Play Ball! Here Come the Beach Bums!

Oct. 6, 2004

Area baseball fans are already counting the days until May, 2006, when the first pitch is thrown at the new Wuerfel Park stadium in Blair Township, south of Traverse City.
The 3,500-seat stadium will be the home of the also-new Traverse City Beach Bums, a minor league team that will play 96 regular games throughout the season, including 48 home games.
“This is my family‘s dream come true,” says Josh Wuerfel, whose parents, John and Leslye Wuerfel have spent years planning the project. “It‘s more of a passion than anything -- it‘s something my father has always wanted to do.”
Baseball runs deep in the Wuerfel family. Josh‘s brother Jason plays minor league ball with the Missouri Mavericks.
Last year, the family struck out on a similar stadium project in Elmwood Township due to some small but vocal opposition. But they‘re batting home runs with their latest project, which earned unanimous site plan approval for a park near Tile Mart in the vicinity of Chum‘s Corners.
Wuerfel says the stadium will include 18 luxury suites, a corporate deck, private party decks, indoor practice building and a clubhouse as part of a multi-use facility. It‘s expected that local high school teams will have the option of holding their tournaments at the stadium.
The TC Beach Bums will be members of the Frontier League, which has 12 teams playing in a region that extends from Missouri to Pennsylvania.
“They have a mix of players in the league,” Wuerfel notes. “A lot of them are college players who‘ve graduated but missed the draft for the majors; or high school all-stars who were drafted but need to redevelop their skills for one reason or another. You typically see an enormous number of players picked up by the major or minor league systems in a league like this.”
The Frontier League is a step down from the minor league of the Whitecaps in Grand Rapids, who play in a 14,000-seat stadium, but Wuerfel says there will be plenty of action for local fans to enjoy.
“We‘re really excited about the entertainment aspects of the stadium,” he says. “People are always looking for something to do in the summer here, and this should offer a lot of good family fun.”