Ed Nottle, field manager of Ottawa Rapids. (image supplied)

The Rapids are coming to town.

At a press conference Thursday at Ottawa Stadium (formerly Lynx Stadium), Can-Am League commissioner Miles Wolff officially welcomed the Ottawa Rapids baseball team to the eight-team league, making it the second franchise in Canada, after Quebec City.

Years of low attendance and parking disputes between the Lynx and the City of Ottawa made the Lynx's departure at the end if the 2007 season inevitable.

Subsequent proposals from various business interests to do everything from convert the lucrative real estate into an indoor sports and concert venue, commercial office space, big box hub or even a casino, all failed.

Mr. Wolff promised to occupy and pay rent to the city-owned facility immediately, a factor which likely helped convince councillors that his proposal was the way to go.

Mr. Wolff also stated that Can-Am League rosters encouraged local players, and would help Ottawa baseball fans relate better with the team than they did with a major league club's farm team.

The Can-Am league also begins its season later in the spring, making it more suited to Ottawa's unreliable climate, resulting in fewer cancelled games due to weather.

The team also introduced Ed Nottle as its first field manager. Mr. Nottle will be in his 16th season as an independent league skipper and his 29th overall as a minor league manager. His 2003 Brockton club won the 2003 Northeast League championship.

Mr. Nottle managed at the Triple A level for both the Oakland A's and the Boston Red Sox. In 1981, he was Baseball America's first-ever minor league Manager of the Year. He also served as a major league coach with the A's in 1983.

Nottle was also a minor league owner of the Sioux City Explorers, and his CD, To Baseball with Love, is played throughout minor league parks.

The team is also expected to announce the signing of at least a couple of Canadian-born players next week.

The team will be known as the "Rapides" officially with the league and in the French language and as the "Rapids" in English, but both are interchangeable, said league spokesperson Jason Deans.

The name was chosen from more than 1,100 entries in a contest. It is "synonymous with the rich river history" of Ottawa, a press release from the league said.

The team is still searching for a radio station to broadcast its games.

The Rapids begin the season May 22 at home against the New Jersey Jackals. For a full schedule of the 2008 season, click www.canamleague.com/schedules.php.