Mark Skeels, a Hoboken resident and the general manager for the Newark Bears baseball team, thinks bringing a minor league team to Hoboken could be a home run.
“I think baseball in Hoboken could be a tremendous success,” he said last week. He said he hears that suggestion all the time and on the streets and from Mario of Mario’s Pizza: “We gotta get a baseball team in Hoboken.”
Skeels, a former catcher and native of Southern California, moved to Hoboken two years ago, around the same time he joined the Bears.
He was an 18th round draft pick for the Florida Marlins in 1992.
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He was an 18th round draft pick for the Florida Marlins in 1992, their inaugural season, but never made it on the field after he blew out his shoulder in a home plate collision.
“My arm just blew,” he said last week. “It was devastating. But that’s where I met my wife.”
He recuperated, and like many borderline major leaguers, he spent years in spring training trying to make a major league squad – and the rest of the year playing in the minors.
He played for the Bevard County Manatees (Fla.), the Duluth Dukes (Minn.), and the Mobile BayBears (Ala.). He even played winter ball in Australia for the Melbourne Monarchs.
In 1996, the dream was over.
“Long bus rides are okay when you’re single,” he said. “I hung it up.”
He studied law at the University of San Diego and contemplated becoming an agent, until a friend of his who was an agent learned a hard lesson. He says his agent friend was left high and dry by a future Cy Young Award winner who left to sign with super-agent Scott Boras.
“I soured on that in a hurry,” he said, and soon took a job in the district attorney’s office in San Diego.
Bailing out the Bears
Skeels’ journey finally brought him right back to where he started: baseball.
Gary Veloric, the prospective buyer of the debt-laden Bears franchise in Newark, called Skeels to ask him to run the team. “He saved this franchise from doom,” Skeels said.
The Bears are not affiliated with any major league franchise, but play in an independent minor league.
“What will it take to get you out of San Diego?” Veloric asked Skeels. “We’ve been working 24/7 ever since.”
Skeels joined the Newark Bears front office as they were clawing their way out of bankruptcy, and he said his job was tough from day one.
A fireworks vendor was owed $30,000 from the previous owners of the team, Skeels said. Although Skeels understood the man’s predicament, he had to explain that the debt vanished in bankruptcy court and that the new owners weren’t responsible.
Everyone – “from the waste management to the fireworks guy to the second baseman” – was owed money, he said.
At some point, he was able to also concentrate on baseball and bringing the fans back to the stadium. The Bears found a head coach, another Hoboken resident, former Yankee World Series Champion Tim Raines.
Finding a home in Hoboken
“I’m not a cold weather guy,” Skeels said, which made it a bit surprising when he saw tiny white flakes coming down last winter. “I was struck by how quiet it was.”
But he has gotten used to live in the mile-square city. He said, “I instantly fell in love with it.”
He said Hoboken is a preferred homebase for several of the team’s front office personnel, including Raines and Team President Spencer Geissinger. Players make $2,000 per month on average, Skeels said, so he only recommends Hoboken to those players who have a somewhat larger bankroll, like those who have been to the majors before. But their time with the team usually isn’t long.
Baseballtown, USA
And when asked about Councilwoman Beth Mason’s intricate proposal to lure a minor league team to Hoboken – possibly an affiliate of the Mets, Yankees, and Red Sox – he said it sounded good.
Hoboken was home to the first organized baseball game at Elysian Fields in 1847.
“You could stake a claim for the historic connection to baseball.” – Mark Skeels
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Some have said the plan would not work financially, but to those who love baseball like Skeels, see a pitch down the middle of the plate.
“I genuinely think if you had a stadium there – with the history that Hoboken has – you could stake a claim for the historic connection to baseball,” he said.
Skeels imagines Hoboken as a baseball destination, like Cooperstown, NY, where the baseball Hall of Fame is located, and a site for regional or statewide baseball tournaments.
“I don’t know how it wouldn’t draw,” he said.
Timothy J. Carroll may be reached at tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.