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

Maybe that's why he wants to be GM, so he could still be around for the WS run.

 

It was never publicly specified, but Showalter had a lot of control over talent acquisition in Arizona. And it was said he personally designed the ballpark and the uniforms.

 

This was a sharted-out piece.

http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5450:rays-cant-relocate-but-that-doesnt-mean-fans-deserve-them&catid=26:editorials&Itemid=39

 

The Rays deal is with Pinellas County and the city of St. Pete. It will be a hell of a lot easier for them to move within St. Pete than to move to Tampa.

That's why the new stadium they proposed was downtown on the current site of Al Lang Stadium.

While it's a beautiful site -- and a great place for a Spring Training game (though no one plays there anymore) -- it would have been less accessible by car, and there's not a ton of office workers in the area.

I'm not sure any location would be perfect. My choice would be the Gateway section, just on the St. Pete side of the Bridge. It's as close to Tampa and Clearwater as you can get, and there's a corporate campus right there.

The dog track site might be better too.

But, no matter where you would put it, people will have to travel. The metro area is very spread out. It's not just Tampa and St. Pete. It's also Clearwater, Sarasota, Bradenton, Brandon, Lutz, etc.

Pinellas County has more money (statistically), but it's also older, and a lot of the money is at the beach, so it's not very close to the stadium either.

The growth in the area has been north and west of Tampa -- that is, further away from St. Pete.

And, while current ownership has done some good things -- namely winning -- they've made some mistakes too.

Ticket prices are still high. Now, they'll point to the availability of cheap seats, but anything close to the field is very expensive. This leads to a quiet, removed crowd. It hurts the game atmosphere, and the game atmosphere needs help.

They also use variable pricing, so the games against the Yankees and Red Sox cost more. So, the casual fan doesn't go to the best games. They're not going to pay extra. This robs them of the best game day experience. And, it results in the place being packed with fans of the Yankees and Sox.

And, as much as I get Stu's frustration, blaming the fans is the worst thing he can do. It's right out of the former owner's play book. They hate Vince Naimoli. He was always blaming the fans. This just puts Stu in his league.

I get that it's a tough place for him. He has to talk tough and threaten to leave in order to try and get a new stadium, but it turns off fans. Badly.

And, the recession has definitely hurt. They badly overbuilt in the area and people took a bath. Plus, there are a lot of poor people in the area. There are mobile home parks not far from the stadium. Other parts of St. Pete are very poor.

St. Pete, as a city has a ton of potential. It's kind of funky and artsy. It looked ready to explode when I was there. Then the economy crashed.

Sad. The team is fucked.

 

Arizona's stadium is 100 x better than the Trop.

 

I don't know who the announcers are in the Yankee-Tiger game, but the play by play guy is astonishingly horrible. He just repeated almost word for word what the color guy said about Posada's batting stats in the series. It's like his headphones don't work.

 

I've got DirecTV..what channel is the damn game on please?

EDIT: TBS, thank you. (I looked when I got home and it wasn't there. I swear it.)

Carry on

 

BYH, Girardi is justifying everything you ever said about him. Third pitcher of a 2-0 game in the fourth inning. If this goes extras, Cano will have to pitch. Nice faith in your batting order, Skip.

 

Its the 4th inning and Girardi is already on his 4th pitcher. He's doing his best LaRussa imitation except its the 4TH inning, not the 8th!! I guess he thinks someone is going to do a Pedro imitation and come in in relief and pitch 6 innings of no-hit ball to save them.

 

CC warming up. If he goes two, that gets them through 6.

Damn, we need a couple of runs.

 

As far as the whole thing about the Rays stadium being the problem: Their TV ratings are horrible, too. Doesn't that indicate it's not just the stadium?

I'd be interested to know if there's a team where the attendance is bad, but the ratings are good. I think the White Sox have been in that category some seasons.

 

Wouldn't be surprised if the Twins fell into that category a few times during their Dome days.