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The Ottawa Titans (French: Les Titans d'Ottawa), officially the Ottawa Titans Baseball Club (French: Club de baseball des Titans d'Ottawa) are a professional baseball team based in Ottawa. They compete in the Frontier League (FL) as a member of the North Division in the Atlantic Conference. Since 2022, the Titans have played their home games at Ottawa Stadium, originally known as RCGT Park. The Titans mascot is Cappy.
| Ottawa Titans | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Information | |||||
| League | Frontier League (North Division) | ||||
| Location | Ottawa, Ontario | ||||
| Ballpark | Ottawa Stadium | ||||
| Founded | 2020 | ||||
| Colours | Red, white, black | ||||
| Mascot | Cappy | ||||
| Playoff berths |
| ||||
| Ownership | Sam Katz, OSEG, Jacques J.M. Shore | ||||
| Manager | Bobby Brown | ||||
| General Manager | Martin Boyce | ||||
| President | Regan Katz | ||||
| Media | Ottawa Citizen Ottawa Sun CTV News Le Droit Radio-Canada Sportsnet TSN TSN 1200 TVA Sports RDS Sports Illustrated CKDJ-FM FloSports | ||||
| Website | ottawatitans | ||||
Founded in 2020, the Titans played their inaugural season in 2022 due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario. They became the city's seventh professional baseball franchise succeeding the Eastern League's Ottawa Wanderers, the International League's Ottawa Giants, Ottawa Athletics and Ottawa Lynx, the Intercounty Baseball League's Ottawa Fat Cats, as well as the Can-Am League's Ottawa Rapidz and Ottawa Champions. The franchise is one of the expansion teams of the FL, following their merger with the Can-Am League in October 2019.
History
editIn September 2020, the ownership group led by former Winnipeg Mayor and the American Association's Winnipeg Goldeyes, Sam Katz, Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (who owns the Canadian Football League's Ottawa Redblacks and the Ottawa 67's of the Ontario Hockey League), along with local lawyer Jacques J.M. Shore struck a deal with the city of Ottawa to bring the Frontier League and Titans to Ottawa for the 2021 season.
In December of 2020, following a name-the-team contest that saw over 1,200 entries and 700 unique names, the Ottawa Titans were born. The league considers this to be an expansion team and not to have any connection to the Champions.
On October 6, 2020, Ottawa announced Steve Brook as the team's inaugural manager. Brook previously managed the River City Rascals in the Frontier League from 2010 to 2019. He led the Rascals to a 488–373 record over his nine seasons at the helm including the 2010 and 2019 championships. In December 2020, Ottawa announced the team name as Ottawa Titans a result of a name-the-team contest, and the team colours in the tradition of Ottawa sports franchises such as the Ottawa Redblacks, Ottawa 67's, and Ottawa Senators.[1]
The continued closure of the Canada–United States border resulted in pushing the Titans’ first game to the 2022 season. Ottawa, Québec, and Trois-Rivières were replaced on the 2021 schedule by Équipe Québec. Équipe Québec used the Canadian players from the Capitales, Aigles, and Titans to craft the base of their roster and spent the first half of the season on the road, before returning to Canada in late July. Équipe Québec split home games between Stade Canac in Quebec City and Stade Quillorama in Trois-Rivières.
On July 30, 2021, Équipe Québec hosted the New York Boulders at Stade Canac and won the game 10–8 in front of a full house of 2,800 spectators, the maximum number allowed during sanitary measures. On September 12, 2021, Équipe Québec qualified for the playoffs. They faced the Washington Wild Things in the semi-finals and lost 4–0 in Game #5. The crowd of 3,750 gathered at Stade Canac during game #3 represented more than 900 spectators than the number allowed due to sanitary measures. Équipe Québec finished the season with a record of 52 wins and 44 losses with an average of 2,238 fans in 24 home games, including the playoffs.
In October 2021, Bobby Brown was hired as the Titans manager for the 2022 season, after Steve Brook, on a one-year contract, became the Gateway Grizzlies manager.
The Titans have made it to the playoffs in their inaugural season in 2022, but lost to the eventual champions, the Québec Capitales 2 games to 1 in the divisional series.
The team made it to the playoffs again in 2024 and faced the Tri-City ValleyCats in the Wild Card Game. They defeated the ValleyCats 5-2 in the Wild Card Game. However, they lost to the Québec Capitales again in the divisional series 2 games to 1.
Season-by-season records
edit| Ottawa Titans | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | W–L Record | Win % | Finish | Playoffs | Total Attendance |
| 2022 | 56–39 | .589 | 3rd in East | Won East Division Wild Card Game over New York Boulders 8-2 Lost Divisional Round to Québec Capitales 2-1 |
61,727 |
| 2023 | 48–48 | .500 | 6th in East | Did not qualify | 78,495 |
| 2024 | 53–42 | .558 | 3rd in East | Won East Division Wild Card Game over Tri-City ValleyCats 5-2 Lost Divisional Round to Québec Capitales 2-1 |
94,140 |
| TOTAL | 157-129 | .549 | |||
Ottawa Stadium
edit
Since 2022, the Titans play their home games at the 10,332-seat Ottawa Stadium just east of downtown Ottawa. Ottawa Stadium has a pedestrian bridge to get to the ballpark using OC Transpo's light rail system. The pedestrian bridge crosses over Highway 417 to connect the ballpark to the Transit Way and is named in honour of the late Canadian broadcaster Max Keeping.
Broadcasting and stadium entertainment
editTitans games can be heard on CKDJ-FM, and all season games are available via the FloSports website. The play-by-play broadcasters are Davide Disipio in english, and Mikael Lafleur in french (FloSports only). At many home games, the fans are entertained both outside and inside Ottawa Stadium with myriad entertainers – live music, DJs, giveaways and promotions. Between innings, the entertainment varies with on-field contests with their mascot Cappy, youth games, t-shirt giveaways, promotions and many more.
Current roster
edit| Active roster | Coaches/Other | |||
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Pitchers
Utility players
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Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
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Manager
Coaches
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References
edit- ^ Baines, Tim (3 December 2020). "REMEMBER THE TITANS: Ottawa's new pro baseball team gets a name". Grande Prairie Daily Herald-Tribune. Retrieved 3 December 2020.