Baseball fever has hit Thunder Bay, and hit it hard.
Almost as hard as the Cubans and Americans are hitting opposition pitching this week at the World Junior Baseball Championship.
Crowds at Port Arthur Stadium have exceeded even the wildest dreams of organizers, as fans jump on the Team Canada bandwagon.
Tickets for Friday night’s Team Canada game may be the most valuable item in Thunder Bay this week, and organizers are fully aware of that fact.
On Monday the cranes were working around the clock, adding additional bleacher seating along the first and third base sides, allowing as many as 500 or more fans to take in the action.
Thunder Bay has always been labelled a hockey town, but this week has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that it can also be a baseball town.
This has to be good news for Brad Jorgenson, owner of the Thunder Bay Border Cats, the Northwoods League squad that has been plagued the past two years with bottom-of-the-barrel attendance figures.
In 2010 they are averaging 642 people a night, about 200 below where they’d like to be to turn a profit.
That’s down slightly from last summer, when they averaged 668.
While many of those in the stands this week are from out of town, a large number are from the city.
Almost as hard as the Cubans and Americans are hitting opposition pitching this week at the World Junior Baseball Championship.
Crowds at Port Arthur Stadium have exceeded even the wildest dreams of organizers, as fans jump on the Team Canada bandwagon.
Tickets for Friday night’s Team Canada game may be the most valuable item in Thunder Bay this week, and organizers are fully aware of that fact.
On Monday the cranes were working around the clock, adding additional bleacher seating along the first and third base sides, allowing as many as 500 or more fans to take in the action.
Thunder Bay has always been labelled a hockey town, but this week has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that it can also be a baseball town.
This has to be good news for Brad Jorgenson, owner of the Thunder Bay Border Cats, the Northwoods League squad that has been plagued the past two years with bottom-of-the-barrel attendance figures.
In 2010 they are averaging 642 people a night, about 200 below where they’d like to be to turn a profit.
That’s down slightly from last summer, when they averaged 668.
While many of those in the stands this week are from out of town, a large number are from the city.
