Ottawa Titans
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2024) |
| Ottawa Titans | |||||
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| Information | |||||
| League | Frontier League (North Division) | ||||
| Location | Ottawa, Ontario | ||||
| Ballpark | Ottawa Stadium | ||||
| Founded | 2020 | ||||
| Playoff berths |
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| Colours | Red, white, black | ||||
| Mascot | Cappy | ||||
| Ownership | Sam Katz, OSEG, Jacques J.M. Shore | ||||
| President | Regan Katz | ||||
| General Manager | Martin Boyce | ||||
| Manager | Bobby Brown | ||||
| Media | Ottawa Citizen Ottawa Sun CTV News Le Droit Radio-Canada Sportsnet TSN TSN 1200 TVA Sports RDS Sports Illustrated CKDJ-FM FloSports | ||||
| Website | ottawatitans | ||||
The Ottawa Titans (French: Titans d'Ottawa), officially the Ottawa Titans Baseball Club (French: Club de baseball des Titans d'Ottawa) are a professional baseball team based in Ottawa. They compete in the Frontier League (FL) as a member of the North Division in the Atlantic Conference. Since 2022, the Titans have played their home games at Ottawa Stadium, originally known as RCGT Park. The Titans have made it to the playoffs two times in franchise history.
Founded in 2020, the Titans played their inaugural season in 2022 due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario. They became the city's seventh professional baseball franchise succeeding the Eastern League's Ottawa Wanderers, the International League's Ottawa Giants, Ottawa Athletics and Ottawa Lynx, the Intercounty Baseball League's Ottawa Fat Cats, as well as the Can-Am League's Ottawa Rapidz and Ottawa Champions. The franchise is one of the expansion teams of the FL, following their merger with the Can-Am League in October 2019.
History
[edit]After the 2019 season, the Can-Am League merged with the Frontier League and five of the six teams remaining in it joined the latter league. The Champions were not invited to take part. Miles Wolff, the former Can-Am League commissioner, failed to find a buyer for the team, and it folded operations. The Frontier League decided to expand to Ottawa in September 2020, granting a franchise to a group led by Sam Katz, the former mayor of Winnipeg and owner of the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball; Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, who owns the Ottawa 67’s junior hockey team and the Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League; and local lawyer Jacques J.M. Shore.[1] Following a contest, the team was named the Titans.[1]
On October 6, 2020, Ottawa announced Steve Brook as the team's inaugural manager. Brook previously managed the River City Rascals in the Frontier League from 2010 to 2019. He led the Rascals to a 488–373 record over his nine seasons at the helm including the 2010 and 2019 championships. In December 2020, Ottawa announced the team name as Ottawa Titans a result of a name-the-team contest, and the team colours in the tradition of Ottawa sports franchises such as the Ottawa Redblacks, Ottawa 67's, and Ottawa Senators.
The continued closure of the Canada–United States border, unfortunately resulted in pushing the Titans’ first game in the FL to the 2022 season. Ottawa, Québec, and Trois-Rivières were replaced on the 2021 schedule by Équipe Québec. Équipe Québec used the Canadian players from the Ottawa Titans, Québec Capitales and Trois-Rivières Aigles to craft the base of their roster and spent the first half of the season on the road, before returning to Canada in late July. Équipe Québec split home games between Stade Canac in Quebec City and Stade Quillorama in Trois-Rivières.[2]
On July 30, 2021, Équipe Québec hosted the New York Boulders at Stade Canac and won the game 10–8 in front of a full house of 2,800 spectators, the maximum number allowed during sanitary measures.
On September 12, 2021, Équipe Québec qualified for the playoffs, and then faced the Washington Wild Things in the best-of-five Frontier League Division Series. The crowd of 3,750 gathered at Stade Canac during Game 3 at home represented more than 900 people than the number allowed due to sanitary measures, and Québec were able to pull a 3–2 win over the Wild Things. They however lost Game 4 and 5 at home, which made an end to their very unique season. Équipe Québec finished the season 1st place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 52 wins and 44 losses with an average of 2,288 fans in 24 home games, including the playoffs.[3]
In October 2021, Bobby Brown was hired as the Titans manager for the 2022 season, after Steve Brook, on a one-year contract, became the Gateway Grizzlies manager.
On May 13, 2022, the Ottawa Titans opened their inaugural season with a 10–6 road victory against the Joliet Slammers. After a nine-game road trip, the team hosted the Evansville Otters in its inaugural home opener on May 24, 2022 in front of a crowd of 3,458. The Titans won 2–0 with Evan Grills pitching eight scoreless innings and recording 15 strikeouts.[4]
The Titans won seven games out of nine in their final homestand, ending on September 1.[5] The next day, the Titans qualified for the playoffs on the road with a 4–1 victory over the Trois-Rivières Aigles, clinching the wild card spot.[1] On September 7, the Titans defeated the New York Boulders in the wild card game by a 8–2 score to advance to the Division Series.[6] The Titans lost to the Capitales de Québec, 2 games to 1, in the Division Series.[7]The Titans had a regular season attendance of 112,727 for an average of 2,210 fans per game.
On April 17, 2024, the Ottawa Titans announced that their assistant general manager Sébastien Boucher will have his number 18 retired by the Québec Capitales on August 18 at Stade Canac as part of their 25th anniversary season of the team.[8][9]
The team made it to the playoffs again in 2024 and faced the Tri-City ValleyCats in the Wild Card Game.[10] They defeated the ValleyCats 5–2, but however lost to the Capitales again in the divisional series 2 games to 1.[11] By the regular season's end, the Titans received two post-season awards given out by the FL. AJ Wright was named the 2024 Frontier League most valuable player, part of the league’s all-star team, while the team's broadcaster Davide Disipio received the Robert Ford Award, given annually to the Frontier League Broadcaster of the Year. For a second consecutive year, the Titans increased their attendance by nearly 30%, for an average of 3,003 fans per game. The club saw crowds of 4,000 or more during several different occasions, shaping up for a strong milestone to enter the 2025 summer.
Season-by-season records
[edit]| Ottawa Titans | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | W–L Record | Win % | Finish | Playoffs | |
| 2022 | 56–39 | .589 | 3rd in East | Won East Division Wild Card Game over New York Boulders 8–2 Lost Divisional Round to Québec Capitales 2–1 | |
| 2023 | 48–48 | .500 | 6th in East | Did not qualify | |
| 2024 | 53–42 | .558 | 3rd in East | Won East Division Wild Card Game over Tri-City ValleyCats 5–2 Lost Divisional Round to Québec Capitales 2–1 | |
| TOTAL | 157-129 | .549 | |||
Ottawa Stadium
[edit]
Since 2022, the Titans play their home games at the 10,332-seat Ottawa Stadium just east of downtown Ottawa. Ottawa Stadium has a pedestrian bridge to get to the ballpark using OC Transpo's light rail system. The pedestrian bridge crosses over Highway 417 to connect the ballpark to the Transit Way and is named in honour of the late Canadian broadcaster Max Keeping.
Broadcasting and stadium entertainment
[edit]Titans games can be heard on CKDJ 107.9 and 94,5 Unique FM, with all season games available on flobaseball.tv via the FloSports website. The play-by-play broadcasters are Davide Disipio in English and Mikael Lafleur in French. At many home games, the fans are entertained both outside and inside Ottawa Stadium with myriad entertainers – live music, DJs, giveaways and promotions. Between innings, the entertainment varies with on-field contests with their mascot Cappy, youth games, t-shirt giveaways, promotions and many more. After each Titans' home runs, the team’s DJ sounds the home run horn, which is a Nathan Airchime K3L from a retired Via Rail train. The same horn is also used by the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League.
Current roster
[edit]| Active roster | Coaches/Other | |||
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Pitchers
Utility players
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Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
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Manager
Coaches
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References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Ottawa Titans: Team History". Ottawa Titans Baseball Club. 2025. Retrieved January 7, 2025.
- ^ Kerr, Stephen (2022-05-24). "Quebec Capitales Finally Begin Frontier League Play". FloBaseball. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
- ^ Editor, Q. C. T. (2022-05-02). "The Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph". The Quebec Chronicle Telegraph. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
{{cite web}}:|last=has generic name (help) - ^ Colley, Mark (2022-05-25). "Pitcher Evan Grills dominates for Ottawa Titans in historic home opener". Capital Current. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
- ^ "2022 Frontier League Schedule". Frontier League. Retrieved January 7, 2025.
- ^ Ashmore, Mike (September 8, 2022). "2022 Frontier League Playoffs Continuing Season's Excitement". FloSports. Retrieved January 7, 2025.
- ^ "2022 Frontier League". Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 7, 2025.
- ^ "Capitales de Québec: Sébastien Boucher deviendra un immortel". TVA Sports (in Canadian French). 2024-04-18. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
- ^ Cadorette, Stéphane (2024-08-16). "Capitales: au tour de Sébastien Boucher d'être immortalisé". Le Journal de Québec. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
- ^ Jhalli, Anil (2023-10-11). "Titans start 2024 Frontier League season on the road, play first home game on May 21". CityNews Ottawa. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
- ^ "Titans earn walk-off win over Capitales in Game 1 of division series". Canadian Baseball Network. 2024-09-06. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
External links
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