Des Moines, Iowa; You’re no Lewiston

This story was published in the May 31, 1992, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.

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DES MOINES, Iowa — The crack of the bat and the pop of the mitt echoed throughout Sec Taylor Stadium.

The crowd noise did, too, during play at the 35th annual NAIA World Series baseball tournament here.

There was nothing to absorb the sounds.

Unlike past years when the tournament’s home was at Lewiston, crowds at this year’s World Series were small. Total attendance for the 14 games was estimated at 20,410, or 1,458 per game.

But that number, like most of the attendance figures, was inflated. Tournament organizers counted the 3,300 pre-tournament tickets that were sold in the night attendance figures, thus the largest crowd of 4,861 that showed up for the championship game was more like 1,500. By the end of the game, however, only 80 were left.

Even a head count at a loser-out day game showed 157 fans, while the attendance was listed at 379.

A truer count of those who actually attended the 14 games was more like an average of about 400 fans per game.

“Kind of quiet,” observed Lewis-Clark State College coach Ed Cheff.

“You have to remember the stadium holds 13,000, so it doesn’t look like a lot of people are here,” said Lou Yacinich, the tournament director and baseball coach at Grand View College.

Official programs and NAIA officials, however, disagree, as even the stadium profile says the stadium only holds 10,500.

Other than attendance and weather problems, this year’s series went on without any hitches, something that baseball fans in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley probably don’t want to hear.

“With this being the first year the tournament has been held here, we’re looking at it from an evaluation process,” said Charlie Eppler, NAIA baseball administrator and director of championship events.

“We’re interested in what happened and what can be done differently next year,” said Eppler. “The most important thing is to make sure the kids have enjoyed themselves and that we put on a first-class championship event. Thus far, outside of the rain, things have gone well.”

Thus, the evaluation process becomes more of a question. Does the NAIA want a World Series that has the small-town features and draws the larger crowds (like Lewiston) or does it want a series that can attract money from business support and possibly television, but no fans (like Des Moines)?

The tournament is scheduled for Des Moines the next two years and there also is an optional year available in 1995.

That means Grand View College, which is host for the tournament, has the option of keeping the tournament here in 1995 as well.

“It’s been a tremendous undertaking,” Yacinich said. “There’s so much that goes into the tournament. I have only the utmost respect for the Lewiston people.”

Des Moines beat out Lewiston and West Palm Beach, Fla., for the rights to the series last year. Yacinich spent the 1991 series at Lewiston, both participating and studying, trying to pick up anything that would help him at this year’s tournament.

LCSC Athletic Director Gary Picone said a key reason why Des Moines got the series was that LCSC lowered its financial guarantee to the NAIA.

With the series dropping the host team and the at-large team and going to an eight-team format, LCSC basically gave the NAIA a way of getting out of Lewiston, Picone said.

Several things at the two tournaments were similar, but as Eppler said, trying to compare the series at Lewiston with the one at Des Moines is like “comparing apples and oranges.”

At Lewiston, the tournament was basically the only show in town and got all the attention from the whole town, including the media.

In Des Moines, with a population of close to 400,000, it’s not the only show. It’s not even considered the big event. The hometown newspaper, the Des Moines Register, ran only two to three stories a day. TV stations usually report the scores and highlights as their third- or fourth-biggest sports story of the day.

Also, the ballparks are different. Sec Taylor Stadium has plenty of room for all media outlets, including Prime Ticket, which televised three games from the tournament. That is a far cry from the 10-seat pressbox at Harris Field.

“People keep asking me to compare the series at Lewiston and here and I tell them it’s impossible to do,” Eppler said. “It’s kind of a give-and-take situation. In Lewiston, you could get 5,000 fans, but I don’t know if you could get the TV exposure. I just don’t know if you can have the perfect world.

“We enjoyed our eight-year stay in Lewiston and they did a tremendous job of building the tournament up to where it’s at. Whether we’ll ever go back, I don’t know. You can’t after one year make an evaluation good or bad.”

Some of the players, however, can.

Auburn-Montgomery pitcher Damon Sutton, whose father is the Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton, said comparing Lewiston with Des Moines is more like comparing apples and rotten bananas.

“When you went to the ballpark at Lewiston, you knew there was going to be a good crowd that appreciated baseball,” he said.

“I remember playing a loser-out day game in front of 2,500 fans. They treated us like we were the (Los Angeles) Dodgers. They never should have moved the tournament,” he added.

Several other players from Auburn-Montgomery and Spring Arbor of Michigan said similar things, especially playing in front of small crowds.

Unlike when the tournament was held in Lewiston, attendance figures are not a necessity here to determine financial success.

Like at Lewiston, the eight teams had honorary coaches here, but the sponsors paid $2,500 each. In Lewiston, it was $1,000.

“Our honorary coach there had us to his house for dinner and went out of his way for us,” Sutton said.

“They even came here (Des Moines) to watch us this year. Here, we took a tour of the business. I felt like it was more of a business write-off.”

To help with ticket sales, several charity organizations sold tournament passes for $10 and got to keep half of the money. A little more than 3,000 tickets were sold that way, which earned the tournament $15,000. That alone covered the $10,000 guarantee it must give the NAIA for holding the tournament.

Tournament organizers also tried to limit other expenses. To help with the cost of renting the ballpark, which is the property of the Iowa Cubs, a professional minor league team, organizers allowed the Cubs to run all concession stands and some souvenir stands. But even that caused problems as no games were scheduled for last Sunday and the Cubs didn’t have anyone scheduled to run the concession stands. Rainouts, however, forced a game to be moved to Sunday, but the concession stands all were closed.

Also, all eight teams stayed at the same hotel, which gave organizers a large discount.

“We had several businesses get, behind us and show their support and we’ve had several call us and ask what can they do for next year,” Yacinich said. “After this year, we’ll have an idea of how many programs we need and what other expenses we can hold down. The one thing we had a problem with is that we almost ran out of baseballs. We had to order more.”

The Des Moines Visitors Center had a booth set up at the park and a staff person said they were satisfied with the number of people that came in from out of town for the Series.

On the other side, however, there wasn’t much in-town interest.

“The key for us is public relations,” Yacinich continued. “This is an event city and we had to magnify the awareness of the public because this is not the only event in town. But I think we’re starting to reap some of the rewards.”

It’s questionable, however, if the fans and players are being rewarded as well.