Where's the Express Headed?
they filled a void in gathering spaces, now they just need to win the division
We left the dark years of organized, non-educational sports in Eau Claire only recently. While the Cavaliers and the Legion teams kept the baseball flame alive, the vibrancy of minor league baseball in Eau Claire was an ever-receding memory. Semi-pro football in the form of the Chippewa Valley Predators had begun, but they were just getting ready to move their home games into town from Augusta. Minor league basketball or hockey? Without an arena, which was plenty-debated in the 1990s, these sports would never come to Eau Claire.
This dark era in the city ended five years ago, with the arrival of the Eau Claire Express. As you read this column, the Express are either about to begin or have just begun their fifth-anniversary season. We have difficulty imagining Carson Park without the Express, with our summers lately dominated by talk of the Fan Deck, Trax, the Beer Batter, and Kraig Binick.
Yet the aforementioned was merely theory in the last decade. Since the demise of the minor league Eau Claire Braves in 1962, no large-scale organized baseball team was established in Eau Claire. True, the Cavaliers came in 1971, and thanks to the stewardship of people like the late Harv Tomter, regularly flourished and won their games. However, something was missing. The baseball culture on which Eau Claire thrived in the mid-20th century had gone dormant. Our city kept honoring the “classic” era of baseball into the 1990s, but I always felt a sense of disappointment. A sense of, “Baseball used to matter in this town; will it ever matter again?”
The over-arching culture of Eau Claire seemed an inhibitor. Traditionally, we have been a staid, low-key city – a really big small town, or as I’ve said, the biggest suburb in the middle of nowhere. A longtime Eau Claire resident I know is amazed that this city is the one city this person has lived in without a definitive local hang-out. We flock to malls and chain restaurants. We had the arena debate that went nowhere. My sense of frustration growing up in Eau Claire was that any time something new and challenging was presented, the thought might excite people for a moment, others would raise objections, and then we would return to our regular routine, and the “new and challenging” would wither and die. Our culture was static.
When word came in 2004 that two groups planned to bring organized baseball to Eau Claire the following year, I was excited – and skeptical. When the Northwoods League proposal ultimately won city council approval, I was further enthused – and a bit more believing. We were really going to try something somewhat big-time in Eau Claire? I hoped hard that people would attend the games – especially after the first week or two.
Oh, they attended, alright. I spent a good part of that first Express summer at Carson Park, filling in as back-up public address announcer and representing my radio station. The buzz kept building. Independence Day had about 5,000 people in the stands. There was still a nagging question in my mind, as the Express struggled to win in their first two seasons: How long will fans come if the team never makes the playoffs? We are a fickle city, and we have expectations: what are our expectations for the Express?
The expectation was for a good time. Several times over the years I have commented to others how I had a blast at Carson Park … then noted that, oh yeah, the Express lost. The Express still draw near the top of the Northwoods League rankings. As the seasons passed, I noticed the preponderance of college-age folks on the Fan Deck – alas, a cool local hang-out.
Eau Claire’s culture has changed in the last decade. Downtown revitalization is finally happening, and there are signs of a growing arts and music scene. I see the beginning of an acceptance of Eau Claire as an urban center and its accompanying diversity. Aspects of the old culture still exist, but they no longer dominate. The arrival of the Express five years ago contributed to the shake-up of our mind-set. On this anniversary of the team’s birth, that’s something to which we should all chug-a-lug.
