Delgado responds

I guess that being 73 years old and 30 years removed from playing and coaching in a program that I was involved in for more than 20 years disqualifies me from having an opinion. Last I heard you still must catch it, throw it and hit it; nothing has changed much. As far as running an organization or a business, you have to be accountable to your employees and shareholders if you want to be successful.

The Glacier Twins board’s response to my letter gives us a lot of defensive deflections but doesn’t really address any of the problems many of us have with your organization. Funny how now you are inviting the public to come to your meetings to discuss concerns. Just three years ago I met with your now president and then head coach, in fact bought him breakfast, and asked him to be reasonable with charging WHS baseball for the usage of Memorial Field. After all it would give them the ability to recruit more players for the Twins, give our kids more opportunities, experience and exposure, all positives. Our advice and opinion fell on deaf ears, and they charged the Bulldog baseball program $6,500 to play that inaugural season. Where was the invitation back then to speak to the board?

You point out in your letter that WHS baseball is not funded by taxpayer monies. Maybe not now but it could be in the future and these kids still represent this community and the green and gold. Then you conveniently leave out the $7,000 you charge annually to the school for the use of the facility during football. Last I heard football is a fully funded activity paid for by taxpayer monies. On top of that the school takes over the mowing and maintenance of the field at their expense. This sounds an awful lot like paying rent! If you think that the relationship you have with the school district didn’t have anything to do with them wanting and needing a new facility, you are largely mistaken.

You mention how you are all about the greater baseball community. Here’s a chance to prove it. Instead of pocketing $21,000 annually, with a 4% increase yearly, from a cell tower on city property, why don’t you distribute some of that money to your feeder programs. Quit being so greedy and really help our total baseball community. When was the last time you had a baseball camp, clinic for Little League and Babe Ruth players and coaches. That is what real support looks like.

I have spoken directly with the Whitefish and Columbia Falls High School baseball coaches and they have had no one from the Twins reach out to them. Both schools combined have over fifty players participating and the Twins can only get 11-13 to come out? Shouldn’t you be asking yourselves some questions? Why don’t you reach out to these kids and make them feel welcome? Sell your program, show them what you have to offer, quit being so arrogant to think they are going to magically appear. Do the work! Quit charging kids to play, you want to compete with the travel teams sprouting up all over the valley make it your goal not to charge a kid a single cent to play and see how your numbers will increase. The majority of your money should not be used for field improvements, you’re not the Range Riders, rather it should be spent on your players. Your budget of over $135,000-plus annually can certainly support it. Bring back the Cat/Dog Smoker that in one night would raise enough to more than cover your players’ fees.

You happen to mention the special rule that doesn’t allow you to move up to AA. Funny I just happened to talk to Ron Edwards, the Commissioner of Baseball for the state of Montana, and he told me he has tried to get the Twins to move up to AA for the last 10 years. Nothing prohibits you from moving up. 

Not to disparage your kids and coaches in any way for winning State Championships and playing at Regional Tournaments. Good for them, but to compare your Twins versus the old Twins is like comparing apples to oranges.

The Twins of old played at the highest classification, with the smallest enrollment of any team in the state, making it to state 18 out of 20 years, winning the Western Conference on numerous occasions, taking third place four times, taking second place once and winning the State Championship in 1986. Making a trip to Regionals in Corvallis, Oregon and finishing third, the highest finish of a Montana team since Dave McNally and the Billings Scarlets made the trip to the World Series. In 20 years, we had 55 kids or more move to play college baseball from DI to Junior College with five of our players getting drafted by major league ball clubs.

By declassifying from AA to A you then became the big fish in a little pond and with it came success but at what price? No longer did you have the exposure for your kids and the competition that AA provided. You lost one of the best tournaments in the Northwest, the Sapa Johnsrud Tournament, named after two of our athletes we lost to a train-car accident back in 1984. We had as many as 16 teams from all over the west with college and major league scouts filling the bleachers. With the downgrade in competition no one wanted to come, and the tournament was lost. The community was also the loser as that tournament brought a lot of revenue into the area businesses, restaurants, motels and gas stations. By discontinuing this tournament, you also lost the ability to give out scholarship money into the $1,000’s in the name of Jim and Ray to kids in the program that wanted to pursue their careers at the next level. Worst of all you alienated two of the greatest boosters and supporters of youth baseball in the Flathead Valley, Dick and Charlotte Sapa of the Blue Moon.

You mentioned that I take credit for some of the improvements at Memorial Field, nothing could be further from the truth. I mentioned in my previous letter how Dick Collins and the Whitefish Lake Golf Course helped in putting in the infrastructure. We were involved in most of the major improvements in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Unlike today we never paid anyone for doing the work at Memorial Field. Materials and labor were donated, or the projects didn’t get done. Players and coaches always did most of the work and it was part of our responsibilities. Where in my letter did you see me use the word “I?” Not part of my vocabulary, not the way I was coached.

Nowhere in my letter did I mention I was against the adult league using the field. 

I would’ve loved to have had that opportunity. My objection is that you are willing to charge less to them than to the school district for twice as many games. It would be better not to charge either program at all, this is a public park, and you don’t own it.

It is amazing to me that Legion programs throughout the state including the Twins refuse or are unwilling to work with the MHSA in high school baseball. It should be a win-win situation for both. Kids and athletes are the beneficiaries of more experience, coaching, exposure and accolades that can only enhance their chances of moving up to the next level if that is what they wish. High school baseball and Legion programs coexist successfully all over this country. What makes Montana so different?

You say I need to apologize, I say for what? Telling the truth and exposing how you are locking down a city park and using it as your private playground? Charging people to use a facility that doesn’t belong to you?

All of the information and numbers came from your own website and paperwork filed with the City of Whitefish. You want me step back and get out of the way, anybody that knows me knows that won’t happen.

It gives me no pleasure to be writing these letters about a program that I played in and coached for 20 years and truly loved. It is not my intent to damage this program in any way, on the contrary, I would love to see it thrive.

With only 11-13 players a course correction needs to happen if the Twins are going to survive. Until you get rid of the toxicity and make a genuine attempt to mend fences with the community, the high school, potential parents and players, getting your feeder programs involved, the future does not look bright. I reached out three years ago and am still willing to sit down with anyone to discuss my concerns. I have offered what I consider some solutions and hopefully they will be considered and taken seriously.

From the tone of your last letter, it doesn’t look too promising, but hope is eternal. One last piece of advice: don’t use words like libelous as it is closely related to defamation. You don’t want to go there. Remember “sunshine is the best disinfectant.”

For better baseball, 

Julio Delgado

Whitefish