News of Capahas reprieve met with relief, excitement

When news came out earlier this month that the Capahas baseball team's season was in jeopardy due to a lack of funding, Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Steve Bieser was concerned for a couple of reasons.

As someone who once wore a Capahas uniform, Bieser understood the importance of the team's history, and as a coach whose players need a team to play for close to the university in the summer, he also appreciated the opportunity the Capahas provide.

"I spent, I don't know if it was 7 or 10 days before I got drafted playing for the Capahas," Bieser said following his team's game Saturday. "That's something that you'd just hate to see go away. They've been here forever, oldest team, and you really hope that there's some way it can be salvaged and just keep it going.

"It serves us really well for some of our guys that have to take summer classes. They need to stay and play summer ball right here locally so they can take summer classes, and it gives them good experience and keeps them going throughout the summer. You really hate to see something with that type of tradition [go away]. You can ride by here during the summer when the Capahas are playing and they draw crowds just like Southeast draws crowds. It's just a place for our community to really go out and have a nice evening and watch good baseball."

Bieser no longer has to worry about his players finding a team this summer or about the team's tradition being forgotten.

The Capahas will be on the field for at least one more season after Plaza Tire Service, who sponsored the team for 10 seasons before announcing it would not continue to do so on April 7, and a group of anonymous individuals will support the team for this season, according to a press release issued by the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce on Saturday evening.

"I'm tickled to death that a lot of people in this town, business people and baseball lovers, feel the same way we do and stepped forward," Capahas manager Jess Bolen said. "Something like this, I think, always needs a lot of people involved, and that's what we got this time, and it's a good feeling for us."

The team has been in existence since 1894 and Bolen has managed the team for 47 years.

Plaza Tire Service began sponsoring the team in 2004, and Bolen expressed his gratitude for them to help support the team for one more season.

"They have been such a great sponsor down through the years that for them to be involved in any way staying with the team is a plus for us, and I can't tell you how much we appreciate what they've done in the past," Bolen said. "They're just a great company to work with, with Mark and Scott Rhodes down there. That is probably one of the most important things that kept us going was Plaza Tire staying involved."

While the future of the team has been in limbo, Bolen and his wife, Mary, have had to spend their time looking for sponsors rather than preparing the team for the season.

"Whenever stuff like this is happening, you pretty much have to put your operations of a ballclub on hold," Bolen said. "You can't go recruit a player and say, 'If I have a team, would you happen to play for me?' I mean, they're going to say, 'Well, come back when you've got a team.' It does hurt you along those lines, and it might be interesting just to see how the team develops this year because of the late start of trying to get things lined up. But we'll do the best we can, and we'll have some guys coming back from last year -- I know that and everything, so we'll be OK."

The group's sponsorship is expected to last one year, and the Bolens will work to figure out a long-term solution to keep the Capahas on the field after this season.

"If we've got from the middle of August and we know we need to find a corporate sponsor then, that gives me and Mary plenty of time," Bolen said. "We just didn't have enough time the way it was this time. We know that this year is OK, and we'll do whatever we need to do to make it more of a permanent thing this fall."