Mike Feder, former general manager for the Tucson Padres, winner of the 2013 Pacific Coast League Executive of the Year award and new hire for the Arizona Diamondbacks has got a problem.

As you might know, the Padres recently pulled up stakes and moved to El Paso after years of unyielding fan support hard work trying to fill the seats of Kino Stadium. And while the same old complaints that the Padres home park was inferior in every way to Hi Corbett (currently the home of University of Arizona baseball) didn’t appear to shake Feder, it seems that more recent chatter did.

Last month, it was announced that the El Paso Chihuahuas and the Reno Aces (Tucson’s former AAA baseball franchise) would play a four-game set in Tucson while El Paso finished their stadium.

Predictably, people raised a fuss over the announcement…and after weeks of reading fan complaints on the Tucson Padres Facebook page, Feder made it clear where he stands.

This is Mike Feder. I’m curious why the people who still criticize these four games being in Tucson are still friends of the Tucson Padres. If they have no interest in these games I would suggest you no longer be a friend so we don’t offend you. It’s my feeling that four games of quality Triple-A baseball is better than none. The El Paso owners did the right thing by paying Pima County for an entire season even though they might only need a limited number of games. Those games are generating additional dollars to our community – two teams in a hotel and their personal spending, concession purchases, pay to seven people for 1 1/2 months, additional compensation to our staff for on game days, and hopefully some good will with our promos – $2 beer & soft drinks on Friday, MLB giveaways on Saturday, all youth players get in FREE with their jersey on Sunday, and free tickets on Monday from eegee’s.

To me, this seems like venting from the a damn hard-working guy who is passionate about baseball, and passionate about Tucson.

I don’t want to put words in Feder’s mouth, but Tucson is a community that has trouble accepting change and going outside of its comfort zone: see the quality baseball played by the Tucson Sidewinders, including a AAA championship, all but ignored by a community that gave them the worst attendance in the Pacific Coast League. Why? Because the stadium was inconvenient. Because it wasn’t Hi Corbett. Because they weren’t the Toros.

While it’s exciting that soccer is energizing the community and taking over land that was originally designated for major league sluggers, it’s a shame that baseball in Tucson went away the way it did…and its especially a shame that passionate guys like Mike Feder were cast on their ears, however momentarily, by an apathetic public.

The El Paso Chihuahuas will take on the Reno Aces at Kino Sports Complex, April 11-14. Ticket information can be found at kinosportscomplex.com.

Let’s show them some support this time, Tucson; no one knows when we’ll get professional baseball around these parts again, after all.

This article appears in Mar 20-26, 2014.

10 replies on “Mike Feder is Mad as Hell, and He’s Not Going to Take It Anymore”

  1. Don’t screw with Tucson baseball fans. If it ain’t the Toros in HiC, we truly don’t give a crap. We warned you we’d rather go without, and we proved it. Listen to us next time, losers.

    I’d sooner see the Golden League guys than those Triple-A carpetbaggers.

  2. I am a latecomer to the baseball-in-Tucson issue, as I married a Navy guy, moved away, and returned to Tucson in 2006 after many years of military moves. I can say this, however: Norfolk VA (one of our many duty stations) wisely built their baseball stadium downtown and it was a turning point in that city’s downtown revitalization. And believe me when I say that Norfolk’s downtown at its low point was far worse off than Tucson’s ever was. Now Norfolk has a thriving downtown, due to one savvy mayor and smart decisions by the city council.

    Why blame fans who don’t want to go to a stadium that was built in an absolutely awful location? Apathetic public or stupid politicians?

  3. Jane T is spot-on. Kino is a crappy place for a ball yard. Give it up to the soccer folks. Tear down that abortion of a downtown convention center that has never been successful and build a ballpark in its place. Downtown Tucson is waking up after decades of neglect and a ballpark would give it another jump start.

  4. Mike Anderson is spot on. The TCC is a pit, replace it with Jane T’s suggestion of a downtown yard!!

    BTW if it isover 90 when the game is on. You should be inside, jus sayn.

  5. I feel sorry for Mike Feder. He was always working hard for Tucson Baseball. A truly great guy. Tucson doesn’t deserve such a force for good.
    We need to understand that people like “The Toad” Grivjalva for the mess at Kino. We were stupid is letting this happen. Some soccer games dont replace the thousands of tourists who flew into Tucson, bought food and stayed in hotels. I realize that the pro baseball teams held cities hostage with building new stadiums. Tucson was cut out of that competition from day one. you know how bad we are when El Paso builds one and we don’t/

  7. Thanks David, and don’t forget that keeping Tucson sh*tty is still less sh*tty than making Tucson sh*tt*er.

  8. Speaking of downtown stadium locations, what exactly is planned for that huge vacant lot at the west end of the trolley bridge and right across an alley from the Mercado San Agustin? I can swear I see a ghost stadium right about there that could have made the trolley an actual success.

  9. Back in the mid 90s when discussions were being held as to where to locate this WONDERFUL new stadium, public opinion overwhelmingly wanted the stadium built downtown. As usual, the City Council ignored public opinion and located it between a county hospital and the county juvenile penitentiary.
    This is the same time they located the UA Extended University at a high security science research park in the middle of no where instead of downtown.
    The City Council has been debating for most of the thirty years I’ve been here about flooding the Rillito like Tempe did (amounting to great success), which has been supported strongly by the public, but has done nothing.
    It’s pretty sad when the Rillito Project was taken from the City Council like a toy taken from a toddler who is too young to be playing with it, and given to a private sector group to handle.

  10. Pammy Culhane:
    The answer is the Hispanic lobby/Corruption. Ask Rep. Grivalja that question as well as some of the Board of Supervisors.
    That big empty spot is where the Arizona State Museum and the Arizona Historical Society Museums were supposed to go as well as a major underground garage.We all know where that money went to. Rio Nuevo. Between the corruption of those agencies as well as all of the other S.O.B.s who wasted that money ($230,000,000) we got NOTHING.
    WE all know who to blame but nobody has the guts to say it.
    Circling the Drain should be our city motto.

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