River Eels rolling along Car dealership signs as dugout sponsor

A baseball game is nine innings. But if you are trying to put together a baseball team, that’s going to take quite a bit longer. The leaders behind the proposed Plymouth River Eels independent professional baseball team know all too well about the twists and turns starting a new team will bring.

Fielding a team in fiscal 2007 was an original goal for the group, but the deadline to accomplish that task has since come and gone. The group began the next step in its evolution Monday with the announcement that Tracy Chevrolet of Plymouth signed a 10-year deal to sponsor the home team’s dugout.

“We expect that this will be the first of many announcements we will be making in the very near future,” Bay Colony Baseball and Athletics President and CEO Tom O’Brien said. “Everyone is excited about professional baseball coming to America’s Hometown. Wherever we go, people are asking us about the status of the project, and we are happy to report that it’s not if baseball is coming to Plymouth, it’s when. And it’ll be here sooner rather than later.”

O’Brien said interest in the River Eels has not waned since the long-talked about project was officially announced in November 2005. There are now more than 1,200 reservations for season tickets. Vice President of Business Development Michael Rothberg said the River Eels have received resumes and other inquiries from all over North America for positions ranging from manager and general manager to players on the team.

O’Brien said he would love nothing more than to have everything about the project “done yesterday,” but he hoped the general public understood that there was no way the $34.5 million project could be done without careful consideration by his group as well as the town at all of the steps along the way.

“Everyone we’ve talked too seems to be behind this project, and we are working diligently to bring everything to fruition,” the former representative of the state’s 12th legislative district said. “One thing we’ve learned in this process is that to put specific timelines on everything isn’t conducive to the ultimate goal. Hopefully every announcement brings us another step closer to that final goal.

“We are as anxious as everyone to get this team going and we know once we do, the people in this area are going to love having their own professional independent baseball team. We are moving the project forward as quickly as we can.”

The organization has a purchase-and-sales agreement in hand for 28.1 acres of land behind the Colony Place shopping plaza in West Plymouth. It received some financial relief from the town in November when town meeting approved a TIF (tax increment financing) agreement.

Plans for the proposed 5,000-seat stadium for the site, which will also include office space as well as a 2,000-square foot convention center, have not been officially presented to town’s planning board as of yet.

“We are working closely with the town, and the boards are aware of what we are looking to do. With a project of this scope, it’s tough to say if we are on schedule or behind the schedule of where we wanted to be. We are treading on some new ground,” O’Brien said. “This project has generated some excitement and we want to bring the River Eels to the community as quickly as we can.”

January 31, 2007 | Old Colony Memorial  By David Wolcott, CNC Newspapers