Gary Santaniello reviews the nomadic season of the Hartford Yard Goats.

In March 2015, Hartford’s soon-to-be first professional baseball team in 44 years announced to much fanfare that it would be known as the Yard Goats, an old rail yard term for an engine that switches trains between tracks.

As the team’s first season nears its merciful end, catcher-infielder Ashley Graeter has a more appropriate name for his club: the Yardless Goats.

That is because when its season ends on Labor Day, the Class AA Eastern League affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, which relocated after the 2015 season from nearby New Britain, will have played all of its 141 games on the road.

This was a good team that likely lost a chance to make the playoffs due to bureaucratic nightmare that is Dunkin’ Dounts Park. On the other hand, this may bode well for future Rockies teams. The Yard Goats manager Darin Everson on his team:

Everson, whose 14-year-old son, Jared, had been with him from spring training until he returned home to start school, said he was always conscious of his team’s “heartbeat” as the season progressed.

“They’ve been a really tight-knit group,” he said. “They have fun whether they’re on the field, in the dugout, out shopping, or razzing each other on the bus.”

Jemiola said, “It’s a good group of guys.”

I suspect this experience will make them a very tight knit group when they reach the majors.

It looks like Dunkin’ Donuts Park will not be completed for the Hartford Yard Goats this season:

The City of Hartford has terminated the contracts of Centerplan Construction and DoNo Hartford LLC., the developers in charge of building Dunkin’ Donuts Park. The city received word of yet another delay to construction this week according to Jenn Bernstein. The contractors have already missed two deadlines for substantial completion, most recently May 17.

Last week, the Hartford Stadium Authority met and unanimously ruled to give their executive director all power necessary to get the stadium done as quickly as possible without increasing the city’s financial obligation. From there, the decision was made to call on the insurance company in charge of guaranteeing a finished ballpark to step in and investigate claims that the developers have breached their contract with the city as well as whether the developers are capable of completing the project with additional oversight.

Hartford is nearly broke, but at least they have a pretty, partially completed stadium easily visible from the highway. Maybe the Rockies should move the franchise back to New Britain.

The Rockies AA affiliate, the Hartford Yard Goats have yet to play a game at home as the money sink that is their new stadium is two months behind schedule. They are playing thier home games at the opponents park until the new facility is complete. (I see it every week when I drive down to see my dad. Progress is painfully slow.)

Given the way they are playing, however, they should stay away from the I90-I91 exchange:

Manager Darin Everson stands firmly behind his make-the-best-of-it attitude. The Yard Goats, 19-6 after 25 games, are 11-2 in their “home” games away from home.

“We see that we’re the home team on the scoreboard in our road home games,” Everson said. “We don’t have any fans, but in those games we know we have the last at-bats. We get the development time on the field before the games as we would in a home game. The development time is crucial for our young players.”

Everson and Ron Gideon, the Rockies’ development supervisor in Double-A, began preparing their players for the challenges ahead during spring training.

“The biggest thing was creating a mind-set that we were going to compete the way we know how to compete every day no matter what,” Everson said. “We’ve had to have good energy throughout.”

That’s pretty amazing. It also adds to the embarrassment of Hartford. They could have opened a stadium with the best team in the league, building an immediate fan base. Revenue would be high, and politicians would be patting themselves on the back. Instead, they, and the citizens of Hartford, get to watch money pour down the drain.

On the other hand, fans of the MLB club should be excited. Success in the minors often translates to success in the majors down the road.