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Friday, September 3, 2010 | Serving Del Rio and Val Verde County: Since 1929
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Del Rio makes first pitch for baseball team
Published July 28, 2010
Del Rio threw out its first pitch towards receiving an independent professional baseball franchise Tuesday evening.
Representatives of the Del Rio Chamber of Commerce and the Del Rio News-Herald met with Andrew Dunn, owner of the Las Cruces Vaqueros and commissioner of the upcoming Pecos Baseball League, and learned more about what the town would need to support a franchise in the league.
Dunn will meet with chamber and city representatives this morning to further discuss the idea of bringing a team to Del Rio. There will also be a public meeting this afternoon at 5:30 p.m. at the Ramada Inn’s Sunblossom Room A. Anyone interested in the team or wanting to ask questions about the league and the team are invited to attend.
Two weeks ago Del Rio was mentioned on the league’s official website as a possible site for a franchise. When asked about it at the time, Dunn said Del Rio was on the list of towns but that its shot at actually receiving a team were very slim.
Since that time Dunn said he has been inundated with phone calls and messages asking about details involving the team. That kind of community interest prompted Dunn to travel to Del Rio Tuesday as part of a west Texas road swing that will also take him to Alpine before heading to Roswell, N.M.
Minutes after arriving in Del Rio, Dunn met with the chamber’s representatives and was taken to see Roosevelt Park, the one park in town that could house a professional baseball team.
Dunn said he had only seen pictures of the park and admitted that seeing it first hand gave him a better idea of what the team would have to work with.
“This is nothing like what the pictures showed. There’s a lot here,” Dunn said.
The one drawback Dunn mentioned right away is the dimensions of the park, especially in the outfield. He said as it stands now the park would be too small to support a Pecos League game because of the wall in centerfield being located around 328 feet from home plate.
He offered two solutions. The first was to move home plate closer to the backstop and creating a greater distance to the centerfield wall. The second solution was to push the fences of the park back.
Both, he said, would cost time and money but either one would be the most immediate solution if Del Rio were to get a franchise and be ready to play in 2011.
“You guys are actually ahead of some of the other towns we’ve put teams in. This field is in good shape and you guys could play a game right away. The only problem is how close that centerfield wall is,” Dunn said.
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On the Net:
Pecos Baseball League – www.pecosleague.com
Del Rio Bombers – www.drbombers.com
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