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| LEDGER: Car dealer becomes Eels’ leadoff ‘hitter’ |
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PLYMOUTH - The River Eels’ ‘‘Johnny Damon’’ wields a checkbook rather than a bat. Local businessman Jeff Tracy of Tracy Chevrolet Cadillac on Samoset Street has signed a 10-year contract under which he will have the advertising rights to the home-team dugout when the planned stadium for the independent-league baseball team is built. ‘‘He’s our Johnny Damon, our leadoff man,’’ said Thomas O’Brien, president of Bay Colony Baseball and Athletics LLC. ‘‘The first to sign as a corporate sponsor.’’ Other such contracts will be announced in coming weeks, O’Brien said. River Eels officials would not say what Tracy paid for his deal. O’Brien yesterday gave Tracy the first prototype of the team’s uniform shirt, as well as a hat and T-shirt sporting the team’s logo. ‘‘This is exactly the type of sponsor we’re looking for,’’ O’Brien said, praising Tracy for the company’s commitment to the community and the team. O’Brien said Tracy was welcome to try out for the team, but Tracy declined the offer, saying he was excited just to be a team sponsor and partner. O’Brien could not say when his company will submit plans and seek permits for the proposed $35 million, 5,000-seat open-air stadium, which would be built on 28 acres near Route 3’s Exit 7. Initial promises that the team would be playing in May proved too optimistic, O’Brien said. Plans had to be redrawn when a proposed indoor sports facility and a restaurant next to the stadium were scrapped in favor of an office building. O’Brien said companies are already calling to book events at the planned conference center. Bay Colony, a group of four local businessmen, has spurned offers from neighboring towns trying to lure the team away from Plymouth. Some of those proposals came with funding incentives or offers of free land, O’Brien said. ‘‘We think this is the perfect place for baseball,’’ he said. ‘‘Our hearts and minds are in Plymouth.’’ In October, Plymouth town meeting approved tax breaks intended to support the River Eels project. The Eels will play on an as-yet-undisclosed independent-league circuit and will not be affiliated with a Major League Baseball team. By TAMARA RACE
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