The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville was flooded Tuesday in a sea of orange and blue and garnet and gold.
Warmer weather. Springtime. Baseball season had arrived in Jacksonville.
More than 9,000 fans of the Gators and Seminoles watched as guests of Ken Babby.
The Jacksonville Suns owner spent the evening walking the grounds, meeting guests, ensuring everything was going as well as possible in what served as a trial run for his inaugural Suns season that starts Thursday.
“It’s a lot of people,” he said smiling, wearing neutral colors. Gray slacks, a tucked in black polo sporting a Suns logo.
He’s standing in left field, just in front of the new Tiki Terrace filled with fans. The terrace is a Babby upgrade, part of $1.8 million he’s spent on renovations this off-season.
“What do you think?” he asks a few of the onlookers leaning on one of the crowded rails.
“It’s great,” one responds. Another fan gives him a thumbs up.
Babby is always surveying the stands. He watches faces. What people are eating. How they’re interacting with each other and the game. It’s a trait that began when he was a teenager, a time when most of his peers would solely watch the action on the field.
His goal — a locked-in mission, really — is to bring affordable, family fun for people coming to watch the Suns. To that end, general admission is $5. A hot dog will run fans $2.
It’s the same goal he had when he purchased what’s now the Akron RubberDucks, another minor league baseball team, in 2013 and it’s been successful.
This will be his first season juggling two teams along with what he calls his most important role: being father to his 7-year-old son, Josh, who lives in Washington, D.C.
“My world sort of drifts between a triangle,” Babby said last week, with a laugh.
He’s been successful almost every step of the way toward completing that triangle. Almost.
A knee-buckling curveball made Babby realize maybe playing the game wasn’t for him.
But that didn’t stop his baseball dreams.
Pursuing his passion
Babby, 36, grew up in the northern shadow of Washington, D.C., in Bethesda, Md. Like any kid at the time, he was a Baltimore Orioles fan.
He had another reason to love the team. His father, Lon, served as general counsel of the Orioles throughout the 1980s into the mid-90s.
It meant trips to spring training, serving as a batboy one year. Seeing and talking to players like Cal Ripken Jr. and his baseball hero, catcher Chris Hoiles. Or what he calls the most special summer moments, playing catch on the field with his father.
Dad was his best friend and Babby recalls the talks about baseball, life, girls — just about anything –– in the car on the way to baseball-related events.
Even at an earlier age, Lon Babby said his son’s motivation was apparent. Ken Babby played catcher growing up and his first goal, like thousands of other kids, was to become a professional player.
Babby worked at it hard. Dad would set up a pitching machine and space heater in the garage in the winters. Son would spend a couple hours a day hitting balls.
He went to Wheaton College in Massachusetts and tried to become a walk-on for the team.
As Babby stood in the batter’s box, the pitcher threw a curveball — one that started behind Babby’s knees before settling on the outside corner for a strike. He froze. He knew then playing ball professionally wasn’t going to happen.
“I better become a computer science major,” Babby remembers telling himself afterward.
He did, graduating still with the love of the game but not ready to pursue a career in it. Instead, he went with another love at first — technology.
Babby started at The Washington Post as an intern in 1999, earned a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and concluded his almost 13-year run as the newspaper’s digital revenue officer.
He helped usher in the paper’s digital business era during the 2000s, a time when business models were constantly evolving.
The love of the game was always there, though. In early 2012, he resigned from the Post to pursue other opportunities.
Months later, that opportunity turned out to be in Akron, Ohio.
A start in Akron
Lon Babby said when his son came to him in mid-2012 for advice on purchasing the minor league team in Akron, he encouraged it and the family helped.
Ken Babby had no ties to Akron. He had never been to the Ohio city before going there for a weekend to see the team’s home park.
The brick and steel of Canal Park had a familiar feel — it made Babby think of fabled Camden Yards back in Baltimore.
“I thought, ‘Boy we could do something very special here,’” he said.
One the many community members Babby grew to know was Dan Colantone, Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce CEO.
Colantone said he was impressed “right away” with Babby’s enthusiasm, vision and leadership for the team and its place in the city as a quality-of-life asset.
He said Babby’s goal was about bringing more families and fun to the ballpark, repackaging the experience. Players were more visible to the public, whether signing autographs or visiting schools — just like players Babby saw growing up.
Off the field, he made $6 million in ballpark improvements and accepted an offer to serve on the Akron chamber and other community boards.
On the field, RubberDucks attendance grew in Babby’s first three years as owner.
His first season in 2013 brought in 295,459 fans. The next year saw a big increase up to 350,704 before dipping last year to 340,916.
Making inroads, stadium improvements and improving fan experience. It’s a formula he seems to be replicating in Jacksonville.
Already winning Jacksonville over
It was announced in March 2015 that Babby was purchasing the Suns from Peter Bragan Jr., with reports pegging the price at about $24 million.
The Bragan family had owned the team for 31 years and Bragan would ride out after one final baseball season.
Babby said the year sitting on the bench, essentially, was a blessing.
It allowed him to travel the country and recruit Suns executives while familiarizing himself with Jacksonville.
JAX Chamber CEO Daniel Davis calls Babby a “dynamo” for his vision and energy.
“I don’t think we realize in the community what a gem we have,” said Davis.
The early impression was enough that Davis and the chamber invited Babby to serve on its board of directors — an atypical move given Babby’s newness to the community. The way Babby has already made himself part of the community merited the decision, Davis said.
Babby also has made fans of the Suns booster club. They were the ones who gave him the thumbs up from the Tiki Terrace on Tuesday.
He went to the group’s March 21 meeting with a level of enthusiasm that had been missing, said Sandi Joy, who’s been a booster for more than 20 years.
Babby sought input, she said, and provided them with his personal cellphone and email address, vowing to take care of any problems.
One that had persisted over the years was a leak near Section 105, where some of the boosters sat. It’s already been fixed.
Bonnie Tyre, another Suns booster club member, noted the cleanliness of the park Tuesday.
The day before, Babby walked the grounds while pressure washers hummed, bits of trash were picked up and the foul poles were being painted. Cleanliness is a “big thing” for him.
Two teams, two communities. Even for an energetic guy like Babby, it might seem like a cumbersome task, but that’s not even including Babby’s most important job.
Time for it all
Babby and his son travel as much as possible to see each other.
For example, Babby said a recent weekend included Josh coming to town and seeing a Harlem Globetrotters game at Veterans Memorial Arena on Friday. The next night was a Jacksonville Armada game. And Sunday meant going back to Washington, D.C., for Josh’s recreation league basketball game.
“We really always are on the go,” said Babby.
Lon Babby said it’s gotten to the point where usually the first question he asks when the two talk daily is “What city are you in?”
Ken Babby keeps people updated by being active on social media, where pictures of the ballpark intertwine with videos of Josh cracking liners in the batting cages. Lon Babby said he sees no sign of fatigue from his son.
Babby said fortunately the schedules for the RubberDucks and Suns don’t clash much. He expects to be at about 80 percent of the Suns home games. Josh will attend as many as school and other priorities allow.
Sundays are Babby’s favorites at the ballpark. Family days. Gates open 45 minutes early to let kids on the field for a game of catch while getting autographs or running the bases after.
He wants as many people to experience the ballpark and the game as possible.
Just like he did as a kid.
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