Running 2011 Baseball Thread, Vol. I: Dedicated to spnited

The Seattle Mariners hitters are so bad, manager Eric Wedge (who had all of 86 at bats in his career) had a career OPS over 150 points higher than the 2011 Mariners team.

 

Tropicana Field has become a public embarrassment in the last 10 days.

http://www.raysindex.com/2011/07/maddon-cant-help-himself-trashes-the-trop-while-fans-defend-it.html

 

He's right. The Stadium is a pit. And they haven't made enough improvements to it.

Growth in downtown St. Pete has stalled too.

Even at the site where they built it, they put it in the wrong corner. It should be in the Northeast corner of the plot, near 1st Ave. & 10th St. This would put it closer to downtown.

Since they have to stay in Pinellas, and they're not going to get the waterfront stop they want, they ought to build a new stadium in their parking lot.

The only other option would be to move as close to Tampa as possible. Build something in the Gateway section near the bridge.

But, the current stadium is a dump, and it's not going to get better.

 

Of course it's a dump. Nobody has ever argued it isn't.

But some might say it's the obligation of a management team to draw customers.

Spurred on by ESPN idiots, all they do is criticize and mock a shitty park that everybody already knows sucks. The team is owned by investment bankers. Fucking do something about it.

This ain't the time in American history, or in the history of that region, to be panhandling for a new stadium.

 

Part of the problem this franchise has had all along is that, while the owners are rich, they're not super rich.

Naimoli never owned more than 17% of the team. The Outback founders owned about half of the team.

Sternberg owns 48% or 49%, but even that percentage is held by a partnership group he put together. I'm not sure it's ever been made clear how big a share of that group he controls, or who his partners in it are.

While I agree the team should build their won damn stadium, that's not going to be easy to do when the managing partner only owns a minority share of the team.

They'd have to get the other partners to agree to put up money, and that's probably not going to happen.

Hell, Naimoli still owns 17%, and he's not going to kick in towards a new stadium.

 

As has been pointed out by Rays fans, the times this shit gets ramped up -- to the point where the team's own manager will rip the ballpark -- is when ESPN is in town. This is a local issue, not a national one.

And if they weren't in the AL East dumping the Yankees and Red Sox on their ass two out of three years (for about a quarter on the dollar), ESPN couldn't be bothered with criticizing the Trop. Does this much energy get spent badmouthing Oakland's hole?

 

The problem the Rays have is there aren't any cities left that can either support a team or build them a stadium. Tampa's their best bet, but getting a tax funded stadium ain't happening.
And the reason their attendance has dropped more than ever this season, is because the Rays have turned off the St. Pete fans. (Intentionally?) People in St. Pete are telling the Rays to not let the door hit them in the ass on the way out.

 

New York could support a third team, easily. But because of the same territorial rights issues that keep the Oakland A's from moving to San Jose, MLB (and the Yankees and Mets) would never allow it to happen.

 

You're right. Northeast might be the only place. ESPN would be happy.

 

I liked going to games at the Trop.

 

Me too. But I also preferred old Tampa Stadium to Raymond James.

 

Dodgers debtor-in-possession financing plan rejected.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dodgers/2011/07/dodgers-bankruptcy-judge-orders-mccourt-to-negotiate-with-mlb-for-loan.html