Ottawa Rapids baseball team announced with high hopes

The new Ottawa Rapids baseball team will launch its inaugural season in 2008, the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball announced Thursday.

The team will play its first of 47 home games in Ottawa on May 22, the Can-Am league said at a news conference to announce the name and logo for the new team.

The Rapids' manager will be 68-year-old Ed Nottle, a former minor-league baseball pitcher who has managed a variety of U.S. minor-league teams since 1978, most recently the Sioux City Explorers.

He promised a team full of Canadian talent and a franchise that's plugged into the community.

"You'll be proud of this team and you'll be proud that these decisions were made," Nottle said. "And I'll be proud to be a part of that here."

Ottawa was previously home to the Ottawa Lynx triple-A baseball team, which left the city in 2007 after 15 seasons.

During its last year in Ottawa, an average of less than 2,000 fans sat in the team's 10,000-seat stadium during home games at the Queensway and Riverside Drive.

Sliding attendance was blamed in part on poor weather, a lack of parking at the stadium and the team's poor performance.

Miles Wolff, commissioner of the Can-Am league and president of the Rapids, said he believes there are still thousands of baseball fans in the Ottawa area.

"When the Lynx started, they were drawing 9,000 a game — it was phenomenal," he said. "You've got to think all these fans haven't died, that there is a base here that we need to bring back, to cultivate, and hopefully we can do it."

He added that the Rapids' schedule will help. The Lynx, part of the International League, used to start their season during chilly April, while the Rapids won't start until late May.

And while the Lynx played just one level below the major leagues, the Rapids are firmly in the minors.

"Triple-A players don't want to be in any triple-A city. They want to get to the big leagues," Wolff said. "We're going to have players that want to be here, that want to be a part of the community."

The team is the independent league's second Canadian team, after the Capitales de Québec baseball team in Quebec