news-record.com

Numerous scheduling conflicts will almost certainly preclude the Greensboro Grasshoppers from replacing Boston's Fenway Sports Group as the host of the suddenly homeless 2009 ACC baseball tournament, the team's president said today.

"I'm still trying, but it doesn't look good," said Donald Moore, the Hoppers' chief operating officer.

The Fenway group, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company that owns the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Park, admitted Thursday that it had failed to protect the agreed-upon dates of May 20-24 for the tournament. The league said the tourney will now come to Beantown in 2010.

Moore proposed to trade home dates with other South Atlantic League teams in hopes of freeing the ACC's window for NewBridge Bank Park, but the arrangements couldn't be worked out.

One potential swap with the Lake County Captains would have cost the Ohio team a coveted Friday home date and would have extended one of its road trips to 12 games from the conventional eight.

Another scenario, a three-team arrangement, would have paired the Captains and the Hagerstown Suns 31 times in a 140-game season. Major League teams generally want their affiliates to play no more than 23 games against one opponent in a year.

For the Hoppers, the news of the Boston snafu simply came too late. The South Atlantic League's unofficial deadline for 2009 schedule revisions came and went several weeks ago, Moore said.

"I want the event," he said, "but the timing was not good. When you start changing schedules with one team, all of a sudden, you've got six teams involved."

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rob.daniels@news-record.com