Off the field, however, the 2024 season has been one to remember. During a special night at Russell E. Diethrick Park last week focusing on the history of baseball in Jamestown, members of the team’s ownership group were asked what has helped make baseball in Jamestown last where other sports leagues and teams have failed locally.

“Local ownership,” said Greg Peterson, an attorney, board member with JCB LLC, and a shareholder with the baseball team. “Local ownership and management works. Look at the history of sports teams in the area. …Teams that had out-of-state ownership and management failed.”

Peterson was referencing the multiple name changes, ownership and eventual shuttering of the various baseball teams in Jamestown. The teams that closed shop or changed branding strategies – ultimately failed – including former teams affiliated with Major League Baseball teams like the Jamestown Expos and the Jamestown Jammers and even non-affiliated teams like the Jamestown Falcons and various other cycles of baseball within the confines of Chautauqua County.

Semi-professional men’s hockey has struggled to take a foothold in Jamestown over the years, with several cycles of hockey team iterations have come and gone like a revolving door through the city. The Southern Tier Xpress, the Rebels, The Lake Erie Big Horns, The Jamestown Jets and the Jamestown Ironmen are just a few of the cyclical cycles of hockey teams that have come and gone. While local ownership does not necessarily equate to a successful team franchise, statistically speaking it has yielded better results with the Tarp Skunks.

An original baseball card for Jamestown Expos catcher, Matt Allen, from the 1991 team. The Jamestown Expos were a minor league baseball franchise located in Jamestown. The team existed under various names from 1939 through 1993 and played in the New York–Penn League and its predecessor, the Pennsylvania–Ontario–New York League (PONY). The Jamestown Expos played from 1977 to 1993. Submitted photo

“We’re averaging 400-800 plus people a game,” said Randy Anderson, president of the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame and board member with JCB LLC. “Local ownership works because the owners are members of this community and have a personal stake in seeing it successful. This organization is locally owned, operated and run. I love seeing the park packed with families and kids. It is affordable and part of the community fabric.”

Furthermore, the JCB LLC leadership team has also started a fund with the Chautauqua Community Regional Foundation to ensure the Jamestown Tarp Skunks continues to be an affordable form of family-friendly entertainment for all, especially children.

“We have funds set up with the CCRF to ensure any child, under the age of 18, can receive free tickets to the Tarp Skunk home games,” said Peterson.

Anderson elaborated more on Peterson’s statement.

“Any church, scout master or youth leader can get hold of Dolce, to get free tickets to a home game,” he said. “No child in our communities will be refused entry to a game for inability to pay. We call it the “Wiffy fund.”

Bubba Grape the Baseball Ape, was the Jamestown Jammers mascot and debuted in 2006 as part of the Minor League Baseball (MiLB), Class A-Short Season, New York-Penn League. However, the Jammers shuttered operations in Jamestown in 2014, and moved the team to West Virginia. Submitted photo

Local board members and leaders for the JCB LLC include Russ Diethrick, June Diethrick, Greg Peterson, Randy Anderson, Bruce Dudgeon, Julie Dudgeon, Randy Sweeney, Jim Parker, George Carlo, John Gifford and Frank Jagoda III.

For more information on the Jamestown Tarp Skunks visit tarpskunks.com or email christian@tarpskunks.net

HISTORY OF BASEBALL LOCALLY

Jamestown, as a city, has a unique love affair with baseball. The city had an early team, at the dawn of baseball’s birth, play locally.

“The very first team to play baseball in Jamestown, we believe, was in the mid-1860s, just after the Civil War, called the Unknowns,” said Anderson. “Jamestown has a history-rich tie with this sport.”

The Jamestown Tarp Skunks have seen growth regarding game attendance, merchandise sales, online sales and concession stand sales, in part, because of the atmosphere created by local team ownership and management. Several attendance records were broken this season and stadium seating is getting more and more packed with each game or specialty offerings. P-J photo by Christopher Blakeslee

Some of this history-rich baseball legacy includes the multi-year, multi-franchise team championships according to tarpskunks.com/history. Championship teams for the Pearl City include:

-Jamestown Falcons – PONY League Champions – 1942, 1944, 1947, 1952 and 1953

-Jamestown Expos – New York-Penn League Champions – 1989 and 1991

-Jamestown Jammers – Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League Champions – 2018

However, Anderson claims the success the Tarp Skunks are having is also due, in part, to the team players and team management.

Jamestown Tarp Skunks second baseman Aiden Dunlap tags out Elmira Pioneers’ Rey Hernandez attempting to steal during a July 2 game at Diethrick Park in Jamestown P-J photo by Matt Spielman

“The team’s success is also due to our managing staff,” said Anderson. “We’ve had some great team managers in the past, but Christian Dolce is our best hire.”

Dolce was hired in 2023 as the general manager and director of business for the Tarp Skunks and has impressed all the top brass with the JCB LLC.

“I really have tried to create a climate and culture where the fan is our number one priority,” he said. “I want guys on the team, which enjoy working with children -that don’t mind signing and autographing balls- that not only want to play baseball but want to be part of our community.”

Peterson alluded to Dolce’s hometown connection as part of his and the team’s success.

“He’s a hometown kid,” he said. “He cares about his town, he cares about the people, and he has a personal stake in making the team, the park and the fan experiences the best he can. We can’t 100% say the same if a team’s ownership and management are based in Wisconsin, Minnesota or Florida.”

PLAYERS ENJOYING COMMUNITY

As previously reported by The Post-Journal, the Tarp Skunks connection with local youth has never been as high as it is now. The continued, and quietly reported acts of compassion -like when Tarp Skunks player No. 5, Nigel Sebastianelli, took time during the middle of a game to make sure a young girl in attendance got an entire, team, autographed baseball to replace the one she lost; or the acts of Tarp Skunks player No. 50, Eli Harpalani, who makes it a point to spend time with fans who are or have special needs is what sets this team apart from others in the PGCBL or out-of-state owned teams.

“I just treat everyone with respect and try to be a positive role model,” said the third baseman and shortstop for the Tarp Skunks. “I have a special needs sister, who is my entire world, so I tend to gravitate to other children with special needs. My sister is the light of our family. She is a loving, kind and genuine person. I’d want someone in my shoes to take a little extra time if it were my sister asking for an autograph or selfie, so I make sure I do the same -do as I say, and do as I do.”

Alison McKinley, a single mother of two children, who resides in Jamestown, expressed her gratitude to Harpalani and the entire Tarp Skunks baseball team, for the kindness, compassion and patience they’ve show to her son, a fourth grader in the Jamestown Public Schools, and who is as a child with special needs. “As a mother, my heart melts when I see these baseball players, whom my children -and other children- as well, look up to, like actual Major League Baseball players (MLB) sign autographs, play catch or take selfies and just spend quality time with them,” she said. “My son has autism and sensory issues, yet, he loves to come to the ballpark for the team’s home games, and loves to see his favorite player, the ‘Big 5-0″ Eli. There’s never been a time that he (Eli) or any of the other Tarp Skunks haven’t taken a moment to visit, talk or hang out with him.”

Because of the unique culture, and the more than 50 plus, local team owners, who have come together in a collaborative effort to form a baseball team and franchiese which is uniquely and positively positioned to continue the good works for Jamestown as teams in the past have.

The Post-Journal, previously reported that a Tarp Skunk and PGCBL veteran, who chose to come to the Tarp Skunks because of the flavorful combination of game play, fan-focused, highly-interactive baseball experience.

“It’s like night and day,” said Bobby Strang, a sophomore at Georgia Southern University and Tarp Skunks player who played with the PGCBL’s 2023 season with the Auburn Doubledays team. “The fans here (Jamestown) are loud, and they show up in droves to our home games. It’s a lot of fun to play for the Tarp Skunks, a positive experience and I believe a lot of this year’s team wants to return next year.”

However, Harpalani who played for Catawba Valley Community College, in North Carolina, who would love to return next season to the Tarp Skunks has to clear it with his new home team.

“I just signed with a D-1 school,” he said. “I must clear it with my new coaches. I would love to return for another season, but I’ve got to make sure my school will approve it. I cannot replace the friends I have made here. The incredible fan-base or the kids, whom I’ve gotten to meet, and sign their game balls after each, and, every game – this is a million bucks worth of experience.”