Pis hoto by Howard Owens
It took a few minutes for Batavia Muckdogs owner Robbie Nichols to answer the phone Tuesday, which is understandable.
Not only does he plan for special events, network and take care of finances for the business, but also the minor details of minor league baseball.
“I was just moving garbage cans around the ballpark,” he said. "Whatever needs to be done."
Nichols had recently made a request that $4,000 originally granted to GO ART! for Picnic in the Park be instead given to Batavia Muckdogs for a Fourth of July fireworks display after the July 3 ball game. City Council approved the request during its business meeting Monday, and The Batavian called Nichols for comment.
“We're glad that it was approved, and we're just gonna give it back to the city and the show. So we're excited about that. We do have fireworks on that night, it's going to be more grandiose, like a big city fireworks show sponsored by the city,” he said. “And so obviously, this will be a much larger show. And thank you to the city. And like we said, we'll get tickets out to those people that could use them.”
Photo by Howard Owens.
In his letter requesting the additional funds, Nichols pledged to donate 100 tickets for families in need. On Tuesday, he said it would likely be more than 100 tickets, as he wanted to make it possible for any families that couldn’t otherwise afford to attend to be able to also enjoy the Fourth of July festivities.
“We enjoy being part of the community, and we enjoy being involved in as many events as possible in Batavia,” he said in his letter to council.
Julia Rogers, coordinator of the Batavia City Community Schools program, will be referring families for the tickets, City Manager Rachael Tabelski said.
Nichols and staff were glad that the money was awarded to them, he said, and they have no plans to keep it, treating it in the same vein as they do Dwyer Stadium: “This is a city facility. It’s not our facility. We’re just the holders of the keys,” he said.
“You know, we're really excited. We put a lot of hard work into Batavia. (General Manager) Marc Witt does a great job with all the groups and people that he brings here. This Friday is Batavia Blue Devil night, and it's gonna be a large crowd, and Monday's game got rained out, and we already had a large crowd coming Monday night, so Friday should be another sold-out game, and we're really happy,” he said. “We had three sell-outs in our first four (games). So we're pretty happy, and we know we're going to sell out this next one. So the crowds keep coming out. We're just happy. They like our product and like what we do here.
“And we want people to enjoy it. You know, every weekend, people don't know we have baseball games, from morning to night. GLOW uses our field every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,” he said. “So if the Dogs aren't playing, we have youth baseball being played from eight in the morning ’til eight at night almost every Friday, Saturday, Sunday.”
That was enough talk. He had other tasks to do.
“We get a lot of trash,” he said.
Photo by Howard Owens.
