LANCASTER, Calif. – Looking out at the ballpark on a summer afternoon used to create feelings of excitement for Tom Backemeyer.
What You Need To Know
- The Lancaster Jethawks have been a part of the Antelope Valley for 24 years
- The stadium and baseball team provide one of the only affordable forms of family entertainment in the region
- The Major League Baseball contraction plan was made in the hopes of easing travel burdens, improving playing conditions, and developing farm system athletes
- The JetHawks are committed to proving they are worth saving for the longterm
As the executive vice president of the Lancaster Jethawks, an affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, Backemeyer eats, sleeps and breathes minor league baseball.
This season, however, coming to the team's 4,500+ capacity stadium, The Hangar, is not quite as exciting as years past.
“It’s not the way it’s supposed to be," said Backemeyer. "A ballpark is beautiful in general, but the fans are what make it.”
This season there will be no fans in the Hangar, nor will there be a team playing on the diamond. The coronavirus pandemic has put an indefinite hold on all of minor league baseball, forcing its cancellation in late June.
“The sports and entertainment industry in particular has been really hard hit," Backemeyer explained. "Overnight really, you went from your normal sources of revenue to zero.”
While there were 119 other minor league teams financially impacted, the JetHawks are one of 42 listed in a preliminary Major League Baseball contraction plan, meaning they may have already played their last season.
MLB owners championed the plan as a means to prioritize player development, improve working conditions and playing facilities, and ease travel burdens on teams.
The JetHawks firmly believe they should not be on the hit list.
“We kinda got the double whammy," Backemeyer said. "Our goal from the beginning is to show to Major League Baseball, 'Hey, this is not one of the franchises you want to consider eliminating.'"
If the lack of a season this year has proven anything, it is that the JetHawks mean something special to the Antelope Valley.
Perhaps no one knows that better than Warren Jablonksi, who has been coming to games since 1998.
“Having the organization here is paramount to the community, it’s everything," he said. "The feel of the park, the affordability, we had our kids grow up here. It’s just a great environment. For someone to say it’s just a baseball team, sure it is, but it’s much more than that.”
It is that sense of pride that is motivating the community and the ownership group to keep fighting for the team's future, urging MLB to "save our JetHawks."
“We’re the only minor league team in L.A. County, it would be a huge loss for this area," Backemeyer said. "We’ve proven over the last six years that we’ll do whatever it takes.”