UPDATE: 3 Rivers Sports & Athletics: TIN CAPS Opening Day SOLD OUT!; JobFair 2K+ Show; NO BEER/JUST WHINE; 4 D Fans of Tin Caps = What @ GAY DAYS?

APOLOGY: So I first want to apologize for the delay on the update to Mondays post on Friday as promised. There is a more detailed explanation below for those who care to read it.

F6 reported on Monday, the FORT WAYNE TIN CAPS, in preparation for their freshmen season @ Parkview Field announced that Opening Game and Season Tickets would be available for purchase during Mardi Gras and that they would be holding a Job Fair today for approximately 200 part time and seasonal positions. According to all reports, including the official press releases, asserts that Opening Day is SOLD OUT!, "the team put individual game tickets on-sale for the first time and received an unprecedented response - all fixed seats in the ballpark were sold out in less than a half-hour. Full and partial season ticket packages are still available, as the team has held a number of seat locations for those interested in purchasing ticket plans. All individual tickets and ticket plans can also be purchased in person at the Tin Caps Administrative Offices @ Parkview Field or via the Team's website."

Well over two thousand people showed @ the Job Fair at the Grand Wayne Center today, according to reports by Mr. Parker. "We interviewed well over 500 people today and accepted applications from 1,500 more that we were not able to speak with at length,” said Michael Limmer, Vice President of Marketing. The Tin Caps will not be accepting additional applications at this time. Those who apply today are asked to be patient as the team reviews applications and follows up directly within the coming weeks.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game! But OMG, You Cant Buy Beer?

Citing a lack of quorum during the recent local Alcohol Beverage Commission meeting was the latest cause for delay in the ongoing battle of Harrison Square financing and government officials' accountability issues, as reported by Benjamin Lanka of the Journal Gazette:

The local board likely would have been unable to grant immediate permission to serve alcohol anyway, because John Kalb plans to remonstrate against granting the city the license. Kalb, a staunch opponent of the Harrison Square project, said he had concerns with the city holding the liquor license.

John B. Kalb @ Fort Wayne Politics
23 February 2009:
... In discussions with the hearing officer, it was discovered that the application listed an incorrect name for the officer of the Authority making the application. Per IC 7.1, the president and the secretary of the applicant corporation are to formally make the application under their names representing the entity. This would be J. Nelson Coats, president and Deanna Wilkerson, secretary who are two of the officers of the Authority.
My reason for opposing this application as requested is that I don’t see the reasoning behind using an entity like the Authority to own this permit. Since the Authority was established specifically to enable circumvention of the State of Indiana’s constitutional limitation on governmental debt, it just doesn't make sense.....

The city’s agreement with Hardball Capital, owner of the FORT WAYNE TIN CAPS, called for the baseball team to acquire the permit. Greg Leatherman, executive director of redevelopment, said it made more sense for the city to get the license at a substantial discount to save money for the project. Having the city hold the license would also mean that the city’s ability to serve alcohol wouldn’t be affected by a change in ownership.

Greg Leatherman continued..., “This is the City’s! Because if (Hardball) goes away, we keep the license,”.... (and further asserted)....., the delay wasn’t a cause for worry because it won’t affect alcohol sales for opening day, scheduled for April 16. He said they could run into some problems for preseason events scheduled for private businesses and other groups that wanted to use the ballpark as a venue.

Which has lead some to speculate already how long Hardball Capital will retain ownership of the Tin Caps and or for that matter how many other contract adjustments the City or the Redevelopment Commission are going to attempt to make, and we are not even half way through the entire project that has reached over hundreds of millions of dollars and continues to grow by leaps and bounds, all while being funded and pushed forward by a City Government that doesn't understand the meaning of fiscal responsibility and stewardship of tax payer dollars, let alone accountability to its constituents and transparency in active governance.

Taking Ownership Of Your Taxes & Your Team

However, that is where politics and pandering meats the true grit and grain of our Community here in Fort Wayne. Even if we individually or politically or collectively don't like something, it's ours and we own up to it, we still support it minimally, then we try to turn into something better for the Community as a whole. Selling out Opening Day tickets is the first step there will be a whirlwind of things to come down the pike later. This may sound olde fashioned but it worked before it can work again.

One of the things that I would like to see is the Community and the Tin Caps come together and form smaller "farm teams league" (which is similar to what I previously suggested) using our current or former high school and college athletes, or those who never dreamed it possible before, for them to play semi professional sports for exposition games locally against each other and the Tin Caps, also as a mentoring process for the younger generation to develop a local pool of players for the national teams, as well as the Tin Caps to draw recruits from. This way we could have local players move up through the national leagues easier.

Eventually it would provide the personal capital investment of truly making the Tin Caps our local team owned and operated within the City with the best players from the surrounding area and put a local team possibly on the national stage in ten years as a major league team by our own design.

This is just the beginning the possibilities for success are endless and it is up to us as a City as a Community to get ready to take over when Hardball or Barry Real Estate and whoever else decides to bailout or cash in! This initiative must start within the Community not the Corporations, plus as an aside, having the additional farm teams would provide a perfect opportunity to use some of those other name suggestions like my favorite the Summit City Sandbaggers, or the other crowd favorite across the blogosphere, the Maumee Valley Mosquitoes.

Mentioning Community Pride, What About Having GAY DAYS @ Parkview Field?

Well it just so happens that Fort Wayne's PRIDE Fest [Website] [MySpace] is held @ Head Waters Park East on the last weekend of July; and on those dates the Tin Caps are at away games all weekend long, so unfortunately there cant be a joint event on either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. However, on the historical anniversary of The Stonewall Rebellion on the 28th of June they will be playing a home game against South Bend at 3 in the afternoon. This would be a perfect opportunity to reach out to local GLBT Lovers of the game, and for us gay bois to drool over all the hot men running around after their balls in tight pants, and jock straps, and swinging their nine inch piece of wood around in their hands. *woofy!*

Fortunately I have access to some insider information regarding this issue in detail. During the initial Matt Kelty and Harrison Square fiascoes back in 2007, Nick Giant, a local body builder and manager @ Coney Island, appeared on a couple You Tube videos shirtless, wearing a leather mask, while slamming those particular issues, both Kelty and the new name of the Team, a year later he also managed to sneak in and get an interview with (video) the General Manager of the FORT WAYNE TIN CAPS. When asked about the idea of hosting Gay Days @ Parkview Field, Mike Nutter said the following:

We are an affiliate of the San Diego Padres, they have done a Gay and Lesbian Night every year that they've been out there in PETCO Park. Again it is something that doesn't go over well with some faction of your fans ...bluntly stated.... But we are open to any group, anybody that wants to come out for theme nights.

As far as wearing rainbows on the uniform or symbolic change of the uniform for a particular group or event:

...You know... We would have to discuss that on a case by case basis with Minor League baseball dictates what uniforms we (Tin Caps) can wear. We would certainly be open to an event that acknowledges people of any group like (Gays and Lesbians) that.

These questions remain to be answered and need to be addressed:

Did anyone see the irony of having tickets sales on Mardi Gras?

The biggest concern I have left is why are we worried about maintaining a alcohol serving license to an establishment that everyone must pretty much drive to get to or from. Let me explain it in five steps:

If the City owns the license to serve or sell intoxicating beverages, and Someone who leaves said facility without the City assuring they are not intoxicated, Does that mean Someone can file suit against the City after they get pulled over by the City Police Department for drinking one beer at a City sponsored drinking establishment? What is there to prevent a liability claim against the City for serving someone to much? Without a breathalyzer station at ever exit, enforcement of driving under the influence, would then be a conflict of interest on the part of any City Official or Police Department, would it not?

Aside from all that, I have to ask the obvious question, being fair and balanced in both my commentary and reporting: After spending 130 million plus tax dollars for this project, that is not even half way done, all we get is 200 plus jobs that are at best part time and typically seasonal, how is that an equitable return on our investment?

If anything it is a violation of the tax abatement rules; which City Council gave the entire Harrison Square project a ten year tax abatement, that should be reviewed, and possibly shortened to five years. Then the County Council, as I have stated on this forum before also, will probably end up giving Parkview Field a Professional Sports Development Zone Tax District as well, which means all taxes incurred by you the consumer there stay at the facility rather than coming back to the Community at large. With that as a high note, you can also probably forget about revenue (even without interest) going to pay back the Jefferson Pointe TIF District money that funded the project in the first place. Something just doesn't seem kosher about all of it and the icing on the cake is that this bonded debt load wont even have paid off until 2034 at the earliest estimates. Not to mention the fact that a lot of these funds could have been building interest instead of being pulled out only to be spent six months to a year down the road if we had simply followed a pay as you go system in the first place.

Last, which Organization in the Gay & Lesbian Community is going to put forward the initiative to have a GAY DAY @ PARKVIEW FIELD with the FORT WAYNE TIN CAPS?

EDITOR'S NOTES: F6, as with the previous post on Monday, turns to Stephen Parker @ AROUND FORT WAYNE for most of the update information for this post. F6 also cross referenced with the Spaulding Brothers @ What's Going Down, Town? for their coverage of certain events as well as the Gentlemen over @ Fort Wayne Politics for their coverage and multi faceted perspectives.

Review of Richard Greenberg's "Take Me Out" by the Rochester Black Friars source of the 5th picture
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F6 Editorial Policy Statement: Although it is nice to know that gay bois 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.

EDITOR'S APOLOGY: Strike Three! No, Wait You're Not Out: I almost literally had a heart attack during the week, due to certain stress and a recent occurrence of events. Fortunately by the grace of GOD and the power of prayer, my blood pressure dropped 50 over 30 down in fifteen minutes, and then it took me a couple days to recover the rest of the way. While drastic and damaging as well as potentially deadly, it was eye opening. Even though I thought I was doing everything I could with what little I had to work with, this turn of events proved it was not enough, and I almost paid the ultimate price. I am not willing to give up this life just yet! I have already crossed over before, Heaven is boring; even with how shitty life can be sometimes, I like it here too much. Thank you to those whom are praying for me.