New owners step up to plate for AquaSox

The Everett AquaSox's new senior vice president has a confession to make: He's a Cleveland Indians fan.

Try not to hold that against him.

He grew up in Cleveland, watching games at old Cleveland Municipal Stadium, a place locals called "the Mistake by the Lake." He grew up like so many kids in families bitten by the baseball bug: playing Little League, attending pro games downtown, eating Cracker Jack and returning home to toss a baseball around the yard with Dad.

"It's almost amazing that you could love baseball going to games there," Peter E. Carfagna said Monday, dispensing a statement that baseball fans familiar with the Kingdome can identify with. "But I've loved baseball for as long as I can remember."

The Carfagnas took the baseball bug some steps further. They purchased the Lake County Captains, a Class A minor-league affiliate of the Indians near Cleveland, in November 2000.

They got the chance last fall to expand their baseball holdings. The AquaSox were for sale after Mark and Joan Sperandio conceived a child and decided to move back east to be near family. Carfagna's parents, Peter A. and Rita Carfagna, made the purchase.

"We were doing so well, and we had this love for baseball," Carfagna said.

"We asked, 'Hey, is there a way we can continue to grow?' We saw Everett as one of the great minor-league franchises. We feel real fortunate to acquire it."

The AquaSox's new senior vice president has another confession to make: He's not sleeping much.

That's what happens when you take over operations of a second minor-league team Oct. 1. What happens when you have to retain some staff members and hire the rest, discard some promotions and add others, and review everything the Sperandios did in weaving the AquaSox into the fabric of Snohomish County life.

And when you have less than a week until the Northwest League opener — it's at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday at Everett Memorial Stadium against the Boise Hawks.

Asked how many hours he would work Monday, Carfagna chuckled.

"Probably 20," he said.

So much to do, so little time to do it. Short-season Class A baseball is funny in that way. Though Class AA and Class AAA minor-league clubs have already been playing, the AquaSox won't find out their tentative roster until Friday night and won't complete it until Saturday.

Questions abound: Will Woodinville graduate and local star Matt Tuiasosopo play shortstop? Will first-round draft pick Jeff Clement join the team?

"It's a whirlwind," Carfagna said.

New owners. New players. New season.

The continuity comes from the community — the AquaSox just agreed to a new five-year lease at Everett Memorial Stadium that runs through 2010 — and the coaching staff.

Pedro Grifol has returned for his third season as manager. He improved the team's win total by nine in his second season, missing the playoffs by one game. Pitching coach Marcos Garcia also is back, along with trainer Spyder Webb, who is in his 27th season in the Seattle Mariners organization.

"I have a pretty good feel for the organization," said Grifol, who also works as a Mariners scout. "It's not like I'm going in blind. I know the players, and so far it's worked out great."

The AquaSox's new senior vice president has another confession to make: He's a lot like the Sperandios, a man with baseball on the brain.

You have to be to take that kind of career path. Carfagna played on the 1997 Ivy League championship football team at Harvard, graduated cum laude and went to work for IMG, a giant sports-management company .

Yet here he is in Snohomish County, running a minor-league-baseball team and checking in daily with his father, who is running the family's other team.

The AquaSox's new senior vice president has one last confession: He's already smitten with Everett and Snohomish County, even though the apartment he is renting is in Seattle.

Carfagna sees similarities between his family's new team and its first one. Both are in markets with passionate sports families. Both are about 25 miles from a major city. Both are strongly hooked into their communities.

The AquaSox's theme this year is "Tomorrow's Mariners, Today's Fun."

"We're poised to have one of the best years this franchise has ever had," Carfagna said.

Greg Bishop: 206-464-3191 or gbishop@seattletimes.com