Ports owners add Delmarva to cache

STOCKTON, Calif. -- Stockton Ports owners Tom Volpe and Pat Filippone announced that they have entered into a preliminary agreement to purchase the Delmarva Shorebirds, the Class A Affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. The Shorebirds, who are based in Salisbury, Md. and play in the South Atlantic League, will join the Ports and become the second team owned and operated by 7th Inning Stretch, LLC.

The Shorebirds had been owned by Comcast-Spectacor, the Philadelphia-based sports and entertainment firm, who recently sold two other Minor League teams -- the Bowie Baysox and the Frederick Keys -- both Orioles affiliates. Their local name, Delmarva, is derived from the states that govern counties on the peninsula east of the Chesapeake Bay: Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

7th Inning Stretch, LLC., is a baseball ownership group based in Stockton. The company was founded by Volpe in 1999 when he purchased the Visalia Oaks, and eventually moved to Stockton when he acquired the Ports in 2002. In July of 2006, Volpe added former Fresno Grizzlies CEO Pat Filippone to the ownership group and named him president and general manager of the Ports. Filippone will also be the president of the Shorebirds and oversee their day-to-day operations. In the first personnel move, Filippone hired Chris Bitters to be the team's new general manager. Bitters, who worked under Filippone with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, had previously served as general manager of the Bakersfield Blaze, Class A Advanced California League Affiliate of the Texas Rangers.

"We are excited to be adding a Class A Minor League Baseball organization like the Delmarva Shorebirds to 7th Inning Stretch," said Volpe. "We feel that we've built a very solid foundation and operations base in Stockton, and we're excited for the Ports to play a significant role in the growth of another Minor League Baseball team."

Filippone said that he is ready to bring many elements from the Ports organization to the group's new team on the east coast.

"We're thrilled to be adding a second team to our family, and we're excited about the prospect of being able to have a positive impact on two great baseball communities," said Filippone.