Bisons Bullish They’ll Draw Million Fans Again

The Buffalo Bisons are trying to become the first minor-league team to draw at least a million fans in back-to-back seasons. But owner Bob Rich Jr., said they’re not getting any help from the schedule-makers or the weatherman.

“We have 16 (home) games in April. That’s going to put us a little bit more behind the eight-ball,” Rich said prior to Wednesday’s season-opener. “I think we’ll have a better shot after we get through April of knowing if the million is do-able.”

The Bisons’ American Association opener against the Louisville Redbirds illustrated Rich’s concerns.

Snow over the weekend turned to rain earlier in the week. But temperatures remained around 40 degrees and, combined with a healthy breeze, helped make for a number of no-shows at 19,500-seat Pilot Field.

“If we have inclement weather throughout April and it shuts down a bunch of games, it’s really going to be tough because last year, we were 85% occupancy,” said Rich.

Still, 18,614 seats were sold for the opener and a season-ticket base of 9,000 assures the team will sell at least 640,000 tickets this year.

Last year, the Bisons set a single-season minor-league attendance record with ticket sales of 1,186,561.

Aggressive promotions and the novelty of a beautiful new downtown stadium helped bring the fans in. But that loyalty didn’t translate into on-field success.

The Bisons, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ top farm team, finished two games above .500, but were third in the four-team American Association East, 17 games behind division-winning Indianapolis.

Rich was clearly disappointed with the team’s performance and vowed, along with the Pirates, to have a more respectable club this season.

“The Pirates have really worked hard,” Rich said. “They have a new organization evaluating new talent and they’ve worked hard to get us a winner.”

But Rich’s first move was to lure Albuquerque Dukes manager Terry Collins out of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ system to replace Rocky Bridges, a career minor-league manager whose low-key approach to winning angered Bison fans and Rich.

Collins, 39, was Manager of the Year in each of the past two seasons in the Pacific Coast League and led the Dukes to the PCL title in 1987.

“The most significant improvement over last year is the addition of Terry Collins,” Rich said. “He’s our kind of guy. The people here want to see athletes in all sports hustling and giving it their all.”

Collins admitted he took a career gamble in leaving the Dodgers organization, where he had been for 15 years.

“To come over here is a challenge, and that’s what I’m accepting it as; a challenge to go out and accomplish here what we accomplished the last couple of years in Albuquerque,” Collins said.

Rich made it clear to the Pirates he wanted some veterans to supplement Pittsburgh’s prospects.

So the Pirates went out and signed several players with major league experience, including 34-year-old Tito Landrum, 36-year-old Steve Henderson, 33-year-old Jim Pankovits, 31-year-old Bill Scherrer and 38-year-old Rennie Stennett, who hadn’t played baseball in five years.

Landrum, Scherrer and Stennett didn’t make it past spring training, but Pankovits will be Buffalo’s second baseman this season and Henderson will play behind--and tutor--Pirates outfield prospect Steve Carter.

“Here’s a guy who’s got 10 years in the big leagues, he’s got nothing else to prove, and yet if you watch him play every day, he plays like he’s 23,” Collins said of Henderson. “He’s going to be a big asset to us all year.”

The conflict between the desire to win and the essentially developmental nature of minor league ball has soured many a relationship between a parent team and its farm club.

But Collins said those two goals aren’t necessarily incompatible.

“One of the things Pittsburgh--and all of baseball--is looking for is a winning player, a player who knows what it takes to win,” Collins said.

A competitive team will help the Bisons as they shoot for another million fans at Pilot Field this season, which will in turn help Rich’s goal of a major league team in Buffalo.

“I don’t think you’re going to see teams move out of existing cities, especially with the anticipation of expansion, which is so much more prevalent this year,” said Rich, noting new baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti has listed adding two National League teams as one of his priorities.