Smokies and Cubs looks like natural fit

Fans already expressing approval over Smokies affiliation with Cubs From staff reports news@theheraldnewspapers.com Management of the Class AA Tennessee Smokies Minor League Baseball franchise made it official Thursday afternoon what most area baseball enthusiasts had seen coming for quite a while now. Starting next baseball season, the Southern League’s Tennessee Smokies will begin a two-year working agreement with the Chicago Cubs. The Smokies are opting out of a working agreement with the Arizona Diamondbacks, which began following the 2004 season. Tennessee finished 70-69 in the season that officially wrapped up earlier this month. Despite and encouraging improvement to start the second half of the season, the Smokies fell off pace in the final weeks of the campaign and failed to make the playoffs for the second consecutive year. The lovable-loser Chicago Cubs franchise has a large national following due to their cable television following on Chicago’s WGN. Chicago’s Wrigley Field is a National baseball icon despite the fact the Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908. The Smokies management foresees the new partnership with the Cubs being a big hit for the minor league organization and local baseball fans. With a total attendance of 255,906 for last season, the Smokies ranked fourth in the Southern League despite having a losing record in the first half of the season. The Cubs former Southern League home was in Jackson, Tennessee, but the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx drew just 95, 486 this past season, the worst attendance in the Southern League. Since a long-time affiliation with the Toronto Blue Jays, which was one of the longest-running partnerships in Minor League Baseball history, ended in 2002, the Cubs will be the third different Major League organization the Smokies have been affiliated with after the turn of the century. Tennessee had a nice run from 2002-2004 as the AA farm club of the St. Louis Cardinals before St. Louis opted out of the agreement to establish a AA team closer, in terms of distance, to its Major League home. The Diamondbacks then entered the picture, and despite being a relatively new Major League franchise, and being located thousands of miles away in Arizona, the Smokies continued to draw nice crowds, and for the most part, routinely gave the local fans a good product on the field. However, most local baseball followers will not shed any tears when the Diamondbacks franchise packs its bags. “I think it’ll just be a better fit,” said Gabe Day, a Norris native, who claimed to have attended over 30 Smokies’ home games last season. “I’ve never really been a Cubs fan, I’ll definitely pay more attention to the franchise now.” West Tenn did manage to have some on-the-field success as a farm team of the Cubs. The DiamonJaxx had six winning seasons and reached the Southern League Finals in 1999, 2000 and 2005, winning the league championship in 2000. Further details on the new agreement will be available in Monday’s Smoky Mountain Herald.