Canberra Cavalry boss wants team to be summer's talking point New Canberra Cavalry CEO Donn McMichael. Donn McMichael knows he has big boots to fill as the new Canberra Cavalry chief executive, but he wants the Cavs to become summer's biggest talking point in the nation's capital. He's already called in the Cavalry for help and has enlisted former Major League pitcher Jeff Williams as a professional scout to help the Asian champions find their next batch of stars. McMichael has taken over the reins from Thom Carter, who developed a cult following of his own during his time in Canberra before he returned home to the US to help his mother Susan with her fight against cancer. Not only did Carter get the Canberra crowd going, much like Dancing Homer did on The Simpsons, but he also made the Cavs into one of the most financially viable clubs in the Australian Baseball League. While McMichael has vowed he won't be singing and dancing, he does want to continue the Cavalry's charge onto the ACT sporting landscape. McMichael has been a director of Cabcharge since 1996 and previously worked for Camp Quality and the Noahs Ark Foundation. "I've got aspirations to make it the most spoken-about sport in the summer months in Canberra," he said. Now I know we've got some very good opposition with cricket and certainly the [Canberra Capitals]. By growing the knowledge and understanding of the Cavs helps bring people into the game as well. After claiming back-to-back wooden spoons in the first two ABL seasons, the Cavalry has since become a powerful team on the ballpark - winning the Claxton Shield in the 2012-13 season, then beating the best teams in Asia in Taiwan last year before narrowly losing its ABL championship defence in February. McMichael has called on his nephew Williams to help make the Cavs even stronger. Born in Canberra, Williams played MLB for the Los Angeles Dodgers before switching to the Hanshin Tigers in Japan. He now scouts the AAA leagues - the level below MLB - for the Tigers and will do the same for the Cavalry. "Jeff is scouting about 80 games a year for Hanshin Tigers in Japan, so he's got about 500 players that he's been asked to keep an eye on," McMichael said. Depending on what the requirements of Hanshin are, we would have access to those players. I'd send him our needs and he'd come back with options for us. While MLB financially backs the ABL, the Cavalry is very close to breaking even without any assistance. McMichael wants to strengthen that position and also start to build the playing numbers in the ACT. He sees Cavalry success as the best way to grow the game, although former third-base Jeremy Barnes has been brought on board as Baseball Canberra's head of high performance and pathways to also help in that department. "We've had a really good increase in numbers this season - in some instances we've got two and three D-grade sides from one club, which is outstanding," McMichael said. But we're still reaching out to try to get players into the game and the more successful the Cavalry are, that's really the key to getting people into the game. The planning stage of the $6 million ballpark upgrade, which has been in the pipeline for the last few years, should be completed by about April, with full construction to begin in March 2016. It could include an indoor training facility, with either the grandstand moved closer to the field or vice versa.