Local group, Jamestown Community Baseball LLC, took ownership of the former Jamestown Jammers in 2019 with plans to have the first season start in 2020. However, the league canceled that season due to the Pandemic.

The Tarp Skunks are currently 4 and 1 for the season. They play the Batavia Muckdogs at 7pm tonight. Tune to 107.9 WRFA for our first live broadcast of the game or you can stream online at wrfalp.com.

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.

On Wednesday the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League announced it was cancelling the 2020 season, just three weeks prior to the start.

The cancellation was due to COVID-19.

Jamestown manager Frank Fanning said the team sympathizes with baseball fans in Jamestown who will have to wait at least one more summer before baseball is played at Diethrick Park.

This was to be the tarp skunks first season in Jamestown after the former collegiate team – the Jamestown Jammers – folded at the end of the 2018 season. A local group of investors then organized in 2019 to establish a new ownership group – Jamestown Community Baseball LLC – and the new team, Jamestown Tarp Skunks, was introduced earlier this year with much fanfare.

The Perfect Game league is a summer amateur league featuring college players from around the country. It is comprised of 13 teams in upstate New York.

On Thursday Jamestown Community Baseball LLC held a special event at Jamestown Community College to announce the name of the new locally owned collegiate baseball team.

After a slow build up that included a video giving some backstory into how the team chose its new name, team general manager Frank Fanning announced the team’s name would be the Jamestown Tarp Skunks.

According to Fanning, the “Tarp” portion of the name is partly to represent Chautauqua County native Howard Ehmke, who pitched in the 1929 World Series and later went on to start a company that produced the original infield

The “Skunks” portion of the name to represents a  common creature at Russell E. Diethrick Park that Fanning says has made a habit of pestering and wreaking havoc on baseball team employees for decades, including living inside the infield tarp and also under the visiting bullpen’s bench.

Fanning said the settled on “Tarp Skunks” because the team wanted an unforgettable mascot that also appealed to kids.

The Jamestown Tarp Skunks will continue to play in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, just like the former team the Jamestown Jammers did from 2016 through 2018.  The team took 2019 off to reorganize.  Prior to 2016, the Jamestown had a team in the New York Penn League, also known as the Jammers, going back to 1994. Before then the team was known as the Jamestown Expos.

Merchandise for the Tarp Skunks can be purchased at TarpSkunks.com or at the Jock Shop.

The first home game of the 2020 season will be on June 2 at Russell E. Diethrick Jr. Park.

• MOBILE APP USERS: LISTEN VIA SOUNDCLOUD

Originally airing Thursday, May 16 2019

WRFA’s Jason Sample talks with Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi about the recent decision by the Jamestown City Council to challenge a State Supreme Court Ruling that upheld an arbitration decision involving the Jamestown Police Union. Plus he discusses the announcement that collegiate league baseball will return to Jamestown in 2020.

Sam Teresi

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown Jammers collegiate league baseball team won’t be taking the field in 2019.

That was the news delivered Wednesday during a press conference at Russell E. Diethrick Jr. Park as the owners of the collegiate team – ROC Ventures – announced the team would be going dark next year, with a plan to transfer ownership as a donation to a soon-to-be-created nonprofit group called Jamestown Community Baseball LLC in time for the start of the 2020 season.

Officials and community members announced on Wednesday, Oct. 25 that the Jamestown Jammers would be transitioning to new ownership and as a result the team would go dark iin 2019 to reorganize.

Jamestown Jammers Manager and community relation representative for ROC Ventures Anthony Barone said the decision had nothing to do with finances as the team had strong community support through sponsorship and attendance. Instead, the decision was because the Milwaukee-based owners wanted to focus on another baseball team closer to its home base.

“ROC Ventures and its other sports and entertainment interests are based in the Milwaukee area. We’ve created a new professional baseball team called the Milwaukee Milkmen. They’ll begin playing in the legendary American Association, a professional baseball league during the 2019 season,” Barone said. “It’s a great opportunity for ROC to take aim at a new venture in a professional atmosphere.”

The Jammers play in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League – a summer league intended to help college players hone their skills while they are out of school. Led by Barone, the Jammers won the league pennant this past summer.

PGCBL president Robert Julian said that while local interests were hoping to have the ownership transfer in time for the 2019 season, his suggestion was to let the team go dark for one year in order to allow for the development of a sound business plan to ensure success in future years.

“The prudent thing for this community would be to go dark in 2010, which is not uncommon in our league. It is an important component built into our league bylaws,” Julian explained. “It is a tactic that allows communities and teams to reorganize and do so under a circumstance where they’re not under tremendous financial and management pressure to field a team immediately when the circumstances are not fully in place.”

Julian said the annual operating budget for a team in the league is about $150,000 to $200,000. He said because a nonprofit group would be taking over, it may be easier to run the team because the drive for profit is taken out of the equation.

“We will work with the city and the local group on the timing and the transition to ensure the new owners have every chance to build a successful team and product here at Diethrick Park,” Barone said.

Barone and Julian were joined by Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi, baseball enthusiast and local attorney Greg Peterson, Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame director Randy Anderson, and retired city parks director and long-time baseball supporters Russ Diethrick, who the stadium is named after.

The stadium is owned by the city and Mayor Teresi said his executive budget released earlier this month already accounted for the Jammers going dark in 2019, although those details were never brought up in his budget presentation on Oct. 9, nor when the city parks department met with the city council to go over the budget numbers on Oct. 15.

Peterson also said that anyone who wants to assist with the new nonprofit group should reach out, adding that their help will be needed and appreciated since it will be a community-wide effort to make the new ownership group a success.

The group is expected to be created and a new business plan in place by the middle of next spring.

“The process is already under way to create the appropriate structure. Conversations are under way with folks to add to the group on both counsel and also on an investor basis,” Teresi said.

The city of Jamestown, which owns the park, has been hit with $110,000 in unexpected costs related to the project due to the costly removal of lead paint that was recently discovered.

“Getting into the project, they noticed some lead-based paint that is on the ceiling of the grandstand, as well as some of the steel support beams,” Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi told WRFA Monday night. “The job was immediately shut down, we brought in an environmental consultant to evaluate the situation and put together a remediation plan and tonight the Jamestown City Council approved the change order on the project to deal with the encapsulization and remediation of the lead paint in the facilities.”

In February the city council initially approved a contract with Long Island Enterprise for $25,300  to paint the underside of the grandstand, railings and metal columns, but with the unanticipated costs, the price is now $135,000.

The city had a $50,000 fund to use toward upgrades to the ball park, but with the additional $111,700 change order that was approved Monday night, all that fund had to be depleted and, in addition, the city council had to use another $87,000 from the city’s contingency fund to pay for the remainder of the remediation cost.

“That’s why we have a contingency fund,” Teresi noted. “It’s sufficient to cover a project like this. We will be looking for other sources of funding to help defray that cost and hopefully not have to hit the contingency line of the budget for the full $87,000. But that’s the reason why there is a contingency budget and, furthermore, the need for a healthy undesignated fund balance because things of an unanticipated nature come up during the course of a year.”

Teresi added that the painting project is still on schedule and should be completed by the time the baseball season begins on June 1, when the Jamestown Jammers collegiate baseball team holds its home opener. The Babe Ruth World Series will also be played at Diethrick Park later this summer in August, with teams from across the United States expected to be on hand.

Pictured left to right: Top Row – Chautauqua Striders Executive Director Peter Morgante, Chautauqua Region Community Foundation Executive Director Randy Sweeney; 2nd Row – Council President Greg Rabb, Recreation Leader McKenzie Martin, Recreation Attendant Jeffrey Miller, Recreation Attendant Cory Tubbs; 1st Row – Chautauqua Striders Director of Education Michelle Waterman, Councilman Brent Sheldon, Girl Scouts of Western New York Community Engagement Specialist Laurie Marucci, Mayor Sam Teresi, James Prendergast Library Executive Director Tina Scott, Ralph C. Sheldon Foundation Executive Director Linda Swanson, Jamestown YMCA Operations Director John Barber, Recreation Coordinator Julia Ciesla-Hanley, Parks Manager John Williams

JAMESTOWN – The city of Jamestown has announced another season of the Summer Playground Program. This year will include a free lunch program provided at each site by the Jamestown YMCA in conjunction with the St. Susan Center.

The five playground programs participating this year are:

• Allen Park
• Fletcher Elementary School
• Lillian Dickson Park
• Nordstrom Park
• and Ring Elementary School

The staff will consist of eleven city college-aged residents.

The playground program is free of charge. This year’s program will run from Monday, June 27 through Friday, Aug. 5. The Ring Elementary School site will be open 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. All other sites will be open from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The program is geared for children between 5-13 years old.

As in past years, there will be city-wide activities scheduled, including bowling, a talent show, carnival, and the Playground Olympics. At the individual parks, there will be arts and crafts, and games such as mancala, kickball, box hockey, and wiffle ball. Equipment will be available at each playground site for the children to play with at any time.

The Nature Day field trip that will feature a tree planting will take place at Nordstrom Park this year. Additionally, the Parks & Rec Department is collaborating again with the James Prendergast Library to offer the Summer Reading Program at all playground program sites. Chautauqua Striders and the Girl Scouts of Western New York are also doing a reading program on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays afternoons at the Fletcher Elementary School site.

The free lunch will be made available between 11 a.m. to noon at Allen Park, Fletcher Elementary, Lillian Dickson Park, and Nordstrom Park. Lunch will be served between 12:30-1:30 p.m. at Ring Elementary School. Participating children will need to sign up each day in order to receive lunch for the following day. The meals will be available to children ages 18 and under.

Children must register the first time they attend their playground site. They are free to come and go as they wish after that point. Children with the best attendance records for the first two weeks of the program will be entered into a drawing, held on Friday, July 8, to win tickets to a Jamestown Jammers game.

The summer playground program is made possible through support from the City of Jamestown, the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation, Jamestown Public Schools, New York State Office of Children and Family Services, and the Ralph C. Sheldon Foundation.

For specific times call the Jamestown Parks, Recreation, and Conservation Department at 483-7523.