Baseball Team Delays Commitment to Move

The Long Beach Riptide will be bringing minor league baseball to South County this summer once one more major hurdle is cleared.

Riptide officials, who had set a Dec. 31 deadline for deciding whether to relocate, delayed a commitment on a move in order to give Saddleback College trustees time to vote on a temporary on-campus home for the team.

School officials are trying to set up a special meeting Monday for trustees to consider allowing the city of Mission Viejo to spend $800,000 to renovate the existing baseball field at Saddleback College.

The city has voted to spend the money for renovations and is proposing a $6-million facility on campus to attract the Riptide, which has been successful in independent league play.

The Western Baseball League agreed last week to give the Riptide more time for the college to vote on a temporary facility.

“It looks pretty good that we could move” to Mission Viejo, said Riptide President Pat Elster. “We could go in either direction still, but our plan is to make a final decision just as soon as we get a vote from the school board.”

However, the Riptide may have burned its bridges in Long Beach after failing to appear at a Dec. 19 meeting in which the city recreation commission was considering a contract to return the team to Blair Field.

The commission tabled a decision on the contract to Jan. 16, but Long Beach officials reacted angrily to the team’s absence.

“That’s a no-no; it’s not a smart move to ignore a commission or governing body,” said Ralph Cryder, the city’s recreation director. “Nobody in the city has heard from them since the meeting.”

Elster said he didn’t know the team was supposed to be at the meeting.

Mission Viejo wants to finance a $6-million ballpark at the Saddleback campus with redevelopment agency funds and a portion of revenue from ticket sales and concessions.

College trustees initially balked at approving the stadium plan without a full environmental impact study.

However, college officials came up with the idea for an interim lease agreement that would allow the city to build temporary facilities for the team while an environmental report is prepared.

The college would still have the option of turning down the stadium proposal after the release of the study, which is expected by the end of February.