BASE-BALL

[Henry]

How long until the Mariners stumble and fall into the annual pit of despair?

I get this a lot, and honestly, I could care less.

[kevinb1994]

I was following the Mets-Braves game on ESPN and they were interviewing Hank Aaron (RIP) during the first three innings. He played here (at Barrs Field in 1953) during his time in the minor leagues (and also at now-demolished Wolfson Park for a 1955 exhibition game between the then-Milwaukee Braves and the then-Brooklyn Dodgers; he was already in the major leagues as a Milwaukee (later, Atlanta) Brave by this time), when the local team was affiliated with the Braves and was thus named after them. He was born and raised in Mobile, which is several-plus hours to the west via I-10 and US 90.

[jp the roadgeek]

Bumping this thread.  Apparently, the Rays are exploring taking off to the Great White North, with the franchise playing a few early season series in Tampa/St Pete before playing the rest of the season in Montreal.  Sure it'll be a great draw for Jays fans, and for Red Sox and Yankees fans coming from the Burlington, VT area and the north country of upstate NY.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27016429/rays-explore-splitting-games-montreal

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Bumping this thread.  Apparently, the Rays are exploring taking off to the Great White North, with the franchise playing a few early season series in Tampa/St Pete before playing the rest of the season in Montreal.  Sure it'll be a great draw for Jays fans, and for Red Sox and Yankees fans coming from the Burlington, VT area and the north country of upstate NY.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27016429/rays-explore-splitting-games-montreal

The St. Petersburg city government has quickly put the kibosh on this idea.

[kevinb1994]

Bumping this thread.  Apparently, the Rays are exploring taking off to the Great White North, with the franchise playing a few early season series in Tampa/St Pete before playing the rest of the season in Montreal.  Sure it'll be a great draw for Jays fans, and for Red Sox and Yankees fans coming from the Burlington, VT area and the north country of upstate NY.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27016429/rays-explore-splitting-games-montreal

The St. Petersburg city government has quickly put the kibosh on this idea.

For now, at least. But maybe they'll end up moving anyway, just not to Montreal. Perhaps Charlotte could work.

[ET21]

Bumping this thread.  Apparently, the Rays are exploring taking off to the Great White North, with the franchise playing a few early season series in Tampa/St Pete before playing the rest of the season in Montreal.  Sure it'll be a great draw for Jays fans, and for Red Sox and Yankees fans coming from the Burlington, VT area and the north country of upstate NY.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27016429/rays-explore-splitting-games-montreal

The St. Petersburg city government has quickly put the kibosh on this idea.

For now, at least. But maybe they'll end up moving anyway.

They attract 5K on average to games.... Just move them already. Rather have the Expos return

[jeffandnicole]

Bumping this thread.  Apparently, the Rays are exploring taking off to the Great White North, with the franchise playing a few early season series in Tampa/St Pete before playing the rest of the season in Montreal.  Sure it'll be a great draw for Jays fans, and for Red Sox and Yankees fans coming from the Burlington, VT area and the north country of upstate NY.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27016429/rays-explore-splitting-games-montreal

The Expos didn't do so well in the win column, and losing teams don't bring in fans.  Until the Rays are moved out of the AL East, or the Red Sox and Yankees do continually bad, it's tough for the Rays, the O's and the Blue Jays to have any long-term success in that Division.

Baseball fans don't typically travel all that much either, so while some may travel for the novelty, away team fans usually don't fill stadiums.  Also, Season Ticket holders are a teams' bread-and-butter.  Away fans add some bonus dollars, but not in great amounts from an overall perspective.

[dvferyance]

Bumping this thread.  Apparently, the Rays are exploring taking off to the Great White North, with the franchise playing a few early season series in Tampa/St Pete before playing the rest of the season in Montreal.  Sure it'll be a great draw for Jays fans, and for Red Sox and Yankees fans coming from the Burlington, VT area and the north country of upstate NY.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27016429/rays-explore-splitting-games-montreal

Again no Canadian teams in American sports. They want a team get your own league. Besides there is a reason baseball failed in Montreal there was no support.

[corco]

What. First off that's dumb - there is no history or real precedent for major leagues not being intended to be in Canada, second off that's an entirely incorrect reading of why baseball in Montreal ended in the first place. The problem was terrible ownership (the same Jeff Loria that owned the Marlins from 2002-2017) and a determination to relocate the team for years before it left. Montreal was actually quite a good baseball city when they had ownership that cared. The 1994 strike really hurt them. MLB tried in bad faith to contract the Expos and Twins and failed, but Twins baseball is doing quite well now. Baseball in Montreal would be too if the owners weren't determined to move them

[Alps]

Speaking of baseball, Michigan has just advanced to the CWS finals from an unseeded wild card position, throttling Texas Tech twice in the playoffs after a 3-game season sweep by TT. Talk about a hot streak.

[kevinb1994]

Bumping this thread.  Apparently, the Rays are exploring taking off to the Great White North, with the franchise playing a few early season series in Tampa/St Pete before playing the rest of the season in Montreal.  Sure it'll be a great draw for Jays fans, and for Red Sox and Yankees fans coming from the Burlington, VT area and the north country of upstate NY.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27016429/rays-explore-splitting-games-montreal

The Expos didn't do so well in the win column, and losing teams don't bring in fans.  Until the Rays are moved out of the AL East, or the Red Sox and Yankees do continually bad, it's tough for the Rays, the O's and the Blue Jays to have any long-term success in that Division.

Baseball fans don't typically travel all that much either, so while some may travel for the novelty, away team fans usually don't fill stadiums.  Also, Season Ticket holders are a teams' bread-and-butter.  Away fans add some bonus dollars, but not in great amounts from an overall perspective.

Mostly true, but the situation was due to poor management/ownership. Anyway, I'm not sure if Montreal wants another team. My money's on Charlotte.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Bumping this thread.  Apparently, the Rays are exploring taking off to the Great White North, with the franchise playing a few early season series in Tampa/St Pete before playing the rest of the season in Montreal.  Sure it'll be a great draw for Jays fans, and for Red Sox and Yankees fans coming from the Burlington, VT area and the north country of upstate NY.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27016429/rays-explore-splitting-games-montreal

Again no Canadian teams in American sports. They want a team get your own league. Besides there is a reason baseball failed in Montreal there was no support.

[amroad17]

The stadium the Expos played in had a bit to do with the team moving also.  It was fairly dark in there--made even more gloomier when the Expos weren't winning.
They did have some snazzy uniforms in the 1970's and 1980's, though.  And some really good players (Carter, Dawson, Raines, Valentine, Cromartie, Rogers).

[Big John]

They did have some snazzy uniforms in the 1970's and 1980's, though. 

with the red "e" for "Expos" and blue "b" for "baseball inside the "M"

[amroad17]

The stadium the Expos played in had a bit to do with the team moving also.  It was fairly dark in there--made even more gloomier when the Expos weren't winning.
They did have some snazzy uniforms in the 1970's and 1980's, though.  And some really good players (Carter, Dawson, Raines, Valentine, Cromartie, Rogers).

Maybe a new stadium will do the trick.

Couldn't do anything but help.  Besides, with the way stadiums/parks are lit up now, the fans wouldn't have to worry about the drabness of Olympic Stadium anymore.  Plus, the stadium/park would need only 40,000-50,000 seats instead of the 73,000 seat building they were in from 1977-1991 (reduced to 45,757 in 1992).

I am not going on and on about the drabness/darkness of Olympic Stadium to ridicule the stadium or the Expos.  I have Street and Smith's Baseball Guides from the late 1970's (1978-80 to be exact) with photos of Expo players in their home uniforms.  Even though they are in black and white, the photos show how dark it was during games.  Even the 1987 Sporting News Baseball Guide has the same types of photos.  I also believe the ownership at the time (1990's) was not going to spend a bunch of money on improvements to the stadium.

I also believe the 1994 Expos would have gone to the World Series, with the roster they had that year.  Whether they would have won it is up for debate, but they were clearly the best National League team that year.  Then the strike occurred and popped the bubble that was the Montreal Expos.

[tolbs17]

I suck at baseball. I almost got hit in the head when I was hitting a ball and i tripped i got a splinter. So I never play baseball again. Although it's fun watching them play though!

[Stephane Dumas]

I also believe the 1994 Expos would have gone to the World Series, with the roster they had that year.  Whether they would have won it is up for debate, but they were clearly the best National League team that year.  Then the strike occurred and popped the bubble that was the Montreal Expos.

Yeah, there's some times I pondered if that strike was done in purpose to kill the Expos? I still have a grudge against Donald Fehr for doing this strike and he's involved in hockey with the NHLPA.

[Henry]

I also believe the 1994 Expos would have gone to the World Series, with the roster they had that year.  Whether they would have won it is up for debate, but they were clearly the best National League team that year.  Then the strike occurred and popped the bubble that was the Montreal Expos.

Yeah, there's some times I pondered if that strike was done in purpose to kill the Expos? I still have a grudge against Donald Fehr for doing this strike and he's involved in hockey with the NHLPA.

That's a very good question, but it's great to hear that they're doing quite well in Washington, which is a welcome change from all those losing seasons that the Senators had to go through. Speaking as a Cubs fan (who had to watch them spend yet another year in the cellar), I wish they (the Expos) had faced the Yankees in the World Series and gotten a chance to win a third straight championship for Canada; too bad it didn't end that way because of the devastating strike.

And Donald Fehr was behind the NHL lockout that cancelled its 2004-05 season, IIRC.

[tchafe1978]

http://www.telegraphherald.com/news/breaking/article_aafc09f5-f1fb-57bf-95de-41210a5ef656.html?fbclid=IwAR2XTwXtXEDMjmGTIXe_4b0QQrbEYeWgSl_PVjqO38Lkb9DEnW8-YswVGQU#utm_campaign=blox&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

The Yankees and White Sox are going to play a game at the Field of Dreams movie site in August of next year. They will build a temporary 8,000 seat stadium next to the field used in the movie. The field used in the movie has small dimensions, and every fly ball would be a home run!

[triplemultiplex]

Shouldn't it be the White Sox vs. the Reds?

[amroad17]

^ MLB needs a team that will draw fans.  The Reds of today will not draw as many fans as the Yankees will.  Now if this was the "Big Red Machine", we would be having a different conversation.

MLB should have scheduled the Cubs against the Yankees for this, however, this will be part of a scheduled series with the White Sox.  I don't believe the Yankees have any scheduled games vs. the Cubs next year.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

MLB has done a horrific job marketing its stars. The problem is the bed they've made would mean short term pain for cutting off the Sox/Yankees machine, so they feel compelled to stick with it because it's the only thing making them money through their own shortsightedness.

[ET21]

^ MLB needs a team that will draw fans.  The Reds of today will not draw as many fans as the Yankees will.  Now if this was the "Big Red Machine", we would be having a different conversation.

MLB should have scheduled the Cubs against the Yankees for this, however, this will be part of a scheduled series with the White Sox.  I don't believe the Yankees have any scheduled games vs. the Cubs next year.

Pretty sure it was to re-enact the teams seen in the movie, mostly Yankees and a few White Sox. Cubs get enough primetime yearly

[Big John]

I don't believe the Yankees have any scheduled games vs. the Cubs next year.

They actually do: http://printableteamschedules.com/MLB/2020-chicago-cubs-schedule.php

[amroad17]

Thanks, I did not check for this.  That should be an exciting series!