How it all began: Wild Things and ballpark roots include a traffic jam, comedian and name change
Work on Wild Things Park began in September of 2001, which didn't allow for much time for the ballpark to be completed for its Frontier League opening in May of 2002.
Wild Things park took shape during the winter of 2001-02 and hosted its first event, a high school baseball game, in April of 2002.
The Washington Wild Things played before capacity crowds during its inaugural season of 2002.
Trich
Wild Things fans have had a strong bond with the team throughout 20 seasons.
This Frontier League season will be a special one for the Wild Things. It will be the 20th season for the franchise and cause for celebration.
Washington’s first season was in 2002. The Frontier League did not play in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In those 20 years, the Frontier League and Washington has been a perfect match. On multiple occasions Washington has been the site of the league’s annual open tryout and player draft. It has twice hosted the league’s all-star game and will again this summer.
On the field, the Wild Things have often been successful, sometimes wacky and always interesting. About two million fans have strolled through the gates at Wild Things Park over the last 20 years to watch baseball, but have any stopped to ponder how this team and ballpark came to be? How did Washington, a city bereft of professional baseball for 60 years, build a ballpark and land a team?
The answers go back to a lot of luck and good fortune, and a traffic jam on an interstate in, of all places, Frederick, Md.
In the summer of 2020, state Rep. Leo Trich, who was representing the Washington area in the state House of Representatives, was in the midst of another re-election bid and looking for a campaign fundraising idea that was somewhat different. Having a baseball background, Trich thought a bus trip to Baltimore’s Camden Yards, then the crown jewel of Major League Baseball, would be unique.
So 25 to 30 of Trich’s supporters went to Baltimore to watch an Orioles game. Along the way, the bus halted for about 30 minutes because of a bad wreck farther up the highway.
The bus was stopped near Harry Grove Stadium, the home of the Fredrick Keys baseball team that was an affiliate of the Orioles. While looking longingly at the ballpark, somebody in Trich’s group asked a seemingly crazy question: “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do something like this in Washington?”
The query, at first, drew laughs and reactions like, “That would be nice, but …” It was wishful thinking, for sure, but the more the crazy idea was talked about, the better it sounded.
A taskforce was formed, called the Baseball Exploratory Committee, which was expanded to the Baseball 2000 Committee. When talks about building a ballpark became serious, Ballpark Scholarships Inc., a nonprofit group, was formed in 2001.
“We came up with the nonprofit to raise funds,” Trich said. “If we didn’t find a way to raise 75 percent of the cost, then that would tell me the community doesn’t want it. We could get the remaining 25 percent from state and federal government.”
Funds were raised, and with the help of nine local banks and some generous local businesses, the project moved forward. When financing hit a snag, Trich even offered to take out a second mortgage on his house and use the money to keep the project going.
Trich was told by supporters and rivals that he was taking a political risk by pushing for a ballpark. After all, this was on the heels of the controversial Plan B idea that was floated to fund stadiums for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers.
Trich, however, championed the ballpark idea for Washington, even if there were numerous unexpected hurdles and roadblocks to overcome.
“I remember telling (BSI president) Phil Hamilton on the day they started doing the grading for the ballpark, ‘What have we gotten ourselves into?'” Trich said.
Location, location
“In 1998 and 1999, we were starting to see growth north of Washington. What was missing was that western side of the city,” Trich recalled. “(United Washington Associates) owned the land next to the Washington Crown Center and was talking about leveling off the top of the hill and developing that land. … A survey had been done and showed that 70,000 cars a day drive by that site.”
One of the three principal owners of the site was the brother of former Sen. J. Barry Stout.
“As luck would have it, one day Sen. Stout calls me and says he has a vehicle in the shop and it needs repaired, and he asks if I could give him a ride to Harrisburg that Sunday. That’s when a bulb went off in my head. When Barry got in the car, I locked the doors and bent his ear for 3½ hours about this project. He said he would talk to his brother and set up a meeting.
“We were given the worst part of the property – all the way in the back – but we got it at half price with the understanding that we couldn’t pay for all of it up front.”
Who will play here?
The original plan called for an affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates to play in Washington. The Pirates, then owned by Kevin McClatchy, were receptive of the idea.
Getting a Pirates affiliate, which would play in the Class A New York-Penn League, was a complicated process. It involved two franchises — Williamsport (Pirates) and Batavia, N.Y. (Phillies) — switching their major league affiliations and the franchise in Auburn, N.Y. (Marlins), moving to Washington.
“Auburn was having great difficulty with its stadium,” Trich recalled. “They wanted it renovated and the city was refusing to do anything. So Auburn would be the odd guy out.
“We held two meetings with Kevin McClatchy and the only hangup was the size of the stadium. They wanted a little more than what we had planned. In the meantime, Auburn strikes a stadium deal. As a result of that, our deal fell through.”
It also didn’t help that about this time the Pirates fired general manager Cam Bonifay. Suddenly, making a complicated affiliation switch at the Class A level wasn’t a top priority for the Pirates.
When Major League Baseball decided in 2019 to trim its number of minor league affiliates, the New York-Penn League ceased operations. Auburn, Batavia, Frederick and Williamsport no longer have minor-league teams.
Independent thinking
Though discussions with the Pirates about a franchise in the New York-Penn League had ended, the ballpark in North Franklin Township was still moving forward. Ground was broken in September of 2001, but who would play there was unknown. What was known was the team would be called the Washington Generals. That name was chosen by BSI and based on Washington having a minor league baseball team in 1934 and ’35 that was called the Generals.
Bill Lee, then the commissioner of the Frontier League, which at the time had two teams in Ohio and one in Pennsylvania, had contacted Trich months earlier expressing his league’s interest in Washington.
“When the Pirates deal fell through, the first call I made was to Bill Lee,” Trich said. “He said they were still interested in Washington. Phil Hamilton and I met with Chris Hanners, who was the president of the Frontier League, and he was interested in us.”
One other organization that was interested in owning a team in Washington was the Goldklang Group, which operated several minor league teams in affiliated and independent baseball. An executive of Goldklang was comedian/actor Bill Murray of “Saturday Night Live” fame.
“The group Bill Murray was part of was one of four or five groups that we talked with,” Trich said. “They knew a stadium was going up and knew the Frontier League was interested. We met with (Goldklang) and they were interested. With Goldklang, things went as far as a contract being drawn up.”
BSI, however, preferred having the franchise locally owned.
“The only person I knew and felt had a shot to put a local ownership group together was John Swiatek, who had been president of Ladbroke and I knew he was a sports nut,” Trich said. “I asked John about putting a local ownership group together and he said to give him some time. The first people he mentioned were the Coury family from Mylan.”
Swiatek said he was interested from the start but didn’t know anything about the business side of minor league baseball.
“I reached out to some friends who I thought might be interested and they all wanted to see a business plan first,” Swiatek recalled. “So we went around visiting minor league parks, watching the games, talking to people, looking at financial statements and marketing plans. From those trips we made a business plan.”
Not everybody Swiatek spoke to about the idea of minor league baseball in Washington thought it was a good idea.
“I thought it was a stupid idea,” said Wild Things vice president Chris Blaine, who is one of two employees who have been with the franchise since its inaugural season.
“I had worked with John at The Meadows. In late 2001, we met for coffee in Washington and he asked me if I’d be interested in working for a baseball team. I told him no.
“A week later, John and I meet again and he drives me to the ballpark. It was a gorgeous, sunny, perfect day. The field had been put down and the cement had been poured, but that’s all that was done. John asked, ‘So, now do you want to help us?’ I couldn’t say no.”
Meanwhile, Goldklang put an offer on the table. BSI, however, wasn’t comfortable with everything that was in the contract. It was about this time that Swiatek called Trich and informed him that he had put together a local group to own the team. That group would be called Washington Frontier Baseball LLC.
“We had a heated debate about which group to go with,” Trich recalled. “The vote came down to a majority vote, of one person. It was that close. Having local ownership was the tipping point.”
The Frontier League wanted Washington to join in 2002 and its Canton Crocodilles team was suffering from poor attendance, even with a winning team. The Crocodilles all but ceased operations at the conclusion of the 2001 season.
The Swiatek-led group purchased the Crocodilles and moved them to Washington. Included in the purchase was the Crocodilles’ roster and coaching staff, which included manager Jeff Isom and hitting coach Joe Charboneau, the 1980 American League Rookie of the Year. In an odd twist, Canton was awarded another team, the Coyotes, for 2002. Washington and Canton played in the 2002 season opener.
Ownership also changed the original nickname for the team to the Wild Things. The ownership group balked at Washington Generals because it was the same name as the team that stooged for the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.
Instant credibility
Two of the smartest moves the Wild Things made during its early days, Blaine says, was hiring Ross Vecchio as general manager and former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Kent Tekulve as director of baseball operations.
“Teke had a natural bond to Washington County. His wife was from Washington County, he was married at Immaculate Conception church, he played for the Pirates. He was Pittsburgh,” Blaine said.
“The other thing about Teke is, when we were operating out of the Washington Crown Center Mall before the ballpark was finished, people would stop him and want to talk with him. And he would spend hours talking to them. He was so generous with his time. He gave us instant credibility.”
License to pour
The Wild Things had a name but didn’t have a finished ballpark. Snow in the winter of 2001-02 and rain in the spring slowed construction and it was a sprint to complete the project on time. Trich and BSI also had plenty of red tape to overcome.
“One of the issues we had to deal with was a liquor license,” Trich said. “At that time in Pennsylvania, you couldn’t get a license if your stadium didn’t have at least 5,000 seats, which we didn’t. I had added to a bill that the number be dropped to 2,500. I got all kinds of pushback. Some politicians were saying, ‘Leo, if we drop it to 2,500, then high schools will want to sell beer at their football stadiums.’ The votes we need to make that change came from Philadelphia.”
Play ball!
Washington made its Frontier League debut May 29, 2002 in the new ballpark that had a price tag of $7 million and a capacity of 3,410. The Wild Things stumbled out of the blocks, losing five of their first six games. Isom and his coaching staff didn’t panic and by mid-June had turned things around.
With Jared Howton, Dave Bradley and Robert Garvin leading the pitching staff, Shaun Argento and fan favorite Joe Cuervo sparking a top-flight offense, and the key midseason signing of Josh Loggins, the Wild Things went on to edge the Richmond Roosters for the East Division title, winning a then-record 56 games.
Along the way, people took notice. The Wild Things averaged 3,241 fans per game that first season and the new ballpark, which was named Falconi Field after Canonsburg businessman Angelo Falconi, became the place to be in the summer of 2002. Baseball wasn’t the sole attraction as the Wild Things had wacky promotions — remember the Win a Used Car contest that was held before every Friday night postgame fireworks show? — and offered family friendly fun at a reasonable cost. Even the furry mascot played a leading role in the romance of the team.
“That first year exceeded my expectations,” Swiatek admitted, “but you could sense the momentum was building.”
“I was as nervous as anyone that the crowds would not come up to what we had hoped for,” Trich said. “After the first few games, I think we were the talk of the town, that we were the place to go for family entertainment.”