Cubs to renew deal with Daytona

[Jon]

Daytona Beach News-Journal[/url]"]The Daytona Cubs are expected to announce an extension of the player development contract with the Chicago Cubs, according to sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity and didn't want to disclose too much of what the local team will announce.

 

The new agreement assures

 

FSL baseball will be played at Jackie Robinson Ballpark in future seasons. The exact length of the contract will be announced by Daytona Cubs owner Andy Rayburn, who plans to travel from the team's corporate offices in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, on Friday morning to make the announcement. If it is a two-year extension, that will carry the agreement through the 2008 season. Rayburn, in a telephone interview Wednesday from Chagrin Falls, would not detail what he'll announce at the press conference. However, he said, "I can tell you that I'm jacked up. We have a nice positive announcement to make."

 

 

That situation won't occur with Daytona. The Cubs were pleased with stadium and other facility improvements made last year at Jackie Robinson Ballpark.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Good to hear; glad to see the problems in Jackson aren't widespread throughout the system.

 

I was kinda hoping they'd move the D-Cubs to the California League. Prefarably Rancho Cucamonga or Lancaster.

[Jon]

Daytona Beach News-Journal[/url]"]· The Chicago Cubs have extended the player development contract with Daytona through 2008.

 

· The FSL All-Star Game will be played here in 2007.

 

· The field at Jackie Robinson Ballpark will undergo a $500,000 makeover after this season.

 

"There are a lot of good things and we're excited about all of them," D-Cubs general manager Bill Papierniak said.

 

As reported Thursday, the Chicago Cubs and the Daytona franchise extended their player development contract by two years. The major-league club and its advanced Class-A minor league affiliate will continue working together through the 2008 season, and likely beyond.

 

Improvements made at Jackie Robinson Ballpark prior to the 2005 season were a key factor in getting the contract extension, according to D-Cubs owner Andy Rayburn.

 

"If we hadn't been able to make those improvements with excellent teamwork from the city, there was a chance we could have lost the Cubs' affiliation," Rayburn said in a telephone interview from Chagrin Falls, Ohio. "And the Cubs' affiliation is very important to us. Everyone loves the Cubs."

 

The renovations also were a big reason Jackie Robinson Ballpark landed the 2007 all-star game, which FSL president Chuck Murphy announced Friday. All-star games usually are awarded about a year ahead of time, but this announcement came much earlier, partly because Murphy has his office at Jackie Robinson Ballpark.