Blowing In for an Encore

Haircuts and 35-mph winds don’t mix.

While most of the JetHawks’ inaugural minor league season could be classified as a promotional and marketing success, there were a few hard lessons General Manager Matt Ellis and his staff learned about baseball in Lancaster.

Giving haircuts on the grassy berm overlooking right field seemed like a clever idea, until the hair clippings started flying around.

“We learned that the wind does have constraints,” Ellis said of the promotion that was one of few failures last season. The hot tub in left field and the masseuse in right field didn’t do well either. Of the three, only the masseuse may be back this season.

“There are always promotions that you do that aren’t as successful as you’d want them to be,” Ellis said. “By and large we had a pretty successful year and it was hard to say we had a promotion that really flopped.”

Ellis and his staff will start over today, when the JetHawks unofficially begin their season with a 3 p.m. exhibition game against the Seattle Mariners, their parent club.

The California League season begins Thursday night, with the JetHawks playing host to the High Desert Mavericks at 7:15. Lancaster plays eight of its first nine games at home.

Last season, the JetHawks drew 316,390 fans. The average (4,519) was slightly higher than the Hangar’s permanent seating capacity (4,500) because of fans who paid $2.50 a ticket to sit on the grassy berms in right and left field, many on blankets with their families.

Rather than adding seating to take advantage of potential extra revenue, Ellis said the grassy areas will be maintained, with the exception of bleachers at today’s game and opening night.

“We like having a smaller park where we fill up more,” Ellis said.

The JetHawks have changed some ticket prices as a response to the fans, though. Seats on the field level beyond the dugouts have been downgraded from box to reserved, and those in the upper level behind the plate have been upgraded from reserved to box.

The number of seats at each classification is roughly the same, Ellis said, but now the prices are more in line with what fans perceived as better seats.

Fans also responded favorably to activities for children, and the JetHawks have increased those for this season. In addition to the popular Sunday attraction in which all kids in the ballpark can run around the bases after the game, there will be a reading corner with K.B., the JetHawks’ purple hawk mascot, and other promotions aimed at kids.

“Something we feel strongly about is marketing to the youth of the community,” Ellis said. “It’s a family event and we want to keep promoting that.”

Ellis said there will also be menu items for kids at the stadium’s concession stands.

Stadium food was one of the fans’ complaints last season, primarily because the items carried major-league prices. Ellis said he has no control over the prices, but the company that runs the concession stands “is working to lower them.”

Another glitch last season was radio coverage on KLOA-FM, a station whose signal was difficult to pick up outside the Antelope Valley, or even in places within the Antelope Valley.

This year the team will be on KHJ 1470, which has a stronger signal. (The station’s location for today is 1380).

But perhaps what left fans most disappointed last season was something in which Ellis had no control, and even that should be corrected.

Last July, more than 6,600 fans filled the Hangar in anticipation of seeing Mariner ace left-hander Randy Johnson throw two innings in a rehabilitation start for the JetHawks. Hours before the game, Johnson’s back pain flared up and doctors scratched his start, disappointing the crowd.

But when the Mariners take the field this afternoon, Johnson is scheduled to be on the mound, this time for five or six innings.

The Mariners weren’t trying to make up for Johnson’s missed start eight months ago; it’s simply a coincidence that today is his normal day to pitch, but it works out well for Ellis.

“It’s great,” he said. “It’s a nice way to give the fans a little payback.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Mariners vs. JetHawks

WHEN: 3 p.m. today.

WHERE: The Hangar, Lancaster.

RADIO: KHJ 1380

DETAILS: The Mariners’ final exhibition game before opening the season Tuesday night in Seattle should include most, if not all, of the team’s regular lineup. Randy Johnson, the 1995 American League Cy Young Award winner, is scheduled to start the game and pitch five or six innings. Gates open at 12:30 p.m. The Mariners are scheduled to take batting practice from 1:10 to 2:10. The game is sold out.