Where did I put my wooden spoon to bang on my pot with or knock out my chicken?

You know I was skeptical. What name would they come up with, for a team that surrounds an entire community and our lore and our history? I even had my own favorite "Summit City Sandbaggers". They actually managed to pull this one off; I have to admit, "I am impressed!"

Fort Wayne, IN - When Parkview Field (Harrison Square) opens next season, Fort Wayne... will be cheering on the .... “Tin Caps” which is a moniker referencing towards the beloved pioneer Johnny Appleseed, who was known for wearing his tin cooking pot upon his head. The primary logo will be an apple wearing Johnny’s trademark "Tin Caps.” Two alternate logos will incorporate the City’s initials, “FW” with each a "Tin Cap" and an apple stem and leaf.

The team’s primary color scheme will consist of organic colors green, red and brown. This color scheme is consistent with both the Johnny Appleseed theme and the project goal of creating Parkview Field as a true park and gathering place within the center of downtown Fort Wayne.

General Manager, Mike Nutter, stated, “Johnny Appleseed, while known nationally, is a regional pioneer and folk hero. His story, and the history of this area, gives us an identity that is distinctively Fort Wayne. Johnny was a pioneer of the Midwest frontier in a time with seemingly endless opportunity...."

The Tin Caps will begin playing at Parkview Field on Thursday, the 16th of April @ 7:00pm when they take on the Dayton Dragons on Opening Day of the new ballpark. For more information on Tin Caps season tickets, group outings or corporate partnerships for the 2009 season @ Parkview Field contact the team at (260) 482-6400.

To visit the new team website or view the full press release right click on the appropriate links. It should also be mentioned candidly, because it explains his lifestyle and appearance, that Johnny Chapman was also a missionary for the Church of the New Jerusalem, or Swedenborgian Church, so named because it teaches the theological doctrines contained in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. There is a Swedenborgian Church in LaPorte Indiana. Fourth District Common Council Member Mitch Harper has a generational family connection to the man behind the lore of Johnny Appleseed and explains such over @ Fort Wayne Observed.

Johnny Appleseed, born John Chapman in 1774, was a nurseryman who moved westward from Massachusetts, planting apple seeds and selling the seedlings to the settlers. He had nurseries in Pennsylvania and Ohio before coming to Indiana in 1830. Apple trees were a welcome addition to the area, providing fruit that could be stored for year-round use by pioneers. After he died in Fort Wayne in 1845, his estate papers revealed that he owned about 270 acres of land in the area, along rivers, canals and roadways. Some of the nurseries were along the Maumee River, at a point 10 miles downriver from Fort Wayne and also near the Indiana-Ohio line.

Wizards rename selves Tin Caps
Compiled by Tom Pellegrene Jr.
The Journal Gazette

The Fort Wayne Tin Caps it is!!

You do have to admit that the slight diminutive references to Pot Heads is funny as hell given to the fact that our college town is in the 420 phone prefix too! Of course, this wouldn't be Fort Wayne without the residents getting their bikinis, briefs, boxers, and jock straps or thongs in an uproar. We did back in 1992 when the Wizards were originally named. So even when a private businesses makes the decision to change their name, with a more historic (and with significant cultural) respect to our area, we still bitch, always have always will. Likewise, the age old Libertarian philosophy is applicable, if you don't like it don't go and don't promote it. The consumer citizen has the ability to control things simply by closing their wallet and going home.

Even though I am supportive of the name change, and have wanted such for a long time, I am still opposed to the way Harrison Square was carried out by both Hardball, Barry, and the City Administration, in very secretive and explosively protective mannerisms. Now I will also hold Hardball Capital accountable for releasing the new name, close enough in time, to overshadow the fact that the rest of the project has hit the gutter in half a heart beat yet again, even with the recent three million dollar (over 10 years) investiture by Parkview Memorial Hospital for exchange of naming rights and exclusive services as well as community outreach and education.

Team owners, city officials and Parkview executives Thursday announced that the non-profit health corporation bought the naming rights for Harrison Square's baseball stadium. The deal is for $3 million over 10 years. The $300,000 annual contribution will be split between the baseball team's owner, Hardball Capital, and the city. The city's portion will be put into a fund to accumulate money for future capital projects at the stadium. City officials have said this is necessary to keep taxpayers from having to finance future improvements at the ballpark.

(Parkview) will have a large presence in the stadium. It could provide blood pressure and other health screenings at the stadium, and would staff the first-aid station and provide a nursing room. Packnett said his nutritionists and dieticians would also be working with ballpark concessionaires to help provide healthy choices for food and drink. Packnett said he understood that he might get some criticism for spending money on a downtown ballpark. But he said the investment fits the corporation's goals of being a good health provider and of being a good corporate partner. He said he hoped the project would spur other investment in the area, which is important for health care.

At least now we know that there is going to be some oversight in this whole boondoggled project, as Ben Lanka continues to explain below:

As part of the deal with Parkview, the corporation will get an appointment to the advisory board that oversees the stadium's operations and appropriates money from the maintenance fund. The other five members are a Hardball representative, an appointee from the Grand Wayne Center, an appointee from the Downtown Improvement District, the City Controller and an appointment from the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Downtown stadium to be Parkview Field
by Benjamin Lanka
The Journal Gazette

Notice there are no citizen advocates on this Advisory Board. And if Fort Wayne Common Council is the one that has to approve all of this why don't they have to appoint someone to be on the Advisory Board?

Please don't expect the Citizens of Fort Wayne to take everything that Hardball, Barry Real Estate, or for that matter the City's own employees and Commission members say at face value. We are tired of being bent over the table, and asked to take it up the ass with out the benefit of lube or the common decency of a reach around, and have it all sealed away from our review. We have already been lied to on many accounts and circumstances.

This entire process needs opened up and the public should have a true understanding of the entire cost and process. On many accounts Citizens have been disregarded by both the City Administration and private industry when voicing our concerns over the intertwining of public funds into private business, all while being promised it would all work out.

Now due to the mortgage crunch and the credit crisis nationally, they are having to rewrite the playbook, for the fourth time around, as far as the condominiums are concerned to avoid an absolute disaster. We are being told yet again that everything is under control and it will all work out in the end. We don't even have the new (unnecessary) hotel being built and all the while the Citizen is the one footing the bill and holding all the receipts to this disaster when it finally decides to blow out our grandchildren bank accounts and college funds in 2034 when all the bonds come due and we have to demolish the thing because of sanitary concerns.

Jason Freier, Hardball Capital chief executive officer, said Thursday his development group remains “totally committed” to The Harrison project but that changes might be needed for it to happen. The developers are looking at redesigning the building to have larger, but fewer, condominiums.

Construction has been stalled for months at The Harrison as the developers have failed to sell enough condominiums to persuade banks to lend the necessary money for the project. Freier said the current credit crunch dominating news coverage has been affecting real estate developers for almost a year. “The issue is financing and timing,” he said.

“There are some banks, their doors are closed, quite frankly.” Freier said the market is so tough that he would be willing to consider taking a loan if a bank asked that the developer scale back The Harrison. He said if a bank gave the OK on a smaller project, he would discuss the possibility with city officials. While it would be less investment, he said it would allow the developers to get started on construction.

(Source: Fort Wayne Politics)

Not to forget to mention another couple queries that I have asked previously: How much did Hardball and Barry get in total tax abatement? Because of all the delays are they going to ask for an extension or inclusion of the Harrison Square complex into a restricted TIF and a PSDZ like the Memorial Coliseum and other "sports facilities" already are? This entire process also garners the concern of whether or not the Coliseum should hold a year around Professional Sports Development Zone since one of their primary functions has now moved Downtown. Should they be able to do so that would mean that any tax revenue generated from the location would circle back to the location rather than assisting the complete tax base and revenues of the entire Community.

There is also the issue of the Food and Beverage Tax which was technically held in trust for specifically the Memorial Coliseum and some of those funds were supposedly used for capital for the Harrison Square project which, in my opinion if that is the case, is a commingling at best if not outright fraud but even more of a reason why the FBT needs to be sunset from law. This entire process, in my opinion, needs reviewed by City and County Councils and people, corporations, and certain City employees need their asses handed to them firmly and fast, before it is too late.


LINKS RECAP: New Team Website | What's Going Down, Town? | Fort Wayne Politics |
Fort Wayne News | Fort Wayne Observed | Baseball In Fort Wayne | Johnny Appleseed Wiki |

EDITOR'S UPDATE: Stephen L. Parker @ Around Fort Wayne has additional coverage and (4 segments) video footage of the press conference by Jason Freier, Owner of the Wizards and the following question and answer session Q&A1 | Q&A2 | Q&A3 | regarding the name change to Fort Wayne Tin Caps.

I would be negligent to not give Dan Turkette @ Fort Wayne News full credit for scooping the story (original post 15th of September) about the new name at least three weeks ahead of the general media and other inside bloggers.

Because I thought it was funny: (HT Fort Wayne News) Former Fort Wayne resident T. R. Slyder had this to say on his blog Where Awesome Happens, "I just hope their motto is:
"Hide the Women and Children: We're Coming to Your Town to Spread our Seed.""

RESOURCES:
Post on F6: Harrison Square |
Support Three Rivers Athletics
F6's Links:
Support Three Rivers Athletics
Bois With Sticks In Jocks Chasing Balls

POLICY STATEMENT: Although it is nice to know that we can still think about swinging your six to nine inch piece of wood around in our hands, through showing support of the local amateur and professional sports and athletic associations, as part of the continuing editorial service of F6 to promote healthy life choices in all gay bois and gyrlz, F6 intends to prove it is possible to concentrate on more than just tight ends, wide receivers, pitchers and catchers, etc.