) announced on Wednesday he would be departing the team at the end of June.

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown Tarp Skunks collegiate baseball team will soon be searching for a new General Manager.

On Wednesday current team manager Frank Fanning announced he was leaving the team after one year at the helm. During his tenure, Fanning was responsible for helping to launch the new name and brand of the team. But due to COVID-19, he was never able to actually see the ball club play.

“Baseball is sometimes a season-by-season sport for players, as we all know. And sometimes it is season-by-season for members of the front office as well. Even when there’s no season,” Fanning said in a press release sent out by the team on Wednesday afternoon. “For the most part, I was signed for one year to turn the franchise around, and I made good on my promise. The current global climate plays a factor into my decision too, it’s time for me to return home.”

From 2016 to 2018 the Jamestown Jammers collegiate baseball team took the field at Diethrick Park. But the ownership of the team opted to not continue for the 2019 season. They handed the team over to the newly created Jamestown Community Baseball ownership group, and it hired Fanning last year to help prepare the team for the 2020 Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League season after it took the 2019 season off.  Part of that preparation including a new team name and brand.

On Jan. 22, the new Tarps Skunks name and logo was announced, helping to put the city and the county in the national spotlight. According to Fanning, there were over 3 million impressions for Jamestown, NY and Chautauqua County, NY on social media and the brand quickly took off with fans eager to purchase hats and shirts in support the team.

“I’m proud of the splash that the Tarp Skunks made. I so appreciate the renewed fan interest in baseball. Every day I was here I had the fans in mind – especially the children and families,” Fanning said, adding that Tarp Skunk merchandise has outsold the last five total years of the prior grape logo, and “many more millions of impressions have been made since the relaunch.”

“The ‘Tarp Skunks’ brand is a gift to Jamestown. It is so baseball-universal, and the groundwork is laid for the management group to continue to do something special with it. It requires serious work and attention to sustain,” Fanning said. “There were obviously challenges, but I always felt like I could overcome anything. Now, it’s up to the Board of Directors to maintain that momentum and continue the positive trend. The goal was to give Jamestown something it never had before. Here it is. I wish them luck.”

Fanning plans to fulfill his July 1st memorandum of understanding. Fanning is not aware of any job postings at this time. Visit TarpSkunks.com for more information on the club.