When baseball’s minor league season was canceled in late June by the COVID-19 pandemic it cost the Omaha Storm Chasers their season and an opportunity to celebrate its stadium’s tenth anniversary.
It is all not doom and gloom for the players who call Werner Park in Papillion home. Many of them will either make the expanded roster for the Kansas City Royals or be on the taxi squad.
“Most of the players that would have been Storm Chasers, they’re playing baseball right now,” said team president Martie Cordaro. “I don’t know how many of them will ultimately end up on the 30 man roster that the Royals will have. But I know some of them will.”
Cordaro said the second 30 grouping will be led by Brian Paul Berg. Those workouts are going to be at the stadium where the Kansas City T-Bones play
However, that has not been the case for staff and interns. They saw their jobs either minimized or completely disappear.
“So I got the job in the middle of January, and orientation was March 7,” said Andrew Popelka, gameday intern. “That was right near when everything was starting to get bad. Which is the week after, and everything started getting canceled around March 13. And I think it was right near St. Patrick’s Day where I’m like, okay, I don’t think we’re going to have a season because everything started closing.”
The club has been creative in finding ways to make use of the park and make a few bucks: church gatherings, Corn Belt League Games, fireworks show, Legion Baseball, and the Nebraska vs. Iowa All-Star Classic.
“The show must go on,” Cordaro said.
