When the summer sun begins to bear down on Marion, the umpires will be back to dust off home plate for another season of Bobcats baseball.
"That's good news to me," said die-hard fan Lefty Towery Monday upon learning of the team's return. "I love it."
General Manager Gordon Guess confirmed Monday that a second season of summer collegiate league baseball will return to the city in 2009. The decision was finalized over the weekend with support from an overwhelming majority of the team's 21 investors.
“It looks like the experiment has pretty much worked,” Guess said of the effort to field and keep a squad in an organized baseball league.
He said it appears the Bobcats will join the rest of the KIT League line-up from last season – Owensboro, Fulton and Tradewater (Dawson Springs) in Kentucky; Union City, Tenn; Farmington, Mo. – with the additions of Sikeston, Mo., and Olney, Ill., possible. Depending on the number of teams in the league, the Bobcats will likely play a 49- or 50-game schedule in June and July.
Steve Fowler will return as manager for the Bobcats, as well as eight or nine players from the final 2008 season roster.
One of the returning investors calls the decision a win for the community.
“We feel like it has more benefit than the dollars reflect,” said Charlie Hunt, co-owner of Marion Feed Mill. “I think the community enjoyed having the team here.”
