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As seen through the haze of smoke from Canada's wildfires.  Photo by Frank Capuano.

The leaders of Minor League Baseball, and, by extension, Major League Baseball, didn't think Batavia could support a professional baseball team, and those Lords of the game looked for years for an opportunity to relocate the New York-Penn League's founding member to another city.

That search for new ownership and a new venue lasted until MLB just got tired of the entire MiLB structure and shut down the historic NYPL.

MLB and MiLB leaders blamed the fans of Batavia, the region, and Dwyer Stadium itself for the lack of fan interest in the teams they were putting on the field. 

After all, they were bringing "prospects" to Batavia; young men with at least some slim chance of getting in a few major league innings before they moved on to other careers.  And once in a while, if you came to Dwyer Stadium often enough, you might get to see a future star pass through.  That should be enough, was the seeming assumption of baseball executives.

Turns out, maybe the problem wasn't the fans after all. Nor the facility.  Maybe the problem was that assumption.  

Maybe the men and women brought in to run the team, the leaders of the leagues, and the management of the MLB affiliates, which included, in recent years, the Cardinals and the Marlins, just didn't do the right things to generate fan interest in the game.

After head groundskeeper Cooper Thomson turned the turf of Dwyer Stadium into an All-Star Game-worthy surface, it still wasn't enough to keep the team in Batavia, and fans seemed to know it. They continued to only attend home games sporadically.  A night of 1,000 people in the stands was a good night.  It usually took Friday night fireworks to pack in more than 1,500 people.

On Tuesday night, 2,877 baseball fans held tickets for a Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League between two teams with rosters filled with young players who are far less likely, on average, to ever play a professional game, let alone reach the major leagues.

On Sunday, attendance was 2,808.

For the home opener on Saturday, attendance was perhaps a record for organized baseball in Batavia: 3,711.

Perhaps Rob Manfred, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, who oversaw the destruction of the minor league system, should talk without Robbie and Nellie Nichols, the current owners of the Muckdogs, about how to promote baseball in a small town.

The main difference between the affiliated Muckdogs and the collegiate Muckdogs, William Bardenwerper told The Batavian before Tuesday's game, is the collegiate players are fan-friendly. They're out in the community. They talk with fans at games. They're friendly with the kids, always.

And that's by design.  From the day he arrived in Batavia in 2021, Robbie Nichols has talked about wanting players on his team who are willing to make themselves part of the community for the two summer months they're in Batavia.

Manager Joey Martinez wants to recruit the best baseball talent he can, and he thinks he and his staff have built a special and talented team for 2023, but he told The Batavian in a pre-season interview that character is also part of the recruiting evaluation.

"We try to just get guys that are going to come into this community and be a part of it," Martinez said. "(We want them to) represent the Muckdogs name everywhere and every day."

Bardenwerper said that community commitment is obvious and it's paying dividends. 

"Robbie and Nellie, the owners, as well as Joey Martinez, as manager, have fostered a community spirit," Bardenwerper said. "It's part of their responsibility in the summer to do everything they can to be there for the community, to support the community.”

Bardenwerper is a non-fiction writer who is working on a book that will look at the demise of the New York Penn-League through the lens of the Batavia Muckdogs. 

He spent a good deal of time in Batavia last season, attending games, interviewing fans, and getting to know the community and its love of baseball.  He wasn't around in the affiliated-Muckdogs days, but he's seen the community embrace the collegiate Muckdogs.

He said professional minor league players tend to be more distant. They quickly grow accustomed to playing before larger crowds, so they're less engaged with the fans.

"These players (the current Muckdogs) love interacting with the fans," Bardenwerper said. "They're often from smaller schools where they might get 100 people in the stands. Now they're playing in front of thousands of people.”

There's no doubt, Bardenwerper said, the quality of play isn't the same.  There are fewer pitchers throwing 95 mph, fewer home runs, and more errors, but collegiate baseball at this level has its advantages for baseball fans, as well, the writer noted.

"Joe Maddon (former major league manager) wrote that 35 percent of the at-bats in major league games these days, you do not need anybody on the field except a pitcher, a catcher and a batter (because 35 percent of at-bats now end in a strikeout or a home run), and until this year, because of the pitch clock, baseball became slow," Bardenwerper said.  "This baseball, the kind you see at these games, is like a throwback to what you used to see at games.  You see steals. You see hit-and-runs.  You see more extra-base hits. 

Joey Martinez is an aggressive manager.  There's more action on the basepaths. There's nobody with statistics, a spreadsheet, and a computer telling the manager every decision he should make.  This is more like going back and watching a baseball game in the 1980s.  The players aren't as gifted, but you could make the argument that games are a lot more fun to watch."

If not for the pandemic, Bardenwerper wouldn't be writing about the Muckdogs.  In 2019, he pitched his publisher on writing a book about the Appalachian League. He was going to visit all those small towns in 2020, get to know them and their teams, and chronicle small-town baseball through that lens. But the 2020 season got canceled by COVID, and by 2021, neither the Appalachian League nor the New York-Penn League existed.

Eliminating those leagues, at least according to the explanations given by MLB leaders, Bardenwerper said, made little sense.  The excuse given was MLB wanted to protect their precious and expensive talent from 12-hour bus trips and substandard stadiums.  While those might be valid complaints in leagues out west, it wasn't true of leagues in the Northeast.  For the most part, even in the NYPL, which had expanded its boundaries in recent years, teams were within a few hours of each other, and with a couple of exceptions in the Appalachian League, playing conditions were good.

"The reasons offered for contraction were disingenuous and not consistent with the teams that were contracted," Bardenwerper said.

But what has become MLB's loss has become Batavia's gain, especially for young fans who are made more a part of the atmosphere at Dwyer Stadium. Kids can get autographs, baseballs, and batting gloves from players at any time, even while there's action on the field. Young fans are never told not to bother players in the dugouts and bullpens.  The players never act like they don't hear the kids, turn a cold shoulder and walk away.

And that's an important part of the connection with the community, Bardenwerper said.

"The kids don't know the difference between these college kids and the next Bryce Harper," Bardenwerper said. "They just see these guys in cool uniforms signing autographs."

Given the fan-friendly atmosphere at Dwyer these days, it's doubtful many fans walked away from Tuesday's game dissatisfied, even though the home team fell to 2-2 on the young season with a loss to Niagara Power, 3-1.

Photos by Howard Owens. For more photos and to purchase prints, click here.

For the second night in a row, the Batavia Muckdogs played a home game in front of a sellout crowd and got another win, this time beating Niagara Power, 807.

Ryan Kinney picked up the win, going three innings and striking out five hitters.

Rijnaldo Euson came up with the save, getting one strikeout in his one inning of work.  

Neither pitcher allowed a hit nor a run.

Josh Leadem went 1-2 with two walks, two runs scored and three stolen bases.

Giuseppe Arcuri went 3-3 with one run, two RBIs, and a Walk.

The Muckdogs, now 2-1, take on Power again tonight at 6:35 p.m. There is currently no plan to reschedule the game.
 

In his opening remarks for the last class of Notre Dame graduates he will oversee, Principal Wade Bianco bragged about the parochial high school by way of praising the accomplishments of the Class of 2023.

"This class, 37 of them, 37 graduates, has a four-year GPA, that is 16 quarters in an unweighted school -- no grades are cushioned. Here, there is no cushion. You got to earn it. This class has an 8.71 GPA."

The class, he said, has earned $3,719,068 in scholarships.

He said the average graduate in the Class of 2023 is leaving high school with 22 college credits. 

"When you come to our school, you can take that last year of college and knock it off," Bianco said. "Most of our graduates are done with college after three years because they front-load many of their courses at our school with teachers that they know and trust, and what better way to earn college credit at a reduced cost? And our kids have done an incredible job with that."

After noting that Notre Dame -- though he said some people won't believe it -- is an academics-first school, he listed the 12 sports teams that won sectional titles in the past four years, including two in girls basketball, two in girls soccer, a long with baseball, volleyball, boys basketball, girls swim, tennis, and football. 

The co-salutatorians were Maylee Green and Aaron Treleavan, who used their speeches to also highlight the accomplishments of their classmates, from involvement in sports to academic pursuits and school clubs.

Valedictorian Brenna Munn said the Class of 2023 faced many challenges and face new challenges ahead but that the class is ready to step into promising futures.

"What matters now is the impact this class makes on the world," Munn said. "We will no longer roam our two hallways. We'll walk along city streets or from lecture hall to lecture hall. Whether our high school participation included a team sport or clubs, we now find ourselves thrust into society with fewer activities but with an impact on a much higher scale."

Photos by Steve Ognibene.

The worst fire season on record in Canada, according to news reports, is causing a decline in air quality throughout large parts of the United States, including Western New York.

As a result, Batavia City Schools are canceling all outdoor activities for the rest of the day, on the advice of the County Health Department, Superintendent Jason Smith announced.

"There are no concerns with indoor air quality at this time," Smith said.

The cancellation includes the annual color run at John Kennedy Intermediate School.

In Canada, more than 6.7 million acres have already burned in 2023.

In Quebec, around 14,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes. More than 150 fires are still burning in the province, according to CBC News. In Nova Scotia, officials said Sunday one wildfire covers nearly 100 square miles, was still burning out of control, The Associated Press reported.

UPDATE 1:03 p.m.: The Batavia Girls Flag Football sectional semifinal game scheduled for tonight has been postponed until 7 p.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, at 7 p.m., at Van Detta Stadium.  Tickets already purchased for the game can be used tomorrow.

UPDATE 2:10 p.m.: We asked other school superintendents for updates on their districts' plans.  Here is what we currently know:

• Oakfield-Alabama: Nothing scheduled, no cancelations plans currently.
• Pavilion: No after-school activities scheduled, so nothing has been canceled, and Superintendent Mary Kate Hoffman notes: "We have shared information with our faculty about current air quality conditions and appropriate precautions. ...We will continue to monitor the situation and take necessary precautions."
• Byron-Bergen:  The following statement was issued to parents: "Due to outdoor air quality advisories, Byron-Bergen schools are limiting outdoor activities for the remainder of the day. This includes after-school outdoor activities and sports."

Photos and information submitted by Jason Smith.

Fourteen young people from Ascension and Resurrection parishes in Batavia were confirmed by Bishop Michael Fisher during Mass at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Buffalo. 

Confirmation is one of the seven Sacraments in the Catholic Church.  

The newly confirmed were sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to the faith of the Church, signified when the Bishop makes the sign of the cross with chrism oil on their foreheads.  

The sacrament of Confirmation represents full entry into the Catholic Church. Each candidate also chooses a sponsor to support them in their faith journey.

After 36 years as a priest in Batavia, Father Ivan Trujillo performed his last mass as an active priest at Resurrection Parish on Sunday.

Father Ivan arrived in Batavia in 1986 at St. Mary's and became parish priest when St. Mary's and St. Joe's merged in 2008.

Over his nearly four decades of service to the community, Father Ivan has led a migrant ministry, a prison ministry, and served at the VA Hospital.

Trujillo was ordained in Jamestown in 1990 and became an assistant at St. Mary's in 1986. 

As a young man in Bolivia, Trujillo was inspired both to the ministry and to serve the poor. While studying philosophy in school, he was mentored by the rector, who was a Jesuit with a passion for caring for poor people.  That example led Trujillo into the ministry, the priest told The Batavian in 2013.

As a result, a good deal of Father Ivan's work in Western New York has been with the poor and less fortunate. He worked with the poor and sick in his own parish, ministered to inmates at Attica and Wyoming correctional facilities, and worked with migrant workers in Genesee, Orleans and Niagara counties.

The church's music director, Mark Hoerbelt, led a brief moment of recognition for Father Ivan and his service to the community.  They worked together for 24 years.

 "I just can't say enough about the kindness of this man, the dedication to our parish, and I think the world of him," Hoerbelt said.

Father Ivan's assistant, Bob Waters, also retired as of Sunday.  He has served at Resurrection Parish for more than 10 years as a parochial vicar.   He was a priest for 54 years.  He spent 14 years at Resurrection and also served at St. Anthony's and in Corfu.

Photos by Steve Ognibene.

The former principal of a local parochial school entered a guilty plea to one count of course of sexual conduct with a child in the second degree in Genesee County Court Monday.

According to District Attorney Kevin Finnell, Jason Clark admitted Monday that he touched the chest of a female child two or more times over a period of time not less than three months in duration.

As part of the plea deal, Clark agreed to surrender his teaching license and was placed on interim supervision by the Probation Department for one year.

Finnell said under the terms of the plea agreement, if he's successful on probation, he may withdraw his plea to the felony count and enter a new plea to a misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child. He would continue to serve some time on probation.

If he's unsuccessful on probation, Finnell said, he could be sentenced to a term in prison.

Following a standard presentence investigation, Clark will be sentenced at 9:30 a.m., June 3.

Clark started working at St. Paul Lutheran in Batavia as a teacher in 2002. He became principal in 2019.

He was charged in January with two counts of sexual conduct against a child in the second degree.

A brush fire is reported in DeWitt Recreation Area, off West Main Street, behind WNY Concrete and Upson Maybach.

City Fire is on scene.

UPDATE by Joanne Beck 4:19 p.m.: The third platoon has been recalled to city headquarters and the Town of Batavia Fire brush truck has been requested to the scene. 

UPDATE by Joanne Beck 4:45 p.m.: The fire is mostly knocked down after burning one to one and a half acres. The cause of origin is unknown at this time. 

Perhaps the largest crowd in Dwyer Stadium history -- 3,711 fans -- watched a winning home opener of the 2023 season Saturday for the Batavia Muckdogs.

The Muckdogs defined the Elmira Pioneers 5-4.

Starter Julian Pichardo fanned eight and gave away no free passes over six innings 

Michael Pedraza was credited with the win after giving up two runs in the eighth inning, putting the Muckdogs behind 4-3, only to have Batavia battle back in the bottom half of the frame, scoring two runs, to regain the lead at 5-4.

Trey Bacon came on to record the save in the top of the ninth, retiring all three batters he faced, notching two Ks.

Offensively, Josh Leadem smashed a solo home run in the fourth inning to put the Muckdogs on the board, though they still trailed 2-1 at that point. Leadem was 1-3 on the night with a walk and two runs scored.

Anthony Calabro was 1-2 with two walks and two RBIs, driving in the final two runs of the game to secure put Muckdogs in the lead.

The Muckdogs are 1-1 on the new season.  Today, Sunday, at 4 p.m., the Muckdogs return to Dwyer Stadium to take on Niagara Power. They're home again on Tuesday, 6:35 p.m., again against Niagara.

Photos by Nick Serrata.

The creators of Enter Through the Coffee Shop @ The Harve, a unique, June-only art gallery at the Harvester Center, 56 Harvester Avenue, Batavia, held an invite-only pre-opening on Friday evening.

The public opening is tonight, Saturday, at 7 p.m., with the band FlashBamPow providing musical entertainment. 

The cost is $5 at the door.

Previously: Enter through the coffee shop for art and music @ The Harve

The Batavia Muckdogs will be looking for a win tonight in their home opener at Dwyer Stadium at 6:35 p.m. after dropping their season opener in Elmira, 11-9.

In that game:

• Josh Leadem went 2-4, scoring two runs, with three RBIs, and collecting three stolen bases.
• Rashad Robinson went 2-3, scoring two runs, with a walk, and three stolen bases.
• Henry Daniels went 2-4 with a double, two RBIs, and a Walk.

CORRECTION: A Reader informs me I've gotten Jadyn's accomplishment all wrong.  She was competing in the Pentathlon, which is five events, with competitors scoring points in each event and the winner being the athlete with the most points. Mullen was far and away the winner of the event.

In addition to the three first-place finishes noted earlier in our post (below), she finished second in the Girls High Jump and second in Shot Put, for a total of 3,334 points. Anna Varland of Batavia came in second with 2,389 points.

We apologize to Mullen for the error.

It was a big day for Alexander's Jadyn Mullen at the state qualifiers in track and field held at Van Detta Stadium on Friday.

Mullen's wins:

• Girls 800 Meter Run, 2:19.57
• Girls 100 Meter Hurdles, 15.25
• Girls Long Jump, 5.52m
• Girls Outdoor Pentathlon, 3334

Other individual winners on the day:

• Nathan Canale, Batavia, Boys 1600 Meter Run  4:26.73  
• Campbell Riley, Batavia, Girls 2000 Meter Steeplechase,  7:30.33  
• Batavia, Girls 4x100 Meter Relay, 49.77
• Batavia, Girls 4x800 Meter Relay,   9:50.96
• Laurel Kania, Alexander, Girls High Jump, 5-03.00 
• Connor Domoy, Oakfield-Alabama, Boys 3000 Meter Steeplechase, 9:47.45

For complete results, click here.

Photos by Kristin Smith. For more, click here.

A caller reports smoking coming from the order speaker in the drive-through of McDonald's, 4138 West Main St., Batavia.

The fire is spreading to mulch.

City Fire responding.

UPDATE 3:57 p.m.: City Fire confirms a mulch fire. Firefighters are putting it out.

UPDATE 4:13 p.m.: Fire extinguished. City Fire back in service.

Friday evening's waxing moon got the attention of a couple of local photographers.

Top photo, the moon over Stafford County Club by Frank Nicolazzo.  Below, a moon shot by Frank Capuano.

There will be a full moon on Sunday.

A car that is part of the Joe Gibbs Race Team visited Cedar Street Sales and Rental today.  Race team sponsors include DeWalt and Cub Cadet, brands carried by Cedar Street.

The team has won five Cup Series titles since 2000 and is based in Huntersville, N.C.

Pictured are Cedar Street's Guy Clark, center, Ethan Carter, from Club Cadet, and Morris Abernathy, representing Joe Gibbs Racing.

The car will be at Cedar Street on Saturday from 10 a.m to 3 p.m.

Photos by Howard Owens.

City firefighters were called to Raymond Avenue this morning to rescue a family of ducklings that had fallen into a storm drain.

Photos by Frank Capuano.