By Wally Donaldson
The Oshawa Express

While Kerri Drake waits for a telephone call from anyone representing the Intercounty Baseball League (IBL), her lawyer is busily making calls and sending out emails for some kind of a response.
It has been an ongoing battle for the last couple of months as the Oshawa executive of the now-defunct Oshawa Dodgers Baseball Club looks for compensation from an apparent arrangement made with the Ottawa Stadium Group (OSG) to purchase the team.
The IBL, in a nutshell, approached the Ottawa contingent and simply pronounced the Nation’s Capital group an “expansion” franchise set to be unveiled for the 2010 season.
“It’s a matter of principle. We’re feeling like we’ve been taken advantage of,” says Drake, who has worked closely with Oshawa club president Lori May. “There has been absolutely no communication even though we did send a letter to them in February asking them for a response within a 15-day period. We’re still waiting.”
OSG executive Dundan MacDonald had not only agreed to purchase the Oshawa franchise for a sum of $30,000 following a plethora of telephone conversations and emails, his partner was to sign the agreement and send it back to the Oshawa ownership.
It never materialized.
“I’ve been told we have a very strong case based on documents received from the Ottawa group and the Intercounty league,” adds Drake.
The Intercounty circuit had in the interim appointed Joel O’Neill as the league commissioner and even calls to his office fell on deaf ears.
“He (O’Neill) told an Ottawa newspaper (the Citizen) that he did investigate our claim and determined that there was not a deal made between Oshawa and Ottawa. But we have the documents to prove otherwise,” said Drake. “And he has never bothered to call us about any of this.”
Meanwhile, Drake continues to sit by a phone hoping for any call that can eventually resolve this issue.