It’s not just the squirrels that will cost this historic city and its historic ballpark a minor league baseball franchise, those lovable Sand Gnats.
Although when it comes to rodents vs. technology, they are undefeated. “We barely have Internet here, and it’s regularly eaten by squirrels,” Sand Gnats president John Katz said. “Literally, if squirrels eat the wrong cord our entire network is shut down.”
It’s not, by itself, the walk-in closet that serves as the Sand Gnats clubhouse that will send the team packing for Columbia, S.C. at season’s end. Nor is it primarily the main concession stand that has made no concessions to the 21st Century, nor the tight quarters in the restrooms, nor the lack of an upscale perch from which to watch a game or hold a wedding.
All those shortcomings, in combination with the many other irritants that come with living in an 89-year-old home, have become too much for team ownership — Hardball Capital LLC.
Grayson Stadium was built in 1926, just yesterday on Savannah’s long timeline but ancient in this era of newer, brighter ballparks. Minor league teams have come and gone, Grayson kept standing. For the past 19 years, the resident has borrowed the name of the little biting nuisance that afflicts the summer. And for almost as long as the Sand Gnats have played at Grayson, they have walked the narrow wall between quaint and outdated. They announced May 21 that they had finally fallen off.
How in demand is a team from the remedial levels of professional baseball (the Sand Gnats are a Single-A affiliate of the New York Mets)? Well, Columbia kicked in $30 million of a $37 million new stadium project to build a first-class home to attract the lower-classification franchise.
As this season ends so will Grayson’s designation as America’s oldest working minor league park.
And no team is in line to replace the departing Gnats.
“People may think we’re going to get another pro team for Grayson. But we’re not,” said Joe Shearouse, director of Savannah’s Leisure Services Bureau, which oversees the city-owned stadium.
Baseball more than any other sport reveres its history. Grayson is part of the game’s charming tableau, both for the players it raised from minor league pups and the established ones who passed through, back when they played exhibition games for the small town folk before heading north for the real season. It is a slightly cracked window into what baseball used to be.
Sitting on his green bench seat just above home plate, 75-year-old Robert Howard recounted some of the greats he had seen in his more than 60 years of coming to Grayson: “Hank Aaron; Yogi Berra; Mickey Mantle; Elston Howard; Lou Brock; Curt Flood.” But he can stay current, too. When asked for one of his most memorable moments over all those years, Howard recalled last season’s Sally League championship.
“I’ve been here about every day, come rain or shine. Don’t know where I’ll go next year,” Howard said.
Thursday it could not have been a better night for baseball in Georgia’s first city. For one it was Thirsty Thursday, with all draft beer and soft drinks half price. A crowd of 2,300 responded.
No drive to the ballpark in Columbia can be like the one to Grayson, as you pass through a corridor of oaks dripping with moss. No day in South Carolina could ever be better than this, the humidity low, a fresh breeze blowing out. There was scarcely a need for the B-29 propeller-sized fans that turn from the green metal overhang (dating to a rebuild after the hurricane of 1940).
The place has tried to keep up with the times while still maintaining its historical integrity. A small video board was added to center field, a full bar shoehorned beneath the grandstand. As at any other minor league park, baseball at Grayson is something to do until the next between-innings fan contest.
It hasn’t been enough. The old girl couldn’t hope to keep pace with new construction.
For the players, it was a big development when they got a couch for the clubhouse this season. At the new place next year, they’ll have their own lounge separate of the dressing area. A real weight room, too.
That new place will have the potential to be a year-round facility, with space for concerts and business gatherings and even weddings. Oh, and there will be baseball.
Plus, having a telecommunications company as the name sponsor means the new stadium will have completely squirrel-proof Wi-Fi access.
“For us it’s about the experience,” Katz said. “Baseball is part of that experience, but it’s not necessarily the focus of that experience. The focus of that experience is about the entertainment. It’s not just about opening the gates and having people come. It’s not the 1950s anymore.”
And what about Grayson’s fate?
Shearouse vows the city will not let Grayson crumble and fall. They are looking into bringing in college tournaments in the spring when it’s still frosty up north, maybe a wooden-bat league in the summer. Perhaps some more youth programs, a festival here and there.
It will become another great old ballpark looking for a niche in a world that left it behind.
