For WhiteWings, A Long, Drawn Out Light Bill...City of Harlingen Is Patient...Season Drags On...

"I stand on my sincere convictions concerning the WhiteWings, while you seem to make comparisons with them and major league teams. Of course, that is not true, but they provide good entertainment and, yes, there are some very good players in the league. Why not pick on the Killer Bees hockey team for a change and give your fixation on the Wings a rest..." - Harlingen Blogger Jerry Deal, a Journalist

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
Editor of The Tribune

HARLINGEN, Texas - Almost 40 games into the ongoing season, the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings are in the thick of things on the field. As they head into tomorrow's doubleheader in Edinburg, local fans can take solace in knowing the Wings will not be playing in Harlingen, where the team continues to negotiate an estimated $40,000 debt it owes for utilities availed at the city ballfield.

"We are still in talks, but just within the last 10 days they finally made a token payment of $4,000 towards their balance due," said a source familiar with the ongoing negotiations.

The news is good for residents underwriting the venue. Harlingen provides the field, takes care of maintenance and, by contract, provides electric power for night games. It has been a very good deal for the team and its management, members of the new North American Baseball League that also outfits clubs in nearby Edinburg and McAllen. Following weekend losses, the WhiteWings record is 21-18, good for second place.

Second hand everything is something many Valleyites endure. This is not professional baseball; it is very minor league baseball being played by players who couldn't - or haven't - made it up to the lowest rung of established A ball. But Harlingen, like many small towns across the country, signed-on, thinking it, too, could dream the impossible dream. It has paid the price when seeking reimbursement from the WhiteWings for that electricity provided at Harlingen Field.

Does the city need this headache?

Some realists at City Hall say, "No."

Still, there it is, that siphoning cash from the strained city budget that could perhaps go to hiring one more police officer or perhaps the funding of a better program serving all residents, not just the easily-buffaloed, rabid baseball fanatic.

Pride comes from success. The Wings may yet win the league championship. But what is the value of that, when the league is such an obscure league that the award is laughable? You don't have to soil major league baseball by comparing this level of ball to the Big League clubs. Only a rube would do that.

In this town, it is about coming clean with the taxpayers and the fans.

Yesterday, on ESPN2, the network carried a program in which it looked at the Good Old Days of baseball in New York, the crux of the show posing the question as to who was the city's best centerfielder when Mickey Mantle patrolled center for the Yankees, Willie Mays did it for the NY Giants and Duke Snider for the Brooklyn Dodgers. You'd have to know baseball to even pose the question.

No, the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings, bless their hearts, are nowhere near that league. Team owners and managers would quickly admit it. But that's about play on the field.

The team's bills are public record, as is that contract the City of Harlingen entered into with the team. Who cares what player is running down flyballs in center at Harlingen Field? You can be sure it's a nobody, always is at this level of play. That's not even up for discussion.

So, what is the current state of that contract?

How much do the WhiteWings owe, and when do they plan to pay it? You would think the town's excitable bloggers would be on it like flies on Guacamole. But they're not...

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