Eclipse of the Suns

It’s the seventh inning, and a cool fog is settling over the Oxnard College baseball field, prompting about 700 Pacific Suns fans to snuggle under their blankets or grab a hot cup of coffee at the concession stand.

Although the last-place Suns are winning--a rarity for the club during this error-filled first season in Ventura County--chilled audience members trickle out the exit as the night air becomes colder.

When the home team clinches a 3-1 victory over the Sonoma County Crushers a little later, those still in the stands are treated to the uncommon sight of Suns’ players trading postgame high fives.

“Every win has been like winning the World Series,” says the team’s new manager, John Wood, “because they’ve been so few and far between.”

For a minor league team that spent two years preparing for its Ventura County debut, this has not been a season to remember.

Just past the halfway mark in the 90-game season, the Suns are the worst club in the eight-team Western Baseball League, posting a dismal 13-35 overall record, including 0-3 in the second half. Hoping to shake things up, the Suns fired manager Jim Derrington earlier this month, replacing him with Wood, a 37-year-old Oxnard native.

Off the field, it’s been a struggle as well.

The club is losing money, attendance is off and marketing efforts--including a radio blitz on Latino stations and a specialty store in Simi Valley--have failed.

Also, the team’s lights went out, forcing cancellation of the opening game. And the sprinklers unexpectedly turned on in the middle of another game.

But team owners are taking steps to turn the problems around, changing the starting time, developing new marketing efforts and--above all--pushing to move out of south Oxnard and build a real stadium.

Team officials express disappointment over the small crowds, saying the Oxnard-area Latino fan base they had hoped to build with an aggressive marketing campaign hasn’t materialized.

The Suns have dropped their Spanish-language AM radio broadcasts, planning to focus instead on ticket giveaways and other promotions in the Latino community.

Aside from the failed marketing campaign, team officials are also blaming problems on location.

South Oxnard’s nippy nighttime weather isn’t ideal for baseball, team owner Don DiCarlo says.

“We didn’t know how cold it got,” he said.

To avoid the evening fog, Suns’ officials say they will move game time up by 30 minutes, to 6:35 p.m.

Meanwhile, the south side’s reputation for crime hasn’t helped, team officials say.

“We hear it every day: ‘We’d love to come to the ballpark, but don’t want to come to south Oxnard,’ ” DiCarlo said.

“There’ve been no problems here, but the perception of south Oxnard as unsafe is not going to go away easily. Getting people here for that first time is a problem.”

Even with all the problems, however, the club’s enthusiasm hasn’t waned. The positive outlook is evident in the pregame autograph sessions for Little Leaguers, as well as DiCarlo’s prediction the club will build a stadium along the Ventura Freeway in either Oxnard or Camarillo by the 2000 season.

That would put players and fans in a more convenient--and warmer--site, team officials say.

“Like any business, location is the key,” says General Manager Mike Begley, who cites a team survey showing strong fan support in Camarillo. “Sooner or later, we’re going to penetrate this market.”

Restrictions Imposed by City, Trustees

For the Suns, it’s been a long road out of Palm Springs, their original hometown.

Two years ago the team left that desert community, where the Suns also complained of the weather. The stifling desert heat was keeping fans away, team officials said.

Once in Oxnard, Suns’ officials worked feverishly to find a temporary home, saying they needed a couple years to build a stadium.

Eventually, Ventura County Community College District trustees and City Council members granted the team a two-year lease at Oxnard College. But the approval came so late in 1996 that the Western Baseball League ordered the Suns to sit out the 1997 season and establish their business in Ventura County.

Because of the team’s history of debt and notoriety for such outrageous promotions as “Nude Night” and “Drag Queen Night,” the city and college district set several restrictions. For instance, local officials put themselves in charge of approving game-night promotions. This season, the promotions have included events such as sack races and screaming contests, with the winners getting pizza.

Also, the college district barred the Suns from selling beer. That, team officials say, has also hurt attendance.

“People come to the ballpark because of the beer--a couple beers and dogs,” said DiCarlo, who then pitches the ballpark’s variety of nonalcoholic brews.

DiCarlo concedes the team is losing money, but won’t discuss details. Oxnard city officials say the team owes the college district $11,000 in legal fees and the city another $710 for security services provided by the Police Department.

“We meet with the Suns regularly, and there are a couple of loose ends to be taken care of,” Oxnard City Atty. Gary Gillig said.

On the positive side, the Suns have placated concerns raised by the controversies in Palm Springs, pushing a strong community relations campaign. The team has given free Little League clinics, volunteers with the Salvation Army and sends players to schools to preach the benefits of studying hard.

Even some of the Suns’ harshest critics have relented.

“I definitely have softened my stance on the Suns,” said John Tallman, the lone college district trustee to oppose the team’s plan to play at Oxnard College. “They’ve worked the community hard, and they’re drawing about as good as they can for their record, which is terrible.”

Team officials report average ticket sales of about 1,300. The college ballpark seats about 2,500.

But about half of the 600 season ticket holders have not been showing up for games--meaning average attendance has been closer to 1,000, team officials say.

Neighbors, who have opposed the makeshift stadium near their homes, suspect the numbers are even smaller. Residents from a nearby mobile home park say they have counted fewer than 200 people at some games.

“You don’t have the spectator noise because there aren’t that many spectators,” said Martin Jones, a chief critic of the team.

The league does not audit attendance reports.

“I predicted the two things that would kill them are the cold nights and the [ban on] beer,” Tallman said. “I think their best bet is to get to a warmer place. If they made a map and put a dot in the middle of where their customers are, it would be Camarillo.”

Camarillo May Be Part of Team’s Future

Indeed, DiCarlo says Camarillo could be the team’s eventual destination. The team recently released a survey that reported 21% of those attending games are from Camarillo. Meanwhile, Ventura and even Thousand Oaks, at 17% each, account for more of the fan base than Oxnard, which constitutes 16% of the average home crowd, according to team officials.

DiCarlo readily acknowledges he is considering Camarillo as a possible stadium site. He says the stadium, which could cost $10 million and seat 5,000, could go anywhere along the Ventura Freeway between Oxnard and Camarillo. And he says two investment firms have shown interest in financing the project, which he pledges would be built without any taxpayer money.

Other than that, however, the team owner won’t provide any details on stadium plans.

Ventura and Camarillo have previously tried to lure teams, but are no longer in discussions with any clubs. And officials in both cities say they do not intend to subsidize a stadium.

“The city’s position is that they’re welcome, but we won’t spend money on an athletic stadium,” said Camarillo Mayor Charlotte Craven, who stressed she has had no talks with the Suns on possible relocation plans.

Meanwhile, Oxnard City Council members say they will not use taxpayer money to subsidize the Suns, but don’t want to lose them.

“The Suns are good for Oxnard,” City Councilman John Zaragoza said. “Of course, the Suns are a private enterprise, and they need to make money to stay alive.”

But Gillig, who is monitoring the Suns’ progress, expressed doubt that a stadium would be built.

“I don’t think a private developer would build a stadium given this level of [fan] support,” he said.

For now, DiCarlo says, the team can afford to operate in the red. The club is being bankrolled, in part, by the family’s lucrative San Bernardino-area home furnishings business, as well as a shopping plaza and auto center the DiCarlos own near San Diego.

And at least the Suns are doing better--financially, that is--than the Grays Harbor Gulls, another Western Baseball League team based in Washington that was dissolved earlier this year by its owners after mounting losses.

The league has stepped in and taken over the Gulls, who now have no hometown and are playing the remainder of this season’s games on the road.

Despite all the Suns’ troubles, they still could succeed in Ventura County, urban planner Bill Fulton said.

To be sure, the team faces some inherent problems, he said.

For instance, the Western Baseball League is not affiliated with the major leagues, diminishing interest among those who want to see star minor leaguers move on to the big leagues. And until the team moves out of its temporary college location, it will still be viewed by many as “hokey” and second-rate, Fulton said.

“In theory, this should be an excellent market,” said Fulton, citing the relative affluence and large number of families in the county.

At a recent game against Sonoma, some fans offered suggestions.

Diane Avila of Oxnard said the team should try to find more local players and forget about targeting the Latino market, saying “everybody loves baseball.”

The team has solved some embarrassing snafus as it enters the second half of its season. For instance, the lights that malfunctioned on opening day are working. And the playing field sprinkler system is also functioning properly.

In the meantime, the Suns are just trying to win more. New manager Wood has ordered mandatory practices on basic skills such as bunting and fielding ground balls. And hoping to instill discipline, he plans to institute a curfew on road trips.

For his part, DiCarlo says he won’t stop brainstorming for ways to draw fans.

“The wildest thing we were going to do was have ‘Crazy Day.’ The pitchers would play the positions and the position players would pitch,” DiCarlo said. “But the coaches talked me out of that.”

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