2003-03-07-Gary Jacobs-Storm
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 California Riverside
CountyLake
Elsinore |
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| . Gary Jacobs' Perfect Storm San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage, March 7, 2003 |
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2003-03-07-Gary Jacobs-Storm |
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By Donald H. Harrison Gary Jacobs, president of the United Jewish Federation of San Diego County, as a boy typically played catcher or right field the two positions often believed to be where uncertain fielders could do the least damage to their team. "I was a horrible player," Jacobs admits, without too much self-consciousness. His proudest accomplishment as a player came the day when another Little League team, seeing he was large and not knowing he wasn't a particularly good hitter, intentionally walked him four times. Jacobs loved baseball since the days his grandfather took him, as a little boy, to Fenway Park to twilight doubleheaders. They'd watch the first game, take a break for a steak dinner at a nearby restaurant, then return to watch Jacobs' beloved Boston Red Sox in a night game. "It was great," Jacobs said. At the age of 10, Jacobs and his family moved to San Diego, where his father, Irwin, eventually would co-found Qualcomm. So far as the National League was concerned, Gary Jacobs became a San Diego Padres fan, but there was no question what American League team still owned his heart: the Boston Red Sox. Even today, when the Padres play in a stadium named after his father's company, Jacobs still dreams for a World Series match-up between the Padres and the Red Sox. "I think there was one day, last season, when they were both in first place," he said. As a young adult, Jacobs' baseball interest turned from playing to umpiring Little League and Bobby Sox League games. He likes to cite the old joke about how, at the time of a Jewish boy's bar mitzvah, he realizes he has a better shot at owning a professional baseball team than playing for one. The joke came true for Jacobs in 2001, when he purchased the Lake Elsinore Storm, then a minor-league club in the Anaheim Angels organization. Within a short time, the Angels traded their team for the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, a Padres farm club. Jacobs said it made sense for the two major league teams to switch their minor league affiliates because Lake Elsinore was closer than Rancho Cucamonga to San Diego. The Storm and the Quakes are members of the 10-team California League, in which Class-A affiliates of American and National League teams train ever-shifting rosters of baseball players anxious to some day make the jump to "The Show," as Major League Baseball is reverentially called. Lake Elsinore is the southernmost city in the league. Other teams in the California League's South Division include the High Desert Mavericks, a Milwaukee Brewers affiliate based in the town of Adelanto; the Lancaster Jethawks, an Arizona Diamondback affiliate, and the Inland Empire 66ers, formerly known as the San Bernardino Stampede. The 66ers are an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. Teams in the California League's North Division (and their major league affiliates) are: Bakersfield Blaze (Tampa Bay Devil Rays), Modesto Aıs (Oakland Aıs), San Jose Giants (San Francisco Giants), Stockton Ports (Texas Rangers) and Visalia Oaks (Colorado Rockies). The Lake Elsinore Storm is known as a high Class-A team, meaning the California League is about halfway up the ladder from the Rookie League to the Major Leagues. Rookie and low Class-A farm clubs occupy the rungs below the high Class-A teams. In turn, high Class-A teams are below Double-A and Triple-A minor-league teams. Triple-A is just one rung below the Majors. The year Jacobs obtained the Storm, he probably thought baseball just couldn't get any better. Under Dave Oster, the Storm's president and general manager, the team compiled a record of 91 wins and 49 losses en route not only to becoming California League champions but also Minor League Team of the Year. In minor-league baseball, the owner of a franchise signs a contract with the Major League organization which provides the baseball players, the coaches and the general manager. "My job is to sell the tickets and the hot dogs," says Jacobs. "Iıve got kosher hot dogs," he added in an interview with Heritage. However, there's quite a bit more to team ownership than tickets and hotdogs. The franchise puts on promotions to build attendance, including walkaround mascots Thunder the Dog and Jackpot the Rabbit, pays for the players' accommodations at away games, arranges for the young players to have host families, and, in short, helps keep alive the spirit of small-town baseball that many people think is more truly representative of the great American Pastime than the Major Leagues with their multimillion-dollar contracts and players' strikes. Players for the Lake Elsinore Storm are youngsters who first and foremost love baseball. Their salaries average $1,200 a month. Between April and September, they play 140 games, 70 at home and 70 away, sometimes having to travel by bus all night to the northernmost ballparks. Hometown fans take an interest in the playersı'welfare. Outstanding efforts, like a pitcher striking out the side or a batter hitting a home run, are routinely rewarded by fans who pass a bucket around the stands to be filled with contributions to enhance the players' salaries. One of the charms of minor-league baseball is the opportunity to see players before they become major-leaguers. On the Storm's championship team of 2001 were such Padres pitchers as Cliff Bartosh, Eric Cyr, Ben Howard, Michael Nicolas, Oliver Perez, Jake Peavy and Dennis Tankersley. All of them are now at spring training camp in Peoria, Ariz., where the Padres share the sports facility with the Seattle Mariners. Also at the Padres' spring training camp is Cory Stewart, who pitched for the Storm last year, when the team won in the South Division but was defeated for the California League championship by the Stockton Ports. The Storm's overall record last year was 75-65. Current Padres outfielders include Storm alumni Vince Faison and Xavier Nady. Not on the Padres' official 40-man spring training roster, but still trying out for the Padres, are Tagg Bozied, Jake Gautreau and Khalil Greene, all of whom played for the Storm last year. On March 29, the Padres will play an exhibition game at Lake Elsinore against the Storm, then begin the regular Major League season with a home opener March 31 against the San Francisco Giants. The Storm will host the High Desert Mavericks April 3 for its season opener. The sons of Jacobs and Padres owner John Moores were football teammates at Torrey Pines High School, one component in a friendship between the two team owners that has led to them participating in joint enterprises. There is now a Padres park in Lake Elsinore, there are plans for some joint advertising of the two teams and a few Storm games will be broadcast on the Padres Cable Channel. In addition, arrangements have been made for the Storm to play the second game of a double header at Qualcomm Stadium on Sunday, Aug. 10, following a regulation Padres game against the Cincinnati Reds. If Jacobs follows family tradition, he'll dash out and get a quick steak dinner between the two games. |
