MV baseball academy loses battle to keep facility

By Pete Borello, Town Crier Staff Writer

The All-Star Academy of Baseball is in need of a new home - and new ownership.

The Mountain View-based academy has lost its lease and will close its 26,000-square-foot facility Tuesday to make way for a new Nob Hill supermarket. Academy owner Tom Senna said he fought the eviction for months - he signed a five-year lease when the business opened in March of 2003 - but recently agreed to a settlement because of mounting legal costs.

“I had a sublease, and when the building changed owners, they felt they had the right to evict us,” he said of the five Delaware-based LLCs who bought the property at Grant Park Plaza in December. “Clearly, my lawyers felt they didn’t. We may have prevailed in the end, but it was just getting too expensive. It was quite expensive to go as far as we did.”

So expensive that Senna said he can’t afford to invest any more money into the academy, which offers youth baseball and softball training.

“I’m OK, but the company is not,” the Los Gatos resident said. “Personally, I can’t do it.”

Senna has put the academy up for sale, seeking a buyer who will retain the coaching staff he takes such pride in. Senna is also searching for a new home for the academy and its batting cages, dirt pitching mounds and weight-training equipment, preferably a site within a five-minute drive of the current location.

Regardless, Senna said the academy will not close just because the facility does. His staff will give lessons on school fields in the area and the academy’s club teams will stay together.

“We’ll continue,” Senna said. “We want to make sure what we have going on now is not going to be interrupted.”

That’s at least some consolation to parents like Dean Amoroso, whose 11-year-old son Colin is a regular at the academy.

“I’m definitely going to continue on, because of the history I have with them,” said Amoroso, a resident of San Jose’s Evergreen Valley. “But there was a home there, and it loses its luster without it.”

Amoroso and other academy parents - along with players - learned of the facility’s closing Aug. 11 at a meeting initiated by Senna and his staff.

“I had the coaches tell the kids - it was hard enough talking to the parents,” Senna said. “I know some of the kids are pretty sad.”

Including Colin, who started at the academy two years ago.

“At first, he thought he could still play baseball there - I don’t think he really got it that Nob Hill was going in,” Amoroso said of his son’s reaction to the meeting. “When he realized Nob Hill was taking over, he got really upset. He asked me, ‘What are we going to do?’”

Amoroso said he “was very surprised and very disappointed” by the news, but remains hopeful a new owner and facility will be found soon.

“It’s a real shame - there are a number of parents and kids who really enjoy this facility,” he said. “It’s a business that gave back more to the community than any you could ask for.”

Senna said he appreciates the way the community has embraced the academy and said the business has been growing. He conceded, however, that the new supermarket - expected to be much larger than the store Nob Hill currently has at the shopping center - will bring in a lot more revenue for the new landlords and the city.

“We’ve been part of the community - part of people’s families - and we give donations to schools, leagues and teams. We’ve been a good community partner, but we’re not the anchor store of a shopping center,” he said. “… I can’t really be mad at (the new owners); they thought they were in the right, and they were fair in terms of trying to settle.”

Senna, whose son’s love for baseball inspired him to start the academy, doesn’t want to dwell on the legal battle. He said his focus is finding a site and a buyer that will keep his indoor field of dreams alive.

“I have to find the right person, someone who isn’t in it to make a lot of money,” he said. “You won’t make a lot of money, but it’s not about money - it’s about the kids who walk through the door.”