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Kevin Gowdy (16) and catcher Chris Okey (28) of the Oklahoma City Baseball Club celebrate a win after the final out of the game against the Sacramento River Cats on April 17, 2024 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (John Williamson/Four Seam Images)
Fresno may be more than 2,000 miles from Nashville, but the California community is actually a country music hotbed. As much as that may be true, Fresno doesn’t always manage to convince Nashville of its bonafides.
For years, the Fresno Grizzlies have tried to bring top country acts to Chukchansi Park. For years, they have struck out. Whatever the reason, the Grizzlies couldn’t convince top-tier country acts to perform at their stadium.
Now, the Grizzlies have friends in high places.
Last November, the Grizzlies were sold to Diamond Baseball Holdings, becoming the 26th minor league team acquired by the company. And with that, Fresno’s trouble landing top country acts disappeared. This October, Thomas Rhett, a singer with 20 No. 1 songs on the Billboard Country Airplay charts, will play Chukchansi Park as part of DBH’s Music on the Diamond series.
Welcome to Fresno, DBH.
“People in Fresno ask: Where’s the country music? Now we have a show on the calendar,” Fresno Grizzlies general manager Derek Franks said. “We would have no chance to book Thomas Rhett if we tried to do that on our own.
“That answered something right off the bat. Our market was clamoring for it. The connections are a world of difference. Having a cold call from a random venue is a little different than getting a call from DBH who already has connections with these folks.”
In less than three years, Diamond Baseball Holdings has gone from an idea to the most powerful ownership group in the history of Minor League Baseball. DBH already has 33 teams either in its portfolio or going through the sales approval process. It has said it remains in acquisition mode. The group added 16 of those teams in 2023 and has already added four more in 2024.
Before MLB took over the operation of the minor leagues in 2020, no group was allowed to own more than one team in any league. That limited the scope of other multi-team owners like Mandalay Baseball Properties. Mandalay was considered a major force in Minor League Baseball because it owned seven teams at once.
The new restriction imposed by MLB is much less restrictive. DBH can own as many as 14 teams at…