"This time of year is crunch time," says Albuquerque Isotopes assistant general manager and sales and marketing director Nick LoBue.

"It's a six-month season: It's a six-month playing season, but we start selling season tickets, we start selling corporate advertisers - we start that in August. That's a year-round deal," LoBue said.

When LoBue, who lives in Rio Rancho, uttered those words late last month, the first pitch of the Isotopes' 2005 season was still 71 days away. Heck, pitchers and catchers weren't due to show up in spring training camps in Florida and Arizona for another three weeks. Still, LoBue said, except for a lull in December, his baseball season runs year 'round.

"This year's going to be even better than last year," he vowed.

Why is that, he was asked, in light of the fact that the 2004 Isotopes didn't come close to equaling the success of the '03 squad, which made the PCL playoffs.

"I attribute it to the fact that Isotopes Park and the Isotopes are a quality-of-life issue in the Albuquerque-Rio Rancho metro area," he said. "I believe the business plan that we have, initiated by our ownership and put together by our senior management team and fulfilled by our staff is a very good business plan: It's entertainment and, by the way, there's a baseball game going on - and it's affordable.

"We have not raised our ticket prices; this will be the third year that ticket prices have stayed the same," said LoBue, the former general manager of the New Mexico Scorpions and one-time partner in Blades Multiplex Arenas. "People have a great time when they come here. They have good, live sports entertainment; they have a great facility; they have great food; and it's very clean."

LoBue, team owner Ken Young and Traub can often be seen walking along the concourse, not too proud to bend over and pick up a stray piece of trash. They want their family members to be comfortable at the ballpark, too.

"We don't have an off-season," LoBue continued. "Basically, I oversee corporate advertising, I oversee season ticket sales, I oversee group sales and the box office. Sometime in the middle of August we start our season ticket renewal program. That's just before the end of the season, while baseball's still in everybody's mind."

LoBue didn't have the exact numbers. Percentages work, however: "What I can tell you is from the first season to the second season we were up about 20 percent and we're going to be over 20 percent when we take our season tickets and our mini-plans and put them together.

"Season ticket renewals from 2004 to 2005 are already over 82 percent - very strong," he said.

It seems the Isotopes have made a big, and favorable, impact upon baseball fans since their debut in 2003, which followed two years of no pro baseball at the corner of Cesar Chavez and University Boulevard.

General manager John Traub, who recalled keeping score of the all-star game as a child in California, when an older brother wanted to know what good all that would do, hasn't stood still when it comes to maintaining, even improving, a high quality product.

"Off-season, we did about $250,000 worth of renovations to a newly renovated stadium," LoBue said. "This year we're going to be spending that kind of money again. We want to keep it fresh.

"What they're going to notice in 2005 is a brand-new renovated picnic area," he continued. "Fans have told us that the picnic area needed work. It needed work from the standpoint that the beautiful and hot sun that we have here in New Mexico doesn't lead to a picnic area without shade. So you're going to see a brand-new picnic area. I do have to tell you we do read 'fan comment' cards ... and one of the main things people talked about was the picnic area: the sun and the need for shade."

LoBue said he attended the Minor League Baseball meetings in Anaheim in December, when ownership groups and team officials gather to exchange ideas: what works? what doesn't work? what's new? etc.

"That's a time you go and exchange a lot of ideas with major- and minor-league teams; it's a four-day scenario," he said. "So that's the beginning."

Even though the franchise is only heading into its third year of existence, the team's nickname and logo have annually been among the best-selling items when it comes to baseball caps, T-shirts and the like.

"John Traub and I had meetings with Minor League Baseball and their marketing department because a lot of the national agencies, a lot of the national sponsors, now have Isotopes and Isotopes Park on their radar screen," he said. "So now when they do a deal with Minor League Baseball - it may be they want 10 parks, it may be they want 15 parks around the country - in most situations now, one of those parks is Isotopes Park ... because we've been very successful with attendance, we've been very successful with the way we operate, how we promote. Again, fulfillment is very big."

Of course, without fans, what good is a team? Albuquerque fans probably were spoiled by the success of the Albuquerque Dukes, who were PCL members from 1972-2000, won a handful of championships and often had future big-league stars (Eric Karros, Pedro Martinez, John Wetteland, Steve Garvey, Mike Piazza, Paul LoDuca) on their rosters.

"We're benefiting from what a great job the Dukes did over the years. The Dukes had some great years - they were a big part of the growth of Albuquerque," LoBue said. "This has been a baseball community - this is not a new baseball - it's always been a baseball community."

So far, the Isotopes have had only a few players who may someday be considered big-league stars for the parent club Florida Marlins: Among them are third baseman Joe Dillon and shortstop Josh Wilson.

"The main thing that we hear from everybody is they love Isotopes Park, they're treated very well, it's a friendly place from the management to the ticket-takes to the concessionaires - it's a real nice atmosphere," he said. "People, for the most part, are very, very happy with the way they're treated at Isotopes Park. We talk to them about what was good, we talk to them about what was bad, and we react to it.

"We want to know what was good, what was bad. Do we make mistakes? We certainly do, but we pay attention to that and we try not to make that mistake again, try to make it better. It's all about the fan and the fan experience at Isotopes Park, that's what it's all about.

"It's a beautiful setting, it's a great location. I mean, how do you beat it?"

LoBue said he'd have a hard time beating the job, too.

"I can't tell you how much I enjoy this type of work," he concluded, looking forward to the first pitch against the Iowa Cubs on April 7.

(Free Isotopes pocket schedules are available at the front desk of The Observer.)