Worcester at the bat

Saturday

Nov 24, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Word that there will be no professional baseball in Worcester next summer might lead some to bite the bitter diamond dust, raising the grim prospect that the old ball game is over for the foreseeable future. We think it’s more along the lines of a pitching change, with a savvy manager and a shrewd front office looking beyond one particular game or series toward the larger goal of making the playoffs down the road.

In fact, Worcester’s approach, as outlined by City Manager Michael V. O’Brien, is a solid one. Rather than rush to field a team next year that might not have the proper financial backing and public support, the city and local business community are batting around ideas for 2014. And one local business owner, Henry Camosse, has already formed an ownership group that is confident of gaining admission to one of the two independent leagues in the Northeast — the Can-Am League or the Atlantic League.

It’s too early to predict what a revived Worcester franchise would look like, but the idea of local ownership is appealing. Worcester’s business community features any number of pillars with a long, proud history of serving the region in ways economic, social and cultural.

Drawing upon those strengths, we see no reason why Worcester should not recapture its baseball legacy in 2014 and beyond. The ownership group led by Todd Breighner had its successes and setbacks, and may have ended with a strikeout, but that experience need say nothing about the merits of a locally owned franchise.