Consider:

¯ The team is in first place in the West Division of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League.

¯ Attendance, which is averaging just north of 725 per game, is up nearly 100% from three years ago.

¯ And the support from the business community has been strong.

OBSERVER Photo by Scott Kindberg Jacob Kindberg is the director of business & sales operations for the Jamestown Tarp Skunks.

But that doesn’t mean that Kindberg has been without some angst.

“Our merchandise has been flying off the shelves. I can’t keep it in the store,” he said last week. “We’re almost always out. … It’s a good problem to have, because it means people are buying, but it is a problem.”

Take, for example, last week when a visitor, hailing from the Philadelphia area, showed up at Kindberg’s office at Diethrick Park. The man wanted a Tarp Skunks’ cap that had “Jamestown” embroidered on the front.

“We were out of those hats,” Kindberg said. “Again, it’s a good problem to have, because they’re going off the shelves, but it’s a problem when the head coach of the Eagles wants a hat and you don’t have it for him.”

So, Nick Sirianni settled for a hat with the Tarp Skunks logo on the front instead.

If Kindberg has learned one thing this summer, it’s how to audible to the next play.

ııı

Kindberg, 24, was hired last September to run the business side of the Tarp Skunks’ operation, a daunting task given that the last time the team played a game was when it won the PGCBL championship in 2018. The franchise went dark in 2019 and COVID-19 canceled the entire 2020 season.

“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Kindberg said.

But that didn’t deter him.

“It was just a matter of having conversations early on, reaching out to stakeholders and local businesses,” Kindberg said.

“I told them, ‘I know the COVID situation is uncertain, but this is what we can offer. Let’s keep communicating as we get closer to the season and, hopefully, we get some relief,” which we ended up doing as vaccinations rolled out and restrictions started being lifted.”

So when it became apparent that there would be a season and there would be fans allowed in the ballpark, Kindberg was one step ahead.

“To have those conversations in the beginning leading up to April and May was big for us,” he said. “When we did get to April and May, that’s when we saw a huge rush. It was the work we put in leading up to that point that got us there.”

And June 10, the home opener, was the tipping point.

“It really started on opening night when we got 1,500 fans here and had the nice tailgate (party),” Kindberg said. “That was just a nice kickoff and set the tone for the season. … That momentum has carried us all the way here. I’m happy. I’ve got a lot of good community feedback so far. Certainly, there are some things I’d like to do differently next year, but overall we’re pretty happy where we are.”

Greg Peterson, a member of the Jamestown Community Baseball LLC board of directors, admits he couldn’t have envisioned how well the first season has gone.

“It’s a surprise to me the extent of the enthusiasm,” he said. “I knew there would be enthusiasm, but this is all ages. This is not senior citizens, who love baseball for the sake of baseball who would come out regardless. I’m looking at the crowd now and half of them are 18 and under wearing Tarp Skunks hats. That makes me happy.”

The play on the field has been just as impresssive.

ııı

The Tarp Skunks, who were rained out Friday night, sit atop the West Division standings with a 22-11 record, five games in front of second-place Geneva and Batavia.

Credit for that, in large measure, goes to the man who recruited the players to come to Jamestown in the first place — manager Jordan Basile, who is also a Jamestown native.

“What’s remarkable to the purist is how Jordan has instilled ‘small ball,'” Peterson said. “We’ve won a lot of games from a walk and steal.”

Kindberg said Basile has been valuable off the field, too.

“We’ve been really fortunate to have Jordan,” Kindberg said. “The ties he has to the community outside of baseball help us out on the business side as well. Whether it’s promoting on social media, which he does a great job, he gets the fans out. He’s got a very loyal collection of fans that are always behind the third-base dugout in the bleachers that are rowdy. We love them.”

Kindberg said that the players are enjoying their time in Jamestown, too, thanks to, among other things, the facilities at their disposal.

“The Jamestown Community College dorms and the beautiful field that is well-maintained by the city, those are two things that not every team has,” he said. “I always like to hear that we’re kind of the standard. … That makes me proud of what we’re doing here.”

Bruce Dudgeon, a JCB LLC board member, is also proud, especially since there was much uncertainty about the franchise’s future after going 1,000 days without a game.

“The team has performed well,” he said. “Jordan does a great job coaching the team and making it a team. They have that never-give-up attitude, and Jacob is putting people into the stands. … They’re just good guys. They have the right attitude, and I think the confidence is the difference.”

ı ı ı

On Wednesday night, members of the Norden Club of Jamestown and their guests showed up for a tent party between games of the Tarp Skunks’ doubleheader with Niagara. During the picnic, Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame President Randy Anderson, who is also a JCB LLC board member, gave a presentation on former Jamestown resident Eric “Swat” Erickson, who played Major League Baseball for four teams in the early 1900s. The crowd was estimated at 100 people, which was just another example of how the community has embraced what is happening on Falconer Street this summer.

“With the board of directors and the local ownership, there’s much more of a community feel to it,” Kindberg said. “Everyone knows each other. We’re trying to be a community asset more than we are a private business just focused on profits. … The way we’re structured now is a lot more conducive to being a community asset moving forward.

“Without the Russ Diethricks, the Greg Petersons, the Randy Andersons, and the Bruce and Julie Dudgeons we wouldn’t be here right now,” Kindberg said. “In a business sense, it makes our job marketing the team easier because we have these community ties already. The fact there is a team here at all is completely their doing.”

Peterson predicts more good things down the road.

“We are young,” he said. “We are only a month old as an organization.”

In other words, the future of the Tarp Skunks’ franchise appears bright.

Now, if they could only keep enough merchandise on the shelves to satisfy the demand.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)

• Daily Newsletter
• Breaking News
• Obituaries

Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

• Yes
• No