2021 MLB Regular Season thread

These guys’ agents should be yelling at them to get vaccinated, too.

 

I can't see Vegas supporting baseball. They can do the NFL because the locals don't have to show up in order for the Raiders to fill the joint. All of Pittsburgh or Chicago or LA or Dallas will descend upon a tourist trap like Vegas for a weekend and the NFL's fine.
Baseball has too many dates.
I"m guessing Portland is falling out of the running because of the disturbances of last summer and thereafter. Most owners are Trumpists who will gladly use any excuse they can find for not putting a team in a libruhl place.
Anybody else? Charlotte? Mitchell, South Dakota?

 

I don't know if Montreal is tied to Tampa.at this point. I know Bronfman is dead serious and has a stadium site picked out. He's been courting Manfred for years and always says the right things.

 

Have no idea what the current state of expansion/relocation is, but in the past, MLB has been pretty open about putting a franchise in Mexico City. Charlotte and Nashville seem like reasonable places to explore, though the Braves will probably throw a fit because they've been the team of the greater southeast (save for Florida) for decades now. They'll probably claim those two places as their markets. Not saying it's right, but it'll probably happen.

 

Montreal or Nashville.

I dunno how they’re going to fit “Athlétiques” on a jersey, though.

 

Cubs are in their second in the last 127 years or so.

 

I think the Indians are a possibility for Nashville.

The ownership has cleared out the payroll completely. There will be a rebranding and a name change of the franchise.. The lease will be up on Progressive Field in 2023, I believe.

Nothing concrete. There’s just a lot of things that make sense. If the Dolans sell, I could see someone from the outside wanting to get out of a shrinking market where attendance is dismal.

My long-term hopes were for a move to Columbus, but the Reds wouldn’t ever let that happen.

 

I think the Rays are a possibility for Nashville. I suspect the A’s will stay in the Bay Area, somehow. New stadium, different part of the metro.

 

Starting to think MLB is headed down the same slippery slope as the NFL. Recall Goodell pinned his hopes of keeping the Chargers in San Diego on a vote for a new stadium? California voters aren't going to pour millions into sports playpens. In recent years in California, Oracle Park, Staples Center, Chase Center and SoFi Stadium have been completely or largely built via the private sector. There's always the "John Fisher's a billionaire, he should pay for it himself" talk, but could a group of Oakland/East Bay area businesses join forces for financing? Or maybe do it like Jerry's World, a hard cap on public funds and the Cowboys paying for the rest?

 

Cool photo from 1963

 

I think the Las Vegas PCL team sells out almost every game. I realize this does not automatically translate to MLB success, but there is ample corporate support to support an MLB team, which there wasn't in Buffalo in the days the Bisons were outdrawing several MLB franchises.

 

There are two prime redevelopment plots left along Cumberland in downtown Nashville. The northernmost one was announced last month as the home of a $1.2 billion Oracle campus; that's going to generate about 12K jobs when it's all said and done.
The other one is next door to Nissan Stadium, and I'm thinking Oracle Field is coming soon there, as will the Rays.