Taos fans excited that Blizzard is blowing into town
2/14/2013-
By Karen Boehler
Pecos League writer
TAOS — The Blizzard will be a cross between a full-time team and a travel team in their first year in the Pecos League — with only about 16 home games on the schedule — but that doesn’t bother Taos facilities manager Marty Remaly.
“I think it’s good for the inaugural situation here just to get the word out,” he said. “Get all the logistics set up. Figure out parking and how we’re going to set up the field. For me, on my end, I’m glad, because I’m going to be coordinating all that. I’d rather take it slow the first year. So I’m kind of happy for that the first year.”
And even though they won’t have as many homes games as other teams, the Blizzard seem to have had the easiest introduction of any city in the league.
Remaly said baseball in Taos goes back almost 100 years, and 20 years ago when he moved to the ski mecca, he started a men’s adult and senior league. So after a possible team in the Rocky Mountain Baseball League never came about when that league folded, joining the Pecos League seemed like a no brainer.
“It just all fell in place,” Remaly said. “It’s such a small town. Everybody is enthusiastic about it and there really are no issues.”
That included serving beer at the high school field where the Blizzard will play.
“We worked it out through the city that we can hopefully manage that OK,” he said, explaining he knows members of community alcohol and drug abuse groups personally. “They know me, that I wouldn’t do anything that would be detrimental or harmful to the community, and I’ll try to make it as positive as possible.”
The Blizzard will play at the recently remodeled Taos High School baseball field, which currently seats about 550 fans and was originally named Jose Cardenas Field. Remaly, an architect, was the project manager and designer of the new field, and said he worked closely with the Albuquerque Isotopes groundskeeper on the design and what needs to be done to keep the field in good condition.
The only thing missing — and the reason all the Taos games are daytime events — is a lack of lights, but Remaly hopes that will change by 2014.
“What’s really high on my agenda is the lighting,” he said. “The field was designed with an electrical utility room and all the circuit breakers and everything’s already set up for municipal lighting. All the conduits already run to all the positions for all the lights, we’ve just got to get the municipal aid to make that happen.”
But with support from school board superintendent Dr. Rodney Weston and Tiger baseball coach Mark Montoya, Remaly thinks lights will be up by the next season.
“I must have a good reputation, because everybody’s backing me, from the school board to the county to the city. To anybody in general. We’re making it work,” he said.
That includes the local newspaper, which Remaly said is giving the Blizzard lots of ink, and the Taos Visitor Center, which is selling jerseys, hats and T-shirts. So even though home town fans won’t have quite as many home games to attend, Remaly sees the Blizzard being in Taos for a long time.
“Taos is a small town,” he said. “It takes them a little bit to warm up to things, but I have a good feeling about it. That it’s just going to be a good place for people to hang out. There’s really no one activity in town that brings the whole community together. This is a first of a sort.”
The Blizzard open their home season May 15 against Santa Fe.
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