END OF AN ERA - After Another Poor Start, Knights to Be Sold

(Special to the New York Daily Mirror - May 12, 2010)



NEW YORK - After the last out was made in the 1957 MLB season, New York City bemoaned the loss of two of its most beloved sports franchises - the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants were moving westward. Although neither team had won the NL pennant that season, they were interwoven with the city's fabric and their recent championships (the Giants in 1954 and the Dodgers in 1955) made their departures especially painful. To make matters worse, the Dodgers won three more championships in short order after moving to Los Angeles. The Giants have yet to win their first title after over 50 years in the City by the Bay.


Now it appears that New York will once again be losing a sports franchise, though one with much less success, tenure or fan affection than the Dodgers or Giants ever experienced. After a league-worst 16-30 start to the 2010 NASBL season, the Pak family, primary owners of the Knights, have announced their intention to withdraw from the league as soon as possible. The league front office has already been notified and reports indicate that an active search for new ownership is underway.

In a formal statement to the New York media, a spokesman for the Pak family said that "the family thought long and hard about this decision, but ultimately concluded that it was time to go in a different direction."

GM Mitch Pak, whose failure to get the team close to the playoffs even once in his nine seasons at the helm, has been instructed not to make any trades pending the ownership transfer. He was not available for comment as we went to press.


Team insiders were unsurprised at this move. "The Paks got into this league with the intention of bringing a championship to New York. After '07 they thought they were finally heading there, but then came Barry Zito and '08. They've been talking about getting out since then. Even with the new stadium, the Knights are a money-losing proposition to the family and they feel their energies would be better served elsewhere." The team had no official comment on rumors that the family had taken a big hit in the Bernard Madoff scandal and are in financially dire straits.


There is speculation that the league wants the Paks to run the team normally for the time being and that the new ownership search will go into high gear after the '10 season is completed. Reclusive owners Samuel Z. and Ethan Pak are said to be agreeable to this plan but have already publicly stated that they do not they want to run this club in 2011.

Initial fan reaction was mixed. On the Knights' website fan message board, a straw poll measuring the fans thoughts about the team's demise found that 42% of those responding were willing to say "good riddance" to the star-crossed Knights while just 28% wanted for the team to stay put. 30% remained undecided.

The Knights came into being in the 2000-2001 offseason, when the Pak family was awarded the rights to the moribund North Celtic Druids, a dreadful club (even by LF Central standards) that never won more than 62 games in its existence and lost 122 games in 1999. The family immediately moved the club to New York, where they were renamed the Knights and started play in the '01 season in creaky old Empire Field, a leftover relic from the Robert Moses era.