Local Fans Cheer as Blue Crabs Head for Home

After 23 years of hoping, Ron Provenzano has a hometown professional baseball team to cheer for this season.

Provenzano, 54, is among Southern Maryland Blue Crabs season ticketholders, a group that includes lifetime Charles County residents as well as many newcomers to the region. For him and others, the Blue Crabs' first home game tomorrow holds a special significance in a county where Little League is king but whose effort to start a minor league team in the mid-1980s was unsuccessful.

"After they rejected the stadium the first time, there was 20 long years of nothing," said Provenzano, who has coached Little League teams in Hughesville for 37 years and currently volunteers with the Thomas Stone High School baseball team. "We were so disappointed, and we were pretty jealous of the other teams in the area."

To win approval to join the unaffiliated Atlantic League, the Blue Crabs were required to demonstrate enough fan support to fill a 5,000-seat stadium on a regular basis, which team officials said was relatively easy in Southern Maryland, the fastest-growing region of the state.

Now that the Blue Crabs are a reality, the team's success will depend in part on die-hards like Provenzano, who said he plans to attend every home game. But the team also needs people like Mark Swinton, a Chicago transplant whose heart beats for the Cubs but who said he would "maybe check out a game or two" when the Blue Crabs begin play.

"There's definitely enough interest to sustain a team here," said Mark Viniard, the Blue Crabs' general manager. "Everywhere we go, we hear from people who are thrilled to be able to take their kids to a ballgame."

Team officials declined to specify the number of season tickets sold, but said sales have surpassed expectations.

La Plata resident Keith Vogel, 42, said he decided to buy season tickets for his family because he appreciates the role a local team can play in the community. He said he is particularly excited about seeing young players develop into major leaguers so he and his children can continue to follow their careers.

Vogel, a five-year Charles County resident, said he enjoys going to the occasional major league game in Baltimore or Washington but added that a Southern Maryland professional team will be much closer to his heart.

"It's local; you feel like you're a part of it," Vogel said. "It's a tremendous opportunity for our county to show the rest of the state and the country what we have to offer."

The team has had several events aimed at drumming up potential fans in all three Southern Maryland counties, including a FanFest event in February 2006 that drew more than 4,000 people to North Point High School in Waldorf. Team co-owner and Baltimore Orioles legend Brooks Robinson has been the biggest draw for many baseball fans. Viniard acknowledged that Robinson's involvement is a major advantage for a new team trying to establish a fan base.

Swinton, the Cubs fan, said he had heard through the grapevine that Robinson was associated with the team and that his involvement would be a big draw.

"I probably won't have heard of most of the players on the field, so Brooks is the big name," said Swinton, 31, of Waldorf. "But since I can't go to many games in Chicago, this may have to do."

Seats for tomorrow's home opener have been sold out for more than a week, although some lawn tickets remain available, but questions remain about how many people will attend games later in the season and in future years, after the novelty has worn off.

The Bowie Baysox, an Orioles affiliate that plays about 30 miles north of the Blue Crabs' St. Charles stadium, draws about 4,200 fans per game, about 15 percent of whom come from Southern Maryland.

Provenzano and others said they have attended several Baysox games each year but will stop commuting to Bowie this season in favor of the Southern Maryland team. Baysox General Manager Brian Shallcross said he expects his team to lose fans immediately after the Blue Crabs' debut but does not anticipate the team will be negatively affected in the long run.

Meanwhile, many of those who have waited patiently for a generation are ready for tomorrow night's first pitch as the Blue Crabs host the Lancaster (Pa.) Barnstormers.

"I think there's nothing neater than having a team right in our own back yard," Provenzano said. "I'll run into all the kids I used to coach now with kids of their own -- it's really a family experience."