SYLVESTER!!! has cleared the air on some rumors floating around concerning Sam T. and Hardball capital. Read here
Unfortunately, there are more murmurs in the rumormill.
First off, I'd like to clear the air on a nasty rumor that I am only a proponent of Harrison Square because of my front running candidacy of the hot-dog vendor at the new ballpark. This rumor is completely erroneous, however Hardball Capital and I are in intense contract negotiations for me to obtain the coveted position as batboy/sunflower seed sweeper. It is our thought that the consolidation of these two positions will not only save the organization money, but will bring efficiency to the operation.
Secondly, I can not speak for Sam T. on this, but I have heard he will become the Wizard's new cleanup batter, if the new stadium is built. I have also heard they have come to the agreement that he will substitute the letter 'T' instead of a traditional number.
Thats the word on the street at least.
30 comments:
Has there been any word on my negotiations to be the Head Beer Vendor? I'm really counting on this to go through. So are my future children.
I want a job as one of those people who drag that thing around the infield.
But before that I will need someone to tell me what that thing is called.
It's actually called just that, the "drag" or "infield drag." There are many different types.
I guess we could call you the "dragger."
I assume for minor league ball the groundskeeper may do that, unless he has a fairly large staff, which I'm unsure of.
At any rate, I'll make sure to mention you when getting my secret deal with Hardball Capital.
Please do. And I thought I liked this blog just because it was entertaining. I had no idea that it was a Monster.com with an attitude. You guys are the greatest.
Living the dream,
Made Up Name #1
Your Fort Wayne is showing. On a school infield they use a lawn tractor to drag around a chunk of chain link fence. A new, modern field such as the one proposed would require the use of a Zambactor. Dare to dream!
Hey, Who Knows What - you are trying to technology-me out of a job and I strongly resent it.
Next thing you know they'll figure out a way to have it done in China.
But don't worry - I've got some value-added plans - you have NO IDEA how good looking I am and I'm willing to sell naming rights to the front and back of my shirts. I'll be a profit center for them.
DOWNSIZE THAT.
I heard that Kroger is will the Hardball Capital and rename it Kroger Square!
JED
Another rumor that isn't true: Harrison Square will bring young professionals downtown and make young people want to live in Fort Wayne forever and ever and ever.
Made up name #1, my apologies. I'm 43, was educated in FWCS at that decrepit 'hurst high school that's been standing next to the pit's TNT blasting for 78 years but is suddenly falling down. The pollster says because of my age I'm against everything new. I just can't help it. A quick check of the Z**BONI website tells me I was wrong in my previous post. I should have made reference to the ZAMBACTOR grader (notice my use of an adjective and all CAPS to make it right.) Forgive me as I was only hoping to make you look great driving that ZAMBACTOR with local sponsers like Seyfert's, Lincoln National Life, Berghoff Beer, Magnavox, Rea Magnet Wire, etc. We don't want those upstarts like Steel Dynamics, Vera-Bradley or those chocaholics at DeBrands getting involved. I do have to blame you at this point. You could have solved this problem by becoming Amish, plowing the infield with donkeys, and branding their asses with logos. On second thought, maybe we should save that for the local mayoral candidates.
Anonymous said...
"Another rumor that isn't true: Harrison Square will bring young professionals downtown and make young people want to live in Fort Wayne forever and ever and ever."
April 20, 2007 9:52 AM
Good one! Please, keep them coming.
Anonymous:
You hit it dead on...
You should have signed it...
Mike Sylvester
During Tuesday's City Council meeting I heard a rumor that was truly funny, the only problem is that it was told to The City Council by a representative of The Mayor's Office:
"The average minor league baseball stadium that is of a quality similar to Memorial Stadium will experience an average of 200% growth in attendence if it is rebuilt as a new and modern minor league baseball stadium."
I am guessing that they are predicting "young professionals" will leave the local bar scene and "swarm" a new Downtown baseball stadium 72 days a year.
I did not know that so many "young professionals" enjoyed single A baseball. I learn something new each and every day.
Heck, maybe you could operate this blog with a laptop from Wizards games!
Mike Sylvester
Mike -
I'll throw out a rumor at you, 92% of people are tired of hearing your eternal pessimism.
If Harrison Square is so wrong for FW, why don't you suggest the magic project that will appease your insurmountable negativity.
I will no longer classify your type of opinions as 'naysayers', I am going to start calling them the 'hopelessness vote'. Its too often that your type of outlook has hindered this city.
You said, "I did not know that so many "young professionals" enjoyed single A baseball"
Tell you what, Mike , I'm a young professional, I love baseball, and I searched for a year and a half for a permanent residency downtown. The guys the downtown baseball blog are in the same position now. There are more out there, and they are begging for this type of a project. Something that creates energy and excitement.
In a way Harrison Square has already succeeded, everyone is talking about baseball and downtown redevelopment.
I already know what your responses are going to be - RFP, economic rearrangement, private spending, the list goes on, I know I really don't have to ask for it, so - feel free to sound off now.
Change Fort Wayne,
92% are you kidding me? Who did your poll, Kelty's secret contributors?
It is at least 95%. I am tired of you playing games with the numbers
I'd say more like 96%
What?
A baseball stadium is a horrible idea. However, please tell me a water slide downtown won't promote excitment and growth? Throw in an ice rink and we're really talking.
I would build a condo next to a water slide. Who wouldn't?
Isn't that the only other idea right now?
CFW,
You're missing the point here!
The other ideas involve doing nothing at all. This IS Fort Wayne. Isn't it?
C'mon guys, you're smarter than that! There are no other ideas (water slide isn't really an idea is it? I thought that was a misplaced joke).
"Another rumor that isn't true: Harrison Square will bring young professionals downtown and make young people want to live in Fort Wayne forever and ever and ever."
...I didn't know that anonymous know-it-alls could also peer into the future...and speak for other people all at once!
Holy cow...we may have just witnessed the uprising of a new race of super-humans right on this blog!
CFW:
Here is another rumor for you; very few people in Fort Wayne support the idea of moving our existing baseball stadium downtown.
Oh wait, that is true.
Mike Sylvester
NEW RUMOR!!!
Very few people support legalizing prostitution.
Oh wait, THAT'S A FACT
Whew!
It's a good thing that instead of moving it they're just going to tear it down and build a new one!
ECONOMIC RE-ARRANGEMENT
In order for "economic rearrangement" to be a valid concept, one would first have to establish that the economy is static and that said rearrangement will essentially occur in a vacuum, yielding an immeasurably small net impact on anything. That's why the "rearrangement" argument has no bearing on this conversation, because whether or not Sylvester and company want to admit it, a new stadium downtown will impact its surroundings.
Change Fort Wayne:
I have listed MANY ideas that I feel would help Downtown over at my blog. Since your memory is so short; I will post them over here as well. I will also make this post on my blog so that you can make some comments on them and so that you can list all of your ideas on how to improve Downtown.
You must have some ideas that will improve Downtown, don't you?
1. I think we should build a casino in Downtown Fort Wayne. That will draw people from at least a 60 mile radius.
2. I think we should stop building strip malls at the edges of Fort Wayne. Everytime we build a new strip mall new businesses move into the new strip mall from their old locations. Fort Wayne has way too much commerical property and can only support so much retail space. I am actually looking to buy or build commercial property in Fort Wayne. We have thousands of commercial locations available; yet, we are still building more and building them on the edges of the City.
3. I think Fort Wayne should have done more to prevent Parkview from moving north of Fort Wayne. I would guess that as many as 80% of the medical businesses surrounding Parkview on State will move north in the next few years. Imagine what is going to happen to that part of town.
4. I think Fort Wayne should meet with every local college and univeristy in this area and should attempt to convince them to offer more advanced degrees in Fort Wayne. There are several advanced degrees that are offered by multiple colleges in the Fort Wayne area. Possibly we could "plan" and offer more different advanced degrees.
5. I would like to see Fort Wayne do more to help small business owners succeed in Fort Wayne. I think that Personal Property Taxes should be eliminated for small business owners entirely.
6. I think the Sheriff should be located Downtown.
7. I think that the City Planning Department needs to stop allowing developers to build anything they want on the edges of Fort Wayne. I think that The City Planning Department should limit development at the edges of Fort Wayne, this would ensure that developers spend more time "in-filling" our core.
8. I think the City should consider offering small public subsidies to build new projects Downtown. I do not want to see the City put up 50% of the project costs; however, I would support the City subsidizing some of the following projects Downtown:
a. An olympic swimming pool.
b. A pedestrian bar and restaurant district.
c. There are many other projects that might work.
9. I think that we need to encourage small businesses to relocate Downtown. We currently subsidize a large number of small businesses at the NIIC center. I would like to see Fort Wayne stop giving so much in subsidies to large businesses and start to funnel a lot more of it to small businesses. This could be done by helping small businesses locate property Downtown and by streamlining the permit process.
10. I think we need to eliminate wasteful Government spending and lower the taxes on both business owners and residents. This will leave residents and business owners with more money that will be spent in the local economy.
11. Fort Wayne Government needs to stop hiring outside consultants for every little thing. We have plenty of competant people in Fort Wayne and we need to keep our money in this area. Imagine how good it would be for local businesses if Fort Wayne gave a preference to local businesses!
I would be happy to list more positive ideas that I have.
You might try doing the same thing ...
Mike Sylvester
Olympic Swimming Pool? WTF are you talking about? For what?
Are you suggesting that somehow swimming will draw more spectators to downtown than baseball?
Ooops I forgot, lap swimming is the national pastime.
Mike,
Thanks for posting.
I think most would agree many of your ideas are good ones. Not a whole lot to disagree with.
As for #1, will anyone touch that with a 50 foot pole (or poll :)? I love casinos personally and obviously it would bring money, people, and jobs to the area. Could you ever see this happening though?
We definitely disagree on the Harrison Square issue obviously. However, 8 b. is something I feel we really need (who would be against a nice looking pedestrian friendly bar and restaraunt district?), but I personally feel it is something that could come with time via HS. As you know, it is the opinion of the posters here that HS could really get the ball rolling downtown.
I couldn't agree with you more about strip malls, developing the outskirts of the city, and on #11. I HATE STRIP MALLS.
I will make time to stop by your blog soon.
Kram
I haven't paid much attention to the pool issue.
If there is a need for another Natatorium, maybe downtown is the place for it, but I certainly don't see how that makes living downtown more attractive than a baseball stadium, or how it will promote any sort of downtown growth.
Personally I love Casinos but I do not think they are a good idea for the city. In fact, I am going to Las Vegas next week and will treat myself to a roll of the die and deal of the deck. The city would be able to collect alot of revenue from a casino but I think that the downsides are far greater for our community. Casinos in a resort destination like Las Vegas or Atlantic City are not the same as casinos elsewhere.
I think that Fort Wayne would be better served by investing in streetscape improvements, infrastructure upgrades and the development of unique public spaces that can be integrated into private development. I'm thinking of something similar to the Canal in Indianpolis.
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