Clippers to become affiliate of Nationals
By Craig Merz
The Columbus Dispatch
Wednesday, September 20, 2006 1:23 PM
The board of directors of the Columbus Clippers will meet this afternoon in the Captain's Club of Cooper Stadium to approve a working agreement with the Washington Nationals baseball team.
Sources said the player development contract, as it is known, is for the next two seasons, per the wishes of the Clippers. The deal includes the Nationals playing a major-league preseason game in Columbus next year.
Clippers general manager Ken Schnacke has said the team wants to have options when the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds affiliation agreements with teams in Buffalo, N.Y., and Louisville, Ky., respectively, expire after the 2008 season.
Nationals president Stan Kasten and general manager Jim Bowden toured Cooper Stadium on Monday and met staff and officials from Franklin County, which owns the International League team and stadium.
The Clippers were looking for a new partner after a 28-year relationship with the New York Yankees ended last week. The Yankees and New York Mets are vying to move their top prospects to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa. A decision could come today.
The Nationals did not renew their agreement with New Orleans of the Pacific Coast League and were considering Norfolk, Va., after the Mets and the Norfolk Tides ended a 39-year partnership this month. It appears the Baltimore Orioles, who left Ottawa, will have their affiliate in Norfolk and the loser in the Scranton sweepstakes will get New Orleans.
A source close to the Clippers situation said partnering Ohio's capital to the nation's capital offsets losing the high-profile Yankees. There are several other interesting connections. Bowden is a former Reds GM and understands the pressures that face the Clippers organization to align with one of the Ohio teams. There are a couple of ex-Clippers with the Nationals.
"If I had a pick, I'd take Washington because Alfonso Soriano and Nick Johnson played here," Clippers fan Don Martin said last week.
The Nationals will become the Clippers' third affiliate since baseball returned to Columbus in 1977. The Pittsburgh Pirates had their farm team here for two sub-.500 seasons. The Yankees signed on to start a run of three straight IL titles beginning in 1979. The Clippers won seven championships in all, the most recent in 1996.
Columbus finished 69-73 this season, last in the West Division.
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news...p?story=213811