London Rippers: R.I.P.

For most people attending the Wild Things' contest Tuesday night against the London Rippers, it seemed like just another game. The Rippers were a bit sloppy, and at times seemed disinterested, but that's not unusual for a team on the final night of a six-game road trip.

For the Rippers, the game had a funeral feel. Less than three hours after the game, the Rippers folded. "Ceased operations" is how Frontier League commissioner Bill Lee described the team's situation. At 12:01 a.m. last night, the Rippers were no more.

In other words, the London Rippers are dead. The headstone should read: London Rippers. Born: 2011-12 Offseason. Died: July 25, 2012. Cause: Lack of Money.

The Rippers' players learned less than hour before the game that the team's owners were pulling the plug on the franchise. Detroit-based obstetrician and gynecologist Othman Kadry owned 90 percent of the team. The remainder was owned by David Martin, who was the team's manager and general manager. Martin did not attend the series against the Wild Things. He missed the final five games in London's brief history.

Rumors had been circulating for several weeks that the Rippers were on shaky financial footing. London had a league-worst attendance, an average of 845 per home game at Labatt Park, where the team did not have a liquor license to sell beer. Last week, the Rippers were locked out of their team store for failure to pay rent.

According to the London Free Press, the Rippers were scheduled to pay the City of London rent payments of $6,250 June 6, June 23, July 20 and Aug. 14. The contract also specified that the Rippers were to donate $23,000 to the city in four equal instalments due in November 2011, April 2012, November 2012 and April 2013.

In place of the Rippers, the Frontier League will form a traveling team that will play London's remaining schedule. Any team that was scheduled to play at London will have home games instead against the traveling team, which will be known as the Road Warriors.

Matt Dumouchelle, the Rippers' director of media relations, declined to comment to the Observer-Reporter. He did tell the Free Press that the news hit the players hard.

"A lot of them are worried about what happens to them next, some were angry about how things went down and everyone was worried for the guys sitting next to them," he said. "It hasn't been an easy day."

The Rippers' situation also sparked a strange scene after the game. Washington manager Chris Bando and coach Jim Tatum, two team officials and an intern stood outside the Rippers' clubhouse door for about an hour, trying to finalize what turned out to be four trades for London players before the team folded at midnight.

Washington sent Doug Thennis, Will Arnold, Tanner Leighton and Tyler Oldham to London in exchanger for catcher Jim Vahalik, first baseman Mark Samuelson, second baseman Brad Agustin and outfielder Chris Lloyd.

Thennis, Arnold, Leighton and Oldham spent all of about 10 minutes as members of the Rippers. All of London's players became free agents at 12:01 a.m., though Lee said any Rippers player wanting to remain in the league would be guaranteed a spot on the Road Warriors, who will debut Thursday at Lake Erie.

At this time, nobody knows how many players will show up to play for the Road Warriors. Or how many of the new Wild Things will be in Washington tonight in time for the first game of a series against Florence.

Most of London's players went back to Ontario last night to get their cars, clothes and any other things they had left in London.

Without the four newly acquired players, Washington has only seven position players on the roster, which could make tonight's lineup interesting.

Did I say slow season?

The Wild Things made two more roster moves Monday, re-signing first baseman/outfielder Doug Thennis and acquiring another catcher, Michael Surina.

The re-signing of Thennis is important not only because the right-handed hitter led the team with a .304 batting average and 23 doubles, but he was the only position player last year who seemed to be on the upswing of his career. Thennis batted .338 from July 4 to the end of the season and his power numbers increased dramatically. He also showed some speed by stealing seven bases.

Surina fits the mold of what the Wild Things have signed in the offseason. He's a native Californian who played at an NCAA Division III school, La Verne College located near Los Angeles. He had a nice career, batting .401 as a senior. Since then, he's played briefly for three teams in two independent leagues and has a .214 career batting average.

Surina was acquired from Abilene of the North American League as the player to be named later in a trade made a few weeks ago that involved pitcher Mickey Jannis. Though we haven't seen either Jannis or Surina play, on the surface it appears the Wild Things got the short end of the trade as they dealt a pitcher who has two years of affiliated experience and pitched a couple of games at the high-Class A level.