Black Bears big hit in NY-Penn League

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – Down Interstate 79 and across the Mason-Dixon Line, also known as the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border, a young minor league baseball franchise is trying to make a name for itself.
The West Virginia Black Bears, the Pirates’ Short Season Class A affiliate, opened its third season since its inception Monday with a 3-0 win over the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, and are now 2-1 heading into last night’s game.
When establishing a new franchise in a new area, there are always ups and downs that come from navigating uncharted waters.
When the Black Bears organization arrived in Morgantown in 2015, they knew there would be a learning curve involved with being a new franchise.
”Normally at our level, one things that most teams see every year is getting used to a new roster,” Black Bears assistant general manager Jackie Riggleman said. “The first year, everything was new. The executive front office staff was new. The interns were new. The coaches were new. The players were new. The building was new. Everything was new on a whole new level, and that provided many challenges because we had to really work together as a team to build up a lot of things.”
Marketing and communication played a key role in helping the Black Bears integrate and ingratiate themselves to their new community and new market.
”For us as a minor league baseball team, coming into a heavy college fan base market, you wonder how well your product will be received, and how people understand your product,” Black Bears general manager Matthew Drayer said.
Drayer and the rest of the Black Bears’ front office staff put countless hours into educating the local public about the organization and who they were. While they had help from the Pirates, they had to learn on the fly and through trial-and-error.
Drayer said it helped that Morgantown was already a very sports savvy town, so that curiosity about the team already existed. They just had to tap into that passion.
”Some people don’t know how it works, figuring out how we get our players, who we’re owned by and who our opponents are,” Drayer said. “So a lot of it was doing an educational thing regarding our product and our team and then, just really letting people know where we are, the location of the ballpark, our affiliation with the Pirates and do everything for our marketing and our tickets, and just making sure that all of our products are ready to go for our first opening day.”
During the organization’s inaugural season in 2015, the Black Bears fought their way to a respectable 42-34 record, good enough for a second-place finish in the Pinckney Division of the New York-Penn League.
For most of that season, it looked as though the team would not qualify for the postseason. However, thanks to a late surge, the Black Bears won the lone wildcard spot in the four-team playoff.
In the semifinals, the Black Bears won a best-of-three series against a Williamsport Crosscutters squad that had the best record in the league.
The Black Bears then swept the Staten Island Yankees to win the organization’s first New York-Penn League championship in its inaugural season. For Staten Island, it was the first time in seven appearances that it had failed to win the championship series.
“It meant everything,” Riggleman said. “It was one of those things where the team kept winning and they kept winning, and finally, we got down to the last game and they pulled it off and we were like, ‘Oh my gosh. We had a perfect season.’ Which, for many people, that’s hard to say.”
For years, the main sports attraction in town had been West Virginia University athletics, but when the Black Bears arrived in Morgantown in 2015, local sports fans had another team that they could root for during the summer months when the university was not in session.
“I always say that Morgantown is a great place to live, but there’s nothing to do during the summer, and that was very true until we came into town,” Riggleman said.
The Black Bears have WVU to thank for helping to establish and build a fan base from scratch.
“Morgantown is a very sports-oriented area,” Riggleman said. “When we came into town we offered a product that WVU could not offer, but they set the stage for us, definitely, to be able to attract some of their loyal fan base to become some of our loyal fans and to give our Morgantown residents a little bit of a different, unique summer entertainment option.”
WVU athletics administrators once considered getting rid of WVU’s baseball program. Until the 2017 collegiate season, WVU had not qualified for the NCAA tournament since 1996 and was considered by many to be a bottom-dweller when it came to baseball.
A new ballpark, Monongalia County Ballpark, which is shared with the Black Bears, and the hiring of a new head coach lead to a rebirth for WVU baseball over the past couple years.
“Both our baseball programs help each other out,” Drayer said. “I think the Mountaineers helped develop baseball for us, and I think our fans help develop baseball fans for the Mountaineer baseball program. So I think we both work really well together, and it’s helped turn Morgantown into a little bit more of a baseball town than it used to be.”
With WVU football in the fall, WVU basketball in the winter and WVU baseball in the spring, the Black Bears arrival ensured that there would be sporting events year-round in Morgantown and north-central West Virginia.
Wyatt Toregas has a closer connection to the Black Bears than most would think for a minor league manager.
In 2015, the Pittsburgh Pirates appointed him to be the Black Bears’ first manager in franchise history.
He repaid them by leading the team to the NY-Penn League championship in the franchise’s first season.
“Our team in 2015 was one of those teams that just wouldn’t be beaten,” Toregas said. “We had to overcome some things early, but in the end it was full of players that truly cared about each other and would do whatever they needed to get the job done. In the end, it was really cool because we had a collective ego that knew we were going to win.”
The Pirates rewarded Toregas by promoting him this past offseason to be the manager of their Class A affiliate West Virginia Power located in Charleston, W.Va.
After Toregas’ departure, Brian Esposito, who was the former manager of the Power, was named the Black Bears’ skipper for 2017.
It’s easy to form a bond with a team after fighting through to that kind of success, something that doesn’t happen often in the minor leagues because of the constant player and managerial turnover.
The 2017 MLB Draft was last week, and this week was the first of the 2017 season for the Black Bears. That doesn’t give the teams and players much time to familiarize themselves with one another before jumping into competitive play.
“Just (Tuesday night) we had seven new guys come in, and we had six leave,” Riggleman said. “So it’s something where it’s par for the course for minor league baseball, and you just gotta keep your fans updated as much as possible. Update those rosters and get them out. They may see a different roster every single day this week, but they’re updated and know what’s going on.”
However, even with the never-ending revolving door of players, Riggleman says that there are many positives that come from the constant changes in player personnel.
“Behind the scenes, it’s kind of a fun transition because you get to see a lot of different players and you get to watch a lot of different talent,” Riggleman said. “It’s also fun to watch them get promoted. That’s the good part, when they come out of the manager’s office and he has informed them that they’re going to be going up to the next level. You just see the joy in their face, and you can feel the energy coming from them and that’s a cool part of the job to get to be a part of all of that.”
For a minor league team that already has a league championship through its first two years, the future is bright.
The Blacks Bears want to keep building on their relationship with the Pirates, and Drayer hopes the organization can continue to cultivate draft picks and young players into big league talent for the Pirates.
“(The Pirates) have provided us with some great teams over the last couple years,” Drayer said. “One being year No. 1 with our championship team. Last season, we were just a few games out from making another wildcard run, and we’re off to a hot start right now at the start of this year’s campaign.”
The Pirates’ new draft picks that could one day play in PNC Park, often start with the Black Bears.
“My tag line is, ‘Come see tomorrow’s stars today,'” Drayer said. “We’ve actually had a couple guys from our championship team back in 2015 made the Pirates roster this year. You’ll see our guys really start breaking that barrier into the Pirates roster, so it’s an exciting process.”
In addition to cultivating young talent, the Black Bears organization prides itself on the overall fan experience that it can provide to young and old at every home game.
“We’re hoping to grow the ballpark and grow our fan base and just be here for a long time,” Drayer said. “I hope everybody just comes up to the ballpark and has a great overall experience no matter how well the team performs on or off the field”