Despite a long road and a few bumps, baseball is back in Springfield

The Springfield Lucky Horseshoes have been visible in town and prolific on social media since December, when the sale of the Springfield Sliders was announced.

They've sought input on offerings at the concession stands, the team was rebranded from the Sliders to the Lucky Horseshoes — a long, windy backstory to get to why "Lucky Horseshoes" is a Springfield-appropriate name — and new merchandise was being sold long before the team played its first game at Robin Roberts Stadium.

The home opener for the Horseshoes was a 6-5 loss on Saturday — but like Springfield's three Prospect League losses, it was competitive to the end.

2022 opener: The rebranded Springfield Lucky Horseshoes open season

Interspersed with between-innings, on-field fun and co-owner Jamie Toole walking around with wrestling hall of famer Jeff Jarrett's championship belt for eager children to get photo ops, the actual baseball was entertaining.

The Lucky Horseshoes (1-3) had double plays in each of the first two innings. In the bottom of the third, they loaded the bases and Dylan Nevar drove home 2020 Chatham Glenwood graduate Jake Curtis to give Springfield its first home lead — 1-0 — in the Lucky Horseshoes' era.

The road back to baseball

The rebranding probably needed to happen. Toole and Jarrett were two of six business partners to purchase the Sliders from Todd Miller late last year. Toole's experience in minor league and college, wood-bat baseball includes time spent with the Joliet Jackhammers, Will County CrackerJacks, Bridgeport (Connecticut) Bluefish, the South Coast League and the Jupiter (Florida) Hammerheads — a single-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins.

"It's been busy, but it's been fun, getting acclimated to our community, getting to know everyone and doing a lot of listening, right?" Toole said Saturday. "I think that's the one thing we want this team to reflect (is) our community. How do you do that? It becomes more important if it becomes part of the Springfield culture with the name. It's such a great community and they've really embraced us and I hope tonight is the start of a cool, new tradition here."

Background: The Springfield Sliders baseball team has new owners. Here's what that means

The Sliders won the Central Illinois Collegiate League in the team's debut season of 2008. In 2009, the CICL joined with the Prospect League. Since the move, the Sliders made the playoffs just twice — 2010 and 2016. In 2019, the team set a Prospect League record with 26-straight losses.

Remember when the Sliders went with the celebrity-manager gimmick? Jack Clark missed 10 of 26 home games in 2009 as the Sliders were 22-32 and eliminated for weeks before the end of the season; Curt Ford was a stable presence the next year as the team went 35-19 and made the playoffs. The next year, the Sliders trotted out their third former St. Louis Cardinals player, Danny Cox, and the team was out of the playoffs with a 25-30 record.

Different ownership groups didn't work, either. Jesse Bolder sold the team in 2012 to Shane Martin, who sold to Miller in 2016. Miller ran the team for five seasons — there was no season in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Immediately, this ownership group — Capital City Baseball — tried a different approach. They rented space at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel for its news conference. It left open the possibility of a name change, but the underlying promise was a change in local entertainment.

By the looks of the on-field product, it's going to be competitive. The Lucky Horseshoes struck first but the River Dragons kept striking back, with their first three runs coming on Springfield wild pitches. Alton took a 6-2 lead with a four-run sixth inning but Rochester graduate Jayden Myren smashed a no-doubt three-run home run over the right-field fence in the bottom of the sixth to pull the Horseshoes within 6-5.

Tough time to open the season

Unfortunately, the Lucky Horseshoes had a mountain in front of them for the home opener on Saturday. First of all, the stadium parking lot is mostly blocked off because of the renovations at Lanphier High School and Memorial Stadium. That issue doesn't appear that it will go away all season.

But Toole said it's an inconvenience for a better tomorrow.

"We're going to have to walk a little bit, we're going to have to work around it but those kids (at Lanphier) are going to get a renovation and a brand new high school," Toole said. "Secondly, it's going to make our neighborhood so much more beautiful. That's going to be the anchor of this community now. We've got development at Pillsbury (Mills) coming, we're going to get some resources into this place (Robin Roberts Stadium). We're going to get this place back to where it deserves to be."

Also, Springfield was a busy place over the weekend with the Legacy of Giving Music Festival downtown, the International Carillon Festival at Washington Park and graduations from all three District 186 high schools.

"We're going to have 29 more (home games)," Toole said. "And yeah, you don't get to pick the schedule, they sort of give it to you. So obviously, if there's graduations, you got to go do that; that's way more important."

However, the Lucky Horseshoes announced 2,765 in attendance on Saturday. Longtime observers — including myself — estimated the crowd to be no more than 1,000 in the facility with a 5,200-seat capacity. With limited parking at the stadium, North Grand Avenue was full long before first pitch but there was parking available on the Pillsbury grounds.

'It's unbelievable': Glenwood grad's MLB no-hitter celebrated by family, former coaches

Once fans got on the Lanphier Park campus, it was all cashless — to the dismay of some of the older fans — and ticket sales were painfully slow. Inside the gates, the concession stand lines were long and moved at a snail's pace — perhaps the old turtle mascot wasn't too far away?

Hopefully, the process picks up speed as the workers gain experience. This probably can be written off as "first-game" glitches, though workers will need to improve a lot when 2,000 or more people actually walk through the gates.

The Horseshoes still had a chance to win in the bottom of the ninth inning. With one out and bases loaded, Springfield's Jacob Compton hit a hard liner up the middle that Noah Bush caught and tagged second for the double-play, game-ending out.

If not for Bush in the right place at the right time, the Lucky Horseshoes would've been able to celebrate its home debut with a win. But the fans still got to see a fireworks show — Springfield's second in two days following Friday's at the Carillon — immediately following the game.

Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Springfield Lucky Horseshoes: Despite long road, baseball team opens