By Cody Stavenhagen
Long before he was the owner of a Double-A baseball team facing extinction, Fernando Aguirre grew up in Mexico City. His father sold ceramic tiles for a living, and his mother, a natural entrepreneur, owned various stores and eventually opened a gift shop.
As a teen, Aguirre sold Datsuns at a dealership for his uncle. He scrapped together some money and earned a baseball scholarship to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. In college, he learned English while living with a host family.
Aguirre went on to a distinguished professional career, rising up the ranks at Procter & Gamble, becoming CEO of Chiquita brands, serving on boards for a litany of other major companies. A self-made man, he became a U.S. citizen in 2009, a poster for the same American Dream we paint with scenes of hot dogs and ballgames on sweaty summer nights.
But over the past 13 months, Aguirre faced what he calls the biggest challenge of his professional life. He was trying to save a minor-league baseball team on the brink, all in a year when there was no minor-league baseball.
“It’s been a roller coaster,” Aguirre said. “I tell you, there were days and times where I felt I couldn’t sleep, because I didn’t know what was gonna happen the next day.”
Erie had the Tigers’ elite pitching prospects, including Casey Mize, on the mound in 2019.
Think minor-league baseball, and you think Bull Durham summers, stubborn journeymen on the mound and kids in the stands, falling asleep in their father’s arms, dreaming baseball dreams they may never fulfill.
The minor leagues have always been about those dreams, and the people crazy enough to chase them. For players in today’s game, Double-A baseball isn’t exactly some last bastion of purity. The game is increasingly driven by player-development pressures. There’s often a focus on individual goals over team bonds and the pursuit of winning.
Yet the last time the Erie SeaWolves fielded a team, in 2019, it was something a little different. A conglomerate of Detroit Tigers prospects who could one day be stars — Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal, Matt Manning, Alex Faedo and more — helped fill the seats. The SeaWolves became the center of an organization struggling along at the major-league level, a symbol of hope on the horizon. The SeaWolves played great baseball, especially in the second half of the season. But they balanced their star power with players like Chace Numata, a fun-loving catcher who represented the best of the minor leagues. Numata had no real shot to play in the majors. He showed up every day, smiling and enjoying the ride anyway.
In September 2019, as the SeaWolves were in the thick of a playoff hunt, Numata died after a skateboarding accident, a tragedy that bound the team and its Pennsylvania community a little tighter. The SeaWolves established a scholarship fund for local athletes in Numata’s name.
More than anything, those bonds are what Erie spent the past 13 months trying to save. And that’s also what made the news last November so striking.
On Nov. 4, 2019, SeaWolves executives learned through a conference call their club was on a list of 42 teams at risk of being cut under Major League Baseball’s plan to restructure the minor leagues.
The list was leaked to the New York Times and published in a bombshell report that sent shockwaves through the baseball community. Teams and communities reckoned with the loss of baseball and all it represents. They also pondered the economics of such a proposition.
The situation was especially concerning in Erie, where $16 million in taxpayer dollars had already been allocated to help improve a ballpark that could now sit empty.
“From a corporate, only-me mentality, (the contraction) makes sense, but what about baseball, Chevrolet and apple pie?” Casey Wells, executive director of the Erie County Convention Center Authority, said last fall.
“What about showing the sport, which has fewer Little League teams in Erie — and I’m sure elsewhere — than ever before? What about showcasing the sport on a minor-league level to broaden the fan base and the jobs and the economic impact? What about wholesome American things like good entertainment and fun at all levels, instead of the myopic silo, billion-dollar industry all about, ‘How can we squeeze $2 billion out of it?’
“It’s just insanity to me.”
Soon after the news, Aguirre, Wells and many others banded together, trying to do something crazy. They hoped to save their baseball team’s affiliated status rather than step into an uncertain future. There were phone calls and meetings, brainstorming sessions for fundraising and plenty more logistical hurdles.
Aguirre said he had spoken to Dan Lunetta, the Tigers’ director of minor-league operations, and David Mayhall, a staff member with the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office, “more than I had spoken to my wife in the last year, and that kind of sums it up.”
Already, Wells had overseen more than $6 million in construction upgrades to Erie’s UPMC Park, part of a previous initiative to keep the SeaWolves in Erie and help bring life to a dwindling downtown. Sporting venues as economic solutions are an often-criticized measure, but fixing up a stadium destined to be empty would create a new level of skepticism.
“Erie would be the great case study,” Wells had said.
Wells trudged ahead with the remaining construction, fulfilling contracts it was already too late to back out of, but also keeping faith in his community.
“What the SeaWolves bring to our community relative to economic impact, quality of life, much of that is very tangible,” Wells said. “A lot of that’s not tangible. But it doesn’t mean it’s of any less value. When you have great partners and you trust one another and great support from our elected officials and you believe you have the right program and the right people involved, you move forward. All of life is about risk and reward. Without risk, sometimes you don’t get the reward.”
SeaWolves leadership got early support from the Tigers, who wanted Erie to remain as their Double-A affiliate. Local and state government also got involved. Aguirre traveled to Washington, D.C., and met with members of Congress. Fans started a rallying cry to “Save the SeaWolves.”
Pennsylvania attorney general Josh Shapiro and Mayhall even appealed to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and his office directly, making a case for Erie.
“The people of Erie understand the importance of keeping institutions like the SeaWolves in their community, and I hope other cities around the country learn from their example,” Shapiro said as part of a statement last week.
The SeaWolves also sought to obtain additional dollars to schedule facility upgrades. UPMC Park’s less-than-stellar player facilities might have been the reason the SeaWolves were on the list for contraction in the first place.
Beginning in 2018, when Erie Events secured a state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant, UPMC Park received a new, high-end playing surface. During the 2019 season, the park added two high-definition scoreboards. And over the past year, construction has concluded on updated restrooms, suites, a party deck, a stadium club and team store. UPMC Park has a revamped entrance and ticket office, as well.
Per new guidelines released this fall, MLB is requiring affiliates to have home and visiting clubhouses of 1,000 square feet or larger. There are calls for improved dining areas, LED field lighting, improved weight rooms and pitching and batting tunnels.
With help from the office of Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf, the SeaWolves are on schedule to make $1.5 million worth of additional upgrades to comply with these standards for the 2021 season. Upgrades include a new home clubhouse and climate-controlled batting cages. The SeaWolves are in the final stages of signing a new lease to remain at UPMC Park through at least 2030.
“The way this is being restructured, it’s really driven by wanting to have better facilities, better working environments for the players … whether it’s time in the clubhouse, training room, video room, batting tunnels, a variety of things on the field,” said Dave Littlefield, the Tigers’ VP of player development. “There’s a lot of factors that came in, but certainly the improvements were essential.”
Not everyone could be so lucky.
Last week, the short-season Class A Norwich Sea Unicorns learned their fate through a press release and social media posts. As had been expected, the Sea Unicorns were indeed losing their affiliation with the Tigers, as the downsizing of the minor leagues cut out short-season affiliates.
On Aug. 1, 2019, the club signed a 10-year lease binding the team to Norwich’s Thomas J. Dodd Memorial Stadium. Dodd Stadium has recently received new lighting and more than $800,000 in other upgrades.
Now, the Sea Unicorns as an organization still exist. They are sorting out their lease and legal issues with Norwich City Council. The club hopes to find affiliation with another MLB club. It could end up seeking to become part of an independent league or collegiate summer league. Everything is uncertain, and fears of Norwich losing baseball entirely are not unfounded.
“We are in the process of evaluating all options in hopes to be able to continue to provide quality, affordable baseball for our great fans for years to come,” the team said in a statement. “As soon as there is an update, we will share it with you immediately.”
In Erie, the news was different, a burst of light in an otherwise dark winter.
On Dec. 4, Aguirre received word from Lunetta that the SeaWolves were going to be invited to remain part of the Tigers organization. On Wednesday, the SeaWolves received a letter with an official invitation to remain the Tigers’ Double-A affiliate. The exact length of the SeaWolves’ next player-development contract remains to be determined.
But last week, Aguirre gladly accepted this good news, the fruits of many months of stress and labor.
“Between Friday and today I slept a little better,” Aguirre said last week. “I suspect tonight I will sleep through the night, probably for the first time in a few months.”
And now, for the first time in a long time, Aguirre is dreaming of the next time he hears the words: Play ball.
