The Martinez City Council is set to approve a license agreement for a professional baseball team to play its home games at the city’s Waterfront Park.
The new baseball team is the Martinez Mackerel, and the team and the Pecos League of Professional Baseball Clubs LLC intend the team to be ready to play at the start of its 2020 season in late May.
The Pecos is an independent professional baseball league headquartered in Houston. In 2019, the league fielded 12 teams in cities in California, New Mexico, Arizona, southern Colorado, Kansas and West Texas.
The Mackerel plan to play on Waterfront Park’s Field 3, which for the 2018 Pacific Association season was home to the Martinez Clippers.
However, that team dissolved after the end of the season, when the Clippers’ operating agreement was terminated by the city due to non-payment of license fees by the team’s owners, Jeff and Paulette Carpoff.
The couple had operated a Benicia-based company, DC Solar, which the FBI had raided after the end of the 2018 baseball season as part of an investigation into what was described as a “Ponzi scheme.”
The Martinez Clippers, as well as the Pittsburg Diamonds, have both folded. Both were in the Pacific Association. While the Pacific Association has more teams from the greater Bay Area, including from Vallejo and Sonoma, a city staff report concludes that “uncertainty surrounds the league’s future” and that the Pecos League is more stable.
The name of the team is also subject to change if local interests prefer something other than “Mackerel,” according to a city staff report.
Wednesday’s council meeting begins at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 525 Henrietta St.
Sure hope the Martinez Council and Mayor get
some money upfront from the new team. After
they made all the improvements for the Clippers
the city and the taxpayers were left holding the bag.
Someone should have been held accountable for
that bad business deal.
Field of Broken Dreams. Do something about your 2009 impact study regarding train horns and quiet zones.
At least make One of the Two crossings a quiet zone.
Petaluma, Point Richmond and Now San Jose all have quiet zones.
Anon, who was there first the Trains or the complainers? How can you knowingly move in near a major railroad line then expect them to accommodate you?
Same for people that move in near an airport then complain about the planes!
This and any subsequent story regarding Martinez should include a comment pertaining to the redevelopment of the marina/waterfront. An opportunity that continues to be missed.
@ Mtz Man I can’t remember if you specifically are the one that has been hammering away for redevelopment out there. But either way, what do you have in mind? I believe there are a few different jurisdictions in close proximity out there. The EBMPD part isn’t getting any major changes. It is pretty much done being “developed” as a regional park, and it is lovely. I walk out there all the time. What’s wrong with the marina? Seems to work. Newish harbor master building. Plenty of regular and trailer parking. Are you saying it needs expansion?
I would agree that much of the other land out there is UNDERutilized, but is that necessarily a bad thing? A large part of the pleasantness of the marina/waterfront is that it IS a sparsely populated back water in an otherwise built out area. I don’t go out there to stroll around and watch the kites because it is a bustling engine of economic activity.
Plus, I’m a big advocate of sometimes just NOT developing a parcel. It takes a certain amount of chutzpah to think that we right now are even capable of making all the best land use decisions. It seems obvious to me that many of the most intelligent development decisions can only be made by subsequent generations. Leave something for the future. The Bay Area is rife with cities that have been built out of options. They are powerless to do much of anything but watch the traffic get worse and worse. I feel this way about the Concord Weapons Station. It should be a land bank for our grandkids. The current proposals are bad. They only serve to enrich developers.
So, what exactly is it that you would like to see happen out there?
MLB announced to day they are cutting back on their minor leagues. What type of team do they think they are going to get and for how long.
The Pecos league is an independent league, not affiliated with MLB. Elimination of minor league teams would improve a league like this through trickle down from folded minor league teams.
this isn’t part of that system. Independent leagues put on some good games….. Naysayers… GHEEZE
Wondering how much this deal will cost the residents of Martinez….the last one was epic.
Your comfort is much more important than human life. Anything else your heiness?
How about martinez beavers.
thought the same. wasn’t there once a mart beav’s team? may be a trademark issue. i look forwsrd to going to some games…