OPINION
Connected to your community
EDITORIAL
Open doors, they will come
B
aseball continues to flounder at Ottawa Stadium. Pity the poor fan awaiting the opening pitch of a new season. The sun is shining, the fans are ready, but there’s no team on the field. The stop-start process of trying to snag a AAclass team for Ottawa Stadium has been frustrating. City staff once proposed condominiums for the parking lot, but that was shot down because fans might need somewhere to park once a AA team gets here. In negotiations to bring a high level of baseball back to Ottawa, teams have thrown the city a few curveballs. So far the Ottawa has whiffed. The Fat Cats of the Intercounty Baseball League were kicked out of the stadium because the city wanted to renovate prior to the arrival of AA ball. Now that AA is guaranteed to miss the 2013 season, the eviction has proved unnecessary. People went to see the Fat Cats. They were family oriented, with low ticket prices and the highest attendance numbers in the league. Forcing the team out prior to a AA deal being finalized now seems like the wrong move. We’re left with a wonderful site and no team. The earliest we will see a AA team – or any pro
baseball at all – will be the 2014 season. It means a whole summer will go by with an empty park. Surely the city would have enough advance notice of the pending arrival of a AA team to get the place fixed up. The negotiations to get a new team to Ottawa have been a mystery. It’s understandable that there will be a period of secrecy during active negotiations to bring a new team here, but there must be some clue if an upcoming season is going to happen or not. With no pro team this summer – and no renovations planned in the short term – the gates of Ottawa Stadium should be thrown open for the community to enjoy. Former Fat Cats general manager Duncan MacDonald has proposed the park could host family events, men’s leagues and Little League baseball this summer. He’s willing to co-ordinate the process, providing turn-key service to the city. It’s a proposal worth considering but the city has said no. The stadium is paid for with residents’ tax dollars; who better to round the bases than the city’s own ball players? There’s only one answer to MacDonald’s proposal: play ball!
COLUMN
Do we really need another gleaming palace of gloom?
I
f it’s your birthday and you make the proper phone calls, you and some friends can ride in the pace car at Rideau Carleton Raceway. It’s pretty good to be one of those friends. The car, a big Cadillac limousine with a wide metal gate attached to the rear, drives along ahead of the horses. A man in back controls the gate and, in the initial stages, also controls the accelerator. When he accelerates and swings back the gate, the driver in front takes over, the race begins and you in the birthday group, facing sideways, get to watch the race up close, hearing the sounds and feeling the speed – even if you see a bit more than you might want to of the drivers’ encouragement of the horses. You get let off beside the winner’s circle where the happy owner waits. Then you walk back into the building and up to the restaurant area where people enjoy the buffet and place bets at their table. If you play your cards right, to mix a metaphor, you can have a nice meal and only lose a few dollars on the horses. You can tell, as you wander over for a second dessert, that most of the people are enjoying themselves. They holler encourage-
CHARLES GORDON Funny Town ment to the horses, whose progress is also visible on TV screens around the room, and in between races chat cheerfully with their table mates. To enter the restaurant from the parking lot you first have to walk through the slots area. It is brightly lit with lights flashing on the machines which produce a bonging noise that, put together, sounds like music. As an aside, the intriguing thing is that the machines are all in tune. Somebody must have to make sure the slot machines are not flat or sharp – another modern-day occupation. But we digress. Aside from the bonging and flashing, the most noteworthy characteristic of the casino is that no one is smiling or laughing in it. I have walked through Published weekly by:
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this room many times on the way into the track and I have never seen anyone laughing or smiling. I see people sitting or standing solemnly in front of their chosen machines, methodically feeding money into them and waiting gloomily for money to come out. From there, walking into the restaurant and the sight of the race track is like walking into the light. The paradoxical thing about this is it’s still gambling, whether you’re betting on a horse or a machine. But it feels different. To bet on a horse, you may scan the racing form and other available information for clues – what did the horse do in the last race, did it start strongly and fade or did it move up in the late stages of the race; who are its owners, its driver; what are the odds, who are the handicappers picking? Or you might just decide you like the horse’s name. Two dollars on Stanley Cup to win. Somehow going through the process makes you feel like you have a stake in the outcome, and if you win, it is a testament to your skill. If you lose, well it’s only $2. This helps keep you smiling, while you return once again to the dessert table. On you way out, after emerging from the
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Manotick News EMC - Thursday, May 9, 2013
noisy gloom of the slots area, you scan some petitions from the horse racing and breeding industry, who feel rightfully threatened by the Ontario government’s plans to introduce more big casinos and end the lottery commission’s partnership with the race tracks. According to the industry, tens of thousands of jobs are at stake. Now, it’s unfortunate that the racing industry needs the slots to support itself, but if the choice is between keeping the track going and constructing another gleaming palace of gloom, it’s not difficult to know which one to cheer.
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