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Sunday, April 10, 2005
City Linked With Racing Unsers, Boxing Champs, Baseball
By Randy Harrison
Journal Staff Writer
As far as pro sports in Albuquerque, we're mostly known for our decades-long run as a Los Angeles Dodgers farm team.
Fans in other parts of the country who never saw the Dukes still might have heard announcer Vin Scully's sonorous optimism during Dodgers broadcasts as he occasionally, eloquently detailed the latest phenom "down in Albuquerque"— a Mike Piazza, Raul Mondesi, Orel Hershiser.
Often enough, those prospects delivered— the Dukes captured eight Pacific Coast League championships in 29 years.
Pro baseball first came to the city in 1880 at the state fairgrounds. The first Albuquerque Dukes made their debut in 1915. Once Rio Grande Park (later renamed Tingley Field), was built, Albuquerque was a major league organization's farmhand from 1937 through 1958.
In 1963, the Dukes and Dodgers struck up a relationship as the team began play in the Texas League, then eventually became a Triple-A franchise in 1972.
But the relationship ended in 2000, when Dukes owner Robert Lozinak, who purchased the team from the Dodgers in 1979 for $340,000, sold it in March 2000 to a group in Portland, Ore., for between $10 million and $12 million.
In May 2001, voters approved spending $10 million in general obligation bonds toward "rebuilding" the stadium.
Four months earlier, Tampa businessman Ken Young and Chicago-based entrepreneur Mike Koldyke agreed to purchase the Calgary Cannons and move them to Albuquerque, contingent on a new or rebuilt stadium. In early 2002, the new franchise signed an affiliation pact with the Florida Marlins.
Through two seasons, Isotopes Park has opened to rave reviews, and the ballclub drew the eighth-highest attendance (575,607) of all minor-league teams in 2004.
Ice hockey
Beyond the Dukes, the most stable entity in local pro sports has been ice hockey.
The New Mexico Scorpions have survived bankruptcy and changes in ownership since 1996. Now the franchise's sights are set on moving to a planned $42 million multipurpose arena in Rio Rancho for the 2006-07 season.
Racing and boxing
Still, when you talk about pro sports, Albuquerque is linked most closely with racing and boxing.
In open-wheel racing, the Unser name is synonymous with the sport. Since 1964, every Indianapolis 500 except one has had an Albuquerque Unser in the field. They have won, too— Al won four, brother Bobby won three, Al Jr., two.
The Unsers are planning to open their Unser Racing Museum on May 1.
On the boxing scene, Johnny Tapia is a five-time world champ who has battled equally tough demons outside the ring, including drug problems. Danny Romero is a three-time world champion. Blazing their trail was Bob Foster, a light heavyweight champ in the 1960s and early 1970s.