Minor league baseball owner takes another swing at Salinas

Minor League Baseball owner D.G. Elmore is back in Salinas making another pitch for his team. He owns the Bakersfield Blaze, a team Elmore wants to move to Salinas.

“Met with the city manager, said hi to the mayor and we had very positive meetings today,” Elmore said.

Bringing a Minor League Baseball team to Salinas is hinging on finding a place to put the stadium and sticking to it.

“We’ve looked at a number of different sites, and it seems like now we’re finally at the point where we may have a couple identified,” Elmore said.

He wouldn’t say where the proposed site is. Last time around they had Hayward Lumber picked out, and Elmore said they couldn’t come to an agreement.

Now, he said they are farther along than before and added what he really needs now is continuing support from the community.

“Often what we see is when there’s been baseball someplace and then it leaves and then you bring it back, there’s always this pent-up excitement for that,” Elmore said.

With Rabobank Stadium up and running, the prospect of building a Salinas soccer stadium in the works, City Manager Ray Corpuz said it’s time for minor league baseball.

“We like to think of ourselves as the Central Coast capitol for sports,” Corpuz said.

It hasn’t been determined who will pay for the stadium and how, Elmore and Copuz both confirmed. That will be a topic of serious discussion when a location is nailed down.

“The city doesn’t have many reasons to spend a whole lot more time with us on the details until we actually have a property in place,” Elmore said.

Elmore added that minor league baseball has a deadline of 2017 to not only have a stadium in place but to start playing baseball in Salinas.