DAVE “BAGS” BAGGOTT CELEBRATING 40TH YEAR IN THE PIONEER LEAGUE
PBL’s “Executive of the Year Award” to be Named for Innovative Ogden Raptors Owner
The Pioneer Baseball League, an MLB Partner League, announced today that its prestigious "Executive of the Year Award," given each year to the top PBL club executive, will hereafter be named after Ogden Raptors owner, Dave Baggott.
"Bags", as he's affectionately known, is celebrating his 40th year, starting his PBL career in 1985 as a second baseman/outfielder for the Idaho Falls Eagles, then an affiliated MLB rookie-level club.
"It's been a hell of a ride," said Bags. "I'd be stupid to do anything else. I mean, who wouldn't want to wake up and come to the ballpark every day? A lot of people think that being in professional baseball has a lot of glitz and glamor, but all we're really doing is selling hot dogs for a living. We're not in the baseball business, we're in sales."
In the oftentimes inconceivable twists and turns of baseball fate, Bags went from a backseat player out of Southern California to a GM job with his former Salt Lake City Trappers team in 1989, with whom he subsequently won two PBL Executive of the Year awards.
While in Salt Lake City, he endeared himself to fans as not only a wily and successful businessman, but also as the team's PA announcer/cheerleader, often barking like a dog over the PA system to encourage Trapper rallies, doing impressions of Jack Nicholson and Jimmy Stewart, and singing "Minnie the Moocher" between innings.
When the Trappers moved to Idaho in 1992, Bags and partner Johnny Lindquist bought the club the following year and relocated it to Ogden, Utah, about 38 miles north of Salt Lake City.
"Youth has its advantages," said Bags. "I was so arrogant, it never occurred to me I couldn't do it. I had no fears at all about owning a team."
After three years in a temporary ballpark, Baggott and Lindquist built charming Lindquist Field in 1997, best known for its stunning views of the Wasatch Mountains beyond the centerfield fence (interestingly, also rumored to be the same mountains used for the Paramount Pictures logo).
Ballpark Digest voted the ballpark to have the "Best Views" and DigitalBallparks.com named it the 2007 Ballpark of the Year.
"The site was an old iron works plant with contaminated soil, but when the mayor took us to the site, we knew it had to be the place for our ballpark," said Bags. "The view just takes your breath away."
And while the ballpark tells part of the Ogden story, the focus remains on its guiding force, Dave Baggott. A one-time would-be actor and dead ringer for Vin Scully, Bags has molded the image of the Raptors around his own persona – fun loving, charming, and innovative with a slightly twisted perspective.
He's put his grounds crew in dresses and dubbed them the "Drag Queens"; he came up with the concept of theme jerseys; he was even publicly shamed by the local Mormon community for his "Polygamy Night."
"Some of the things we did reflect an environment of 25 years ago," Bags said. "There are things we did then that we can't do today. In the end, it's all about fun. All we try to do is give people a few hours every night when they can forget about everything else. I want people to enjoy a night out whether we win or not."
2024 is the Pioneer League's 85th anniversary and Dave Baggott's 40th in the league. As in any longstanding relationship there have been ups and downs. Moving from affiliated status to "MLB Partner League" wasn't easy but has been, in the odd way things tend to work out, a blessing in disguise.
"The one distinct advantage is now we have total control of player operations," said
Bags. "There's nobody to tell you who must play every day. In the affiliated days, we were told who we had to put in the lineup. Now we decide it for ourselves."
Reflecting on his 40 years in the PBL, Bags has many reasons to feel justly proud of what he's dedicated his life to - he's led the league in attendance nearly every year he's owned the Raptors, he's won championships in 2017 and 2023, he's changed the way fans experience minor league baseball, and over the years he's given joy to millions of people through his good humor, his dedication to and support of the Ogden community and the Pioneer League, and for his love of the Game.
"Dave Baggott personifies and represents everything that's great about Minor League Baseball," said his friend and colleague Dave Heller, owner of the Billings Mustangs. "He's fan-friendly, community-oriented, passionate about the game and, above all, a prince of a human being. There is no better advocate for and representative of Minor League Baseball than Dave Baggott."
As Bags says to Raptors fans at the end of each game, "Ciao Baby."