An Angel Investor in the Outfield

For a Springfield youth baseball league, a silent partner in Branson made a saving play to help the organization obtain a permanent venue.

Travis Zarechi, president and executive director of nonprofit Little Guys Baseball Club, orchestrated a deal Oct. 14 for a $500,000 private loan to secure ownership of a baseball field known as the Barnhouse, located near the northeast corner of West Sunshine Street and James River Freeway in Brookline.

The Kirby Wilcox Bicentennial American Legion Post No. 676 currently owns the 20-acre parcel. Zarechi said the $835,000 land purchase is effective Oct. 30, and Little Guys Baseball Club would repay a personal loan from Dan Ruda, a co-owner and president of Thousand Hills Golf Resort in Branson, over the course of five years.

American Legion General Manager Ann Humphreys said the post would carry a short-term note on the existing $335,000 owed the organization over five years.

“We haven’t settled on where we’re going to relocate yet,” Humphreys said, adding the 600-member post would still convene at the onsite building until a new meeting place has been chosen. “We’re kind of taking our time on that.”

Organizers of a separate youth baseball club say the deal couldn’t have come at a better time.

Springfield Metro Baseball called Price Cutter Park in Ozark home for six seasons until 2014 and lost the venue in April when sale negotiations began between stadium owner OMS LLC and two separate independent minor league ventures.

“We actually played more games there than the Ducks did, when you add it all together,” Springfield Metro Baseball Director Rob Ginocchio said of the Ozark Mountain Ducks stadium where ownership changed hands in August to a third group seeking to implement minor league play next year.

Ginocchio and Zarechi signed an agreement for undisclosed terms to share space at the Barnhouse as well as the Springfield Westside Optimist Club’s fields at 3250 W. Grand St. The Little Guys league has played there since 2011 under a 10-year $3,000 annual lease with the Optimist Club, of which Zarechi is a member.

Financial squeeze
Barnhouse Field hosted American Legion baseball games, as well as those for Republic High School until the new school opened in 2010.

“When the school district was no longer using it, the real question mark became what was going to happen to it,” Ginocchio said.

Zarechi, a former salesman for St. Louis-based All American Bingo Inc. who currently works part-time for UPS, said he approached the American Legion’s executive board about leasing the Barnhouse for youth league play in early spring 2013. The nonprofit league signed a two-year agreement in May 2013 with the fraternal organization, and Zarechi and Little Guys board Vice President Chris Hamilton immediately began restoration efforts.

Effective in October of that year, Little Guys agreed to pay roughly $3,000 per month through Nov. 1, 2015, when the baseball club planned to purchase the property from the American Legion post.

“We were looking to downsize,” American Legion’s Humphreys said, noting members primarily use only the building and didn’t want to continue maintenance of the unused baseball diamond and grounds. “We just wanted to pass that along to someone who could use it better than we were.”

The deal for Little Guys Baseball Club had promising beginnings but a troubled first season, according to Zarechi.

After preparing the field for 2014, the nonprofit largely funded by bingo games barely kept up with payments. Funding picked up this year, and Zarechi said in August he was $50,000 away from meeting capital requirements to secure a loan from an undisclosed bank in order to complete the $500,000 first-phase purchase.

“We went back to see if we could renegotiate the loan from $350,000 to $400,000,” Zarechi said, adding the bank not only refused to raise the amount but also retracted the original figure.

“I thought we were going to lose it,” he said, adding the amount of the loan and the fact the organization was funded by bingo games – considered a charitable event by the Missouri Gaming Commission – made other local banks balk at the pitch.

But Zarechi said an OakStar loan officer suggested he contact Ruda, and after a handful of meetings, the loan was given new life.

“This guy absolutely saved our organization, in my mind,” Zarechi added.

Home field advantage
Zarechi and Ginocchio said plans for the property now include field improvements and construction of a second ballpark as donations come in. A typical field costs $250,000-$300,000, Zarechi said.

“It’s probably at least a few years before another ballpark will be built,” Ginocchio said, adding the two leagues are working together in the expansion effort. “I don’t want to go through what I’ve gone through again after what happened at Price Cutter.”

When Little Guys Baseball kicks off in May, Ginocchio said Barnhouse Field would be renamed and dedicated as the Bill Virdon Sports Complex in honor of the Springfield resident, former Major League Baseball centerfielder and 1960 World Series champion.

Nolan McCaulley, commissioner of the nonprofit Springfield Area Baseball Association that has used the field sporadically for three decades, said the group returned to Barnhouse this year due to the upkeep efforts of Little Guys.

“As long as it is in the condition it is, we’ll probably continue to use it,” McCaulley added.

Completing repayment of Ruda’s loan and finalizing the purchase from the American Legion means the nonprofit must make considerable financial gains between now and 2020, but Zarechi doesn’t think the goal is insurmountable.

“I guess I’m not completely out of the water,” he said. “We have a loan, so we have a debt to service, but I think that’s very feasible.”