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The Ottawa Titans (French: Les 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 East Division. Since 2022, the Titans have played their home games at Ottawa Stadium, originally known as RCGT Park. The Titans mascot is Cappy.
| Ottawa Titans | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Information | |||||
| League | Frontier League (East Division) | ||||
| Location | Ottawa, Ontario | ||||
| Ballpark | Ottawa Stadium | ||||
| Founded | 2020 | ||||
| Colours | Red, white, black | ||||
| Mascot | Cappy | ||||
| Playoff berths |
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| Ownership | Sam Katz, OSEG, Jacques J.M. Shore | ||||
| Manager | Bobby Brown | ||||
| General Manager | Martin Boyce | ||||
| President | Regan Katz | ||||
| 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 | ||||
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.
The Titans have made it to the playoffs in their inaugural season in 2022, but lost to the eventual champions, the Québec Capitales 2 games to 1 in the divisional series.
History
editAfter 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 Ottawa Champions were not invited to take part, but it was not immediately clear if they would fold or go on hiatus as owner Miles Wolff, the former Can-Am League commissioner, looked to sell the team. He could not find a buyer, however, and the team folded operations.
In September 2020, the ownership group led by former Winnipeg Mayor and the American Association's Winnipeg Goldeyes, Sam Katz, Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (who owns the Canadian Football League's Ottawa Redblacks and the Ottawa 67's of the Ontario Hockey League), along with local lawyer Jacques J.M. Shore struck a deal with the city of Ottawa to bring the Frontier League and Titans to Ottawa for the 2021 season.
In December of 2020, following a name-the-team contest that saw over 1,200 entries and 700 unique names, the Ottawa Titans were born. The league considers this to be an expansion team and not to have any connection to the Champions.
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.[1]
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, Trois-Rivières and Québec were replaced on the 2021 schedule by Équipe Québec. Équipe Québec used the Canadian players from the Titans, Aigles and Capitales 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.
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. A full reset was done by the front office to immediately shift focus to the 2022 season.
On September 12, 2021, Équipe Québec qualified for the playoffs, and they faced the Washington Wild Things in the divisional round but lost 4–0 in game 5. The crowd of 3,750 gathered at Stade Canac during game 3 represented more than 900 people than the number allowed due to sanitary measures. Équipe Québec finished the season with a record of 52 wins and 44 losses with an average of 2,329 fans in 24 home games, including the playoffs.
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.
The wait lasted 598 days before professional baseball in Canada’s Capital returned with a Titans decisive 10-6 road victory over the Joliet Slammers on May 13.[2] With a season-high nine games on the road out of the way to begin the season, the team returned home for their much-anticipated home opener on May 24. Led by local standout Evan Grills’ eight innings of scoreless baseball, the Titans put a bow on the opening day festivities with a 2-0 victory over the Evansville Otters in front of a crowd of 3,458. Grills also posted a single-season high 15 strikeouts in the win.
The Titans surged up the standings in the first half of the season, winning 23 of their first 30 games. Over that stretch, the club won a season-best nine straight.
Dartmouth’s Jake Sanford quickly emerged as a star on the expansion Titans by tying a league record with 10 RBIs on June 11 in a 13-0 win over the Empire State Greys. A key contributor, Sanford led the 2022 edition of the Titans with 22 home runs and 73 RBIs.
At the all-star break, the Titans had cooled off a bit but posted a respectable 35-23 record. The team sent an East Division-high five representatives to contribute to an 8-1 East win over the West all-stars at the mid-summer classic on July 17 in Washington, Pennsylvania. Jake Sanford, AJ Wright, Zac Westcott, Kevin Escorcia, and Evan Grills all represented the Titans proudly with the nomination.
Some tough stretches saw the Titans bow out of a playoff spot early in the month of August, but the 9-1 finish to the season managed to put the squad over the top.
Over the final homestand of the season, fans came out in droves to cheer on the Titans in a playoff push. With the energy, the Titans won seven of nine during their final homestand to finish the season 56-39, including a franchise record crowd of 4,582 on Fan Appreciation Night against the Trois-Rivières Aigles.
The Titans qualified for the postseason with a 4-1 victory over the Québec Capitales on September 2, guaranteeing themselves a berth in the Wild Card round. On the road, the Titans slugged their way to a decisive 8-2 victory to advance to the Division Series on September 7th against the New York Boulders. Despite Tyler Jandron’s complete game shutout in game one at home on September 9, the Titans bowed out of the postseason in a winner-take-all third game to the eventual champions from la belle province.
After an entertaining inaugural season, the Ottawa Titans returned the fun in front of record crowds during a successful second campaign.
Opening Day brought a record 4,777 fans on hand for a thrilling 17-7 victory against the Empire State Greys, seeing new faces and returning veterans start the season on a high note. The lopsided affair saw fan-favourite Jackie Urbaez belt the club’s first grand slam in franchise history apart of a nine-run fourth inning. Newcomer Jamey Smart made his presence felt in the capital and around the league, setting multiple career highs in his return to professional baseball. Smart slugged a team-best .334, ranking fifth in the Frontier League in the process. The San Ramon, California native product registered 37 multi-hit performances, clubbed a personal high of eight homers, and brought home a franchise record 83 RBIs.
All seemed to have tapered off for the Titans after winning their series over Empire State on opening weekend as the team then lost 15 of their next 21 games to be on the outside looking in from the get-go of the season.
Following a trade in early June, Sicnarf Loopstok helped the Titans get back in the playoff hunt belting a walk-off grand slam in his first Titans at-bat on June 2 against the club’s fierce rivals Québec Capitales. Loopstok went on to post a .298 average on the season with eight homers and 41 RBIs, suiting up in North America for the first time since 2019.
The Titans entered the all-star break five games back of a playoff spot by posting a 25-26 record, in large part by winning five of their final eight games to end the first half of the season. Sicnarf Loopstok, Jason Dicochea, and Grant Larson all had the honour of representing the Titans at the mid-summer classic in Windy City. After being one of the more feared arms out of the bullpen in 2022, Larson made the jump to the rotation following several key losses, going 8-8 in 18 starts, and posting a 4.29 ERA in 121.2 innings. As for Dicochea, the utility player posted a team-best 16 home runs and drove in 63 over 92 contests. The Redondo Beach, California native had himself an all-star game to remember belting a home run and recording three RBIs.
Following the break, the Titans played some of their best baseball but missed out on the Frontier League postseason.
Damon Casetta-Stubbs blossomed into one of the top starters in the league, posting a career-high 109 strikeouts, ranking third in that department. The 24-year-old tossed to an ERA of just over 2.90 in his final 14 starts of the year.
Although missing out on the playoffs, the Titans grew their average attendance by roughly 30% from the inaugural season. The club put a wrap on 2023 with a new record of 5,602 fans on hand for Fan Appreciation Day against the Trois-Rivières Aigles, helping the team win a franchise-best 32 home games.
On April 17, 2024, the Ottawa Titans assistant general manager Sébastien Boucher will have his number 18 retired by the club on August 18th at Stade Canac as part of their 25th anniversary season of the Québec Capitales.
Rivalries
editThe Titans have developed strong rivalries with two Frontier League franchises, with whom they frequently shared divisions and competed in postseason play. The oldest is with the Québec Capitales, who faced the Titans in the Frontier League Divisional Series (FLDS) in 2022. The Capitales won the series 2 games to 1, then won the Frontier League Championship Series (FLCS) against the Schaumburg Boomers 3 games to 1. The rivalry is due to Ottawa and Quebec City being the two largest cities of the league and two of the largest fanbases in the league. The rivalry is sometimes dramatized as being emblematic of Canada's English and French linguistic divide. The rivalry was also present in the Can-Am League from 2015 to 2019.
The team's second biggest rival are the Tri-City ValleyCats. The rivalry is symbolic due to a total of five players being ejected in only three games, including two bench clearing brawls in one game. On August 25, 2022, Carson McCusker of the ValleyCats got plumped twice by Evan Grills, which caused both benches to start clearing. Later, McCusker hit a solo home run to left field, and was mocking of the Titans catcher Tyrus Greene, which caused benches clearing once again. Since then, both teams developped a strong rivalry.[3] On July 20, 2023, infielder Jason Dicochea of the Titans hit a walk-off 2-run home run off the foul pole to give Ottawa a 9–7 win over Tri-City. As of the end of the 2023 season, Tri-City leads the regular season record 11–7.
The Titans also have a small rivalry with the Trois-Rivières Aigles. This is due to both teams playing in the same country and the closeness of both provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Both stadiums are located within a distance of 320 kilometers, which appears to be the closest to Ottawa Stadium.
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 |
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
editTitans games can be heard on CKDJ-FM, and all season games are available via the FloSports website. The play-by-play broadcasters are Davide Disipio in english, and Mikael Lafleur in french (FloSports only). 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.
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- ^ Baines, Tim (3 December 2020). "REMEMBER THE TITANS: Ottawa's new pro baseball team gets a name". Grande Prairie Daily Herald-Tribune. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
- ^ Benvenuti, Frankie (14 May 2022). "Titans Win First Game In Franchise History Over Slammers". 13th Man Sports. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
- ^ Benvenuti, Frankie (26 August 2022). "Titans Take Down ValleyCats as Rivalry Boils". 13th Man Sports. Retrieved 4 July 2024.