New owner rename-z Ottawa Rapids baseball team

A new beginning for Ottawa's Can-Am league baseball team has splashed a new ending on its name.

The Ottawa Rapids are now known as the Ottawa Rapidz after being pitched into the hands of the Ottawa-based online movie rental company Zip.ca, the company and the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball announced at a news conference Monday.

"The reason we're into this is because we love sports, because we love this community and we think that the Can-Am league is a tremendous version of baseball — an independent league, players playing baseball for the love of the game," said Rick Anderson, CEO of Zip.ca and now chair of Rapidz Sports and Entertainment Inc.

The team was announced by the Can-Am League less than three months ago, and is scheduled to play its first pre-season game against the Les Capitales de Quebec on May 18.

League commissioner Miles Wolff said the new ownership to whom the league sold the team is a strong local group with the resources to be there for the long-term.

"When we brought the team here ... we were very excited about the potential and still are, but one of the pieces that we wanted was local ownership," he said. "The goal all along was to make this Ottawa's team, with a lot of local players."

The team will be hosting a Little League Day at their Ottawa Stadium on May 17, the day before its inaugural pre-season game.