Grizzlies’ brand has changed, but old River Cats rivalry still in play

When the Fresno Grizzlies lost their affiliation with the San Francisco Giants, the immediate forecast was doom.

Season ticket holders would leave en masse.

Fans would no longer care about the Grizzlies.

Chukchansi Park would be abandoned, like other parts of downtown.

But as the Grizzlies reach the midpoint of their first season without their Giants partnership and host the Sacramento River Cats — the Giants’ new Triple-A team — Fresno’s baseball franchise appears to have benefited from the affiliation switch to the Houston Astros.

Both on and off the field.

“We’re very happy how things how things have been going,” said Derek Franks, the general manager of the Grizzlies.

Entering the latest edition of the Highway 99 series on Tuesday, the Grizzlies (42-28) owned the third best record in the Pacific Coast League and led the Pacific Northern Division with a 121/2 game lead on the last-place River Cats (30-41).

That’s quite the contrast for the Grizzlies, who racked up 12 losing seasons over the past 17 years, including nine last-place finishes, while trotting out talent from the San Francisco farm system.

The Grizzlies also were overmatched against the River Cats, trailing the all-time series with their rivals 99-144, including 53-67 at Fresno’s downtown ballpark.

Then came the affiliation switch this offseason. A power shift followed.

The River Cats declined to extend their Player Development Contract with the Oakland A’s, which created a vacancy in Sacramento.

The Giants jumped at the chance to move their Triple-A affiliate closer to San Francisco and into a bigger market.

Sifting through the remainder of their choices, the Grizzlies paired with the Astros, who a year ago were considered to have the top farm system throughout baseball.

The Grizzlies have enjoyed a rejuvenation on the field, led ironically by former River Cats manager Tony DeFrancesco.

Sacramento, meanwhile, is on pace to finish with the worst record in the River Cats’ 16 years.

While players might not pay attention to Triple-A rivalries, the Grizzlies front office is enjoying having the upper hand in the rivalry.

The Grizzlies created a season-long theme that pokes fun at the River Cats, called “Wackramento.” The Grizzlies are hosting a “Grumpy Cat Night” to kick off this week’s series at Chukchansi Park. Fans who show a post of a grumpy cat meme on their social media with the hashtag “#Wackramento” receive 50% off admission.

“We want to keep the rivalry going,” Franks said. “Some people saw it as a rivalry because Fresno and Sacramento were the affiliations of the Bay Area teams. But to us, it’s a rivalry because we’re in the same division and the cities are fairly close and right up the road.”

The Grizzlies, armed with talented prospects from the Astros farm system, such as shortstop Carlos Correa before his callup this month, haven’t looked this good on the field since the inaugural 1998 team won the division and reached the playoffs.

And more talent appears to be on the way, like pitcher Mark Appel, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2013 draft who has been flourishing this season in Double-A.

“There’s a lot of talent in this organization — a lot of talent,” DeFrancesco said. “The Astros have been waiting for a lot of these young players to develop and help the big-league club. It’s only a matter of time when we see them come through Fresno.”

The presence of top prospects along with the winning may have helped the Grizzlies soften the blow of the Giants’ departure.

The Grizzlies still rank in the upper half of the 16-team PCL, eighth with an average attendance of 6,289.

Last year, the Grizzlies ranked sixth in the PCL while averaging 6,781.

Franks said the Grizzlies lost 6% to 9% of their season ticket holders. A number of season ticket holders declined to renew soon after the affiliation change before eventually returning as the season approached.

The Grizzlies have been able to offset some of the season ticket loss with an increase in group sales, smaller multi-game packages and walk-up purchases.

Should attendance figures stay the same, though, this year’s mark would be the Grizzlies’ lowest average in the past 10 seasons.

It also would be a dropoff of 7.2% from last year to this season, which currently ranks as the fifth steepest attendance change in a league where half the teams have seen a decline this year.

The Memphis Cardinals have endured the worst dropoff at 32.9% (3,820 from 5,693), followed by the Salt Lake Bees (19.4%), and the Omaha Storm Chasers (17.5%) and Colorado Springs Sky Sox (17.5%).

“I usually strive to be better than we were a year ago,” Franks said. “But if we can maintain the numbers we’ve done (last year), that would be a good year for us.”

Franks also cited an increase in Grizzlies merchandise, even with the club coming off a record year in sales (exact figures for this year were not available).

Said Franks: “Halfway through, I feel really good about Fresno showing they want Triple-A baseball here, that they enjoy a great night out watching a good team.”

This story was originally published June 22, 2015 at 7:03 PM with the headline "Grizzlies’ brand has changed, but old River Cats rivalry still in play."