tp49

3 hours ago, TBGKon said:

You can find more info here, but Sacramento is in play because of the media market.

 

https://ballparkdigest.com/2023/05/30/legislators-debate-new-las-vegas-ballpark-sacramento-to-host-as/

 

 

And as I said somewhere earlier in this thread just because Darrell Steinberg said something doesn't mean it's in play.  The River Cats don't play in his city or even in Sacramento County (West Sacramento and Yolo County respectively).  The reason as that article states Steinberg was being coy about things, is because like 99.9% of what he says this is coming out of his rear end.  Take what he says with a gigantic grain of salt because nothing Darrell's said over his tenure as mayor came to fruition.  Unless something is coming from the mayor of West Sacramento or Yolo County officials you can safely ignore Darrell.

This is even before we broach the issue of what corporate sponsorships they would be able to get locally because as a government town Sacramento is devoid of major corporations.  I'm also not certain they'd draw very well in Sacramento either as over the last decade-plus Sacramento's become a far more solidly Giants town.

My prediction is they'll either play those two years out in Las Vegas with a very small possibility of a split with Reno to try and drum up some interest statewide or stay in Oakland barring the city terminating the lease early.  Of course IIRC most baseball fans in Reno are Giants fans and they'd run into the same issue with sharing a ballpark with a minor league team.

tl/dr: No chance the A's use Sacramento as a temporary home.

3 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

This take is so wrong it's almost comical.

 

The Oakland mayor was legitimately blindsided by the Las Vegas announcement in April because the negotiations on the Howard Terminal stadium were near completion.   By walking away from the negotiations after the A's pulled their double-crossing move, the mayor behaved shrewdly by not allowing the A's to use the nearly-done Howard Terminal plan as a pressuring device in their rushed presentations to the Nevada state legislature. 

 

Either way this works out, her move was the right one. If A's cannot fool enough of the Nevada legislators, then they have nowhere to go.  While the mayor has confirmed that she would take a call from Fisher or Kaval to resume the negotiations, it's hard to imagine their doing that in such a weakened posure. More likely, if the Nevada legislature does its job, then the sale that all of yesterday's reverse-boycotters are demanding would likely occur, and the negotiations would resume with the new ownership.  Indeed, the mayor has confirmed that a new ownership group could just step right in and bring the thing over the finish line.

 

But if the A's snow job prevails and the legislature agrees to flush money down the toilet in a state whose education system is rated near the very bottom in the country, then the Oakland mayor retains her dignity.  And Howard Terminal still gets improvments from federal money, even if there's no ballpark.

 

Still, if that terrible scenario comes to pass this time, the Oakland government — under both the current mayor and the previous one — can hold their heads high with dignity and can be secure in the knowledge that they did the right thing throughout, first by leveraging the team's stadium demands into an agreement to also build affordable housing for city residents, and eventually by refusing to be a pawn in a huckster's dishonest game.

 

Are you serious?

I might buy that take if Mayor Thao assumed office with no experience in Oakland government.  Fact is she's been on the City Council since 2018.  She knew or should have known what was happening regarding negotiations with the A's.  Even if she was blindsided by the A's announcement, when negotiating deals, the worst-case scenario is always in your mind and a strong possibility until the contract is signed and you always, always have a contingency plan.

The A's have been trying to get a stadium deal done in some form since at least when Jerry Brown was mayor covering the administrations of Brown, Dellums, Quan, Schaff and now Thao.  While there's fault on ownership's side there's plenty of fault to go around on the side of the City of Oakland and now more like when they leave with the Nevada legislature passing the funding bill, the Oakland government shoulders blame too.  We can debate the degree but they do have blame. 

Bill passed the Nevada Assembly.

15 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

I wish I had worn my Vegas jersey today. It has a Stanley Cup patch and everything, though from the 2018 season.

14 hours ago, tBBP said:

(And like @DG_ThenNowForever, I'm wishing I had my Mark Stone jersey with me right about now...but it'll be waiting for me in my closet when I get back home )

Kept my Stone jersey in the closet because in the two games in the last couple of rounds I took it out, they lost.  

I was in Vegas for Games 1 and 2.  The party on Toshiba Plaza before and during both games was a blast.

4 hours ago, tigerslionspistonshabs said:

You guys think there's any fire regarding the Connecticut Governor re: Yotes to Hartford?

 

I feel that most of the fans that the Whalers abandoned have either hopped on with the Bruins, Rangers, Isles, or followed the Whalers down to Carolina. 

In the shortest post, I've ever written on these here boards.

No.

2 hours ago, GhostOfNormMacdonald said:

       Y'all. Barbara Lee is threatening MLB's anti-trust exception over the A's to Vegas move. Rob Manfred might actually destroy this league   "As a federal legislator, I believe such actions are inconsistent with federal policy goals related to the MLB's exemption from antitrust scrutiny."      

 

I'm not a lawyer, but I've studied the legal and political side of sports in undergrad. The league is :censored:ed if Brett Kavanaugh's decision on college athletics is anything to go by. More than 100 years of precedent thrown away for greed. Like, calling them icarus would almost be too on the nose

There's as much chance of Barbara Lee getting MLB's anti-trust exemption taken away as I do of winning the run for US President I'm not now, nor ever will make.  She doesn't have the pull, the ability, or the votes to get that done.

11 hours ago, TBGKon said:

Interesting caveat for the A's

 

Ballpark Digest: Legislators debate new Las Vegas ballpark; Sacramento to host A’s?

I wouldn't put much stock in that.  First, don't believe a word that comes out of Darrell's mouth.  He's as full of it as anyone in that town and maybe even more inept.  Second, he wouldn't have much say there anyway as the ballpark is in West Sacramento which is a separate city, in a separate county.  If the West Sac mayor were saying this my ears might perk up a little and even then I'd dismiss it.

6 hours ago, bosrs1 said:

 Five years ago I’d have agreed or when Selig was commissioner I’d have definitely agreed. Manfred though, seems to have a hard on for getting out of Oakland, hence talking about waiving relocation fees and now using the A’s move as a de facto threat against other teams like Milwaukee. He’s seemingly done with Oakland. And after 30 years who can blame him. Fisher is an inept cheapskate boob of an owner, but Oakland is equally inept at the leadership level and has been for a very long time. Well run cities don’t lose 3 teams in 5 years among other failings. 

Oakland is the poster child for inept governance.  Sacramento is a very close second.  I see no chance of the A's using Sacramento for any type of stopgap. 

3 hours ago, FiddySicks said:

I’ve been here for nearly two decades and from the very first few posts I made, I was pushing the A’s to Sacramento. It’s one of my oldest hills I’ve died on many times here before. 
 

 

Now, that being said, OH, COME ON. Even Sacramento, as shameless as it can be, isn’t willing to be a stopgap between a city with more crime and a city with less water. Ridiculous. They would draw about as well as the Oilers did in Memphis. 

I think they'd draw worse than the River Cats do now.

20 hours ago, WestCoastBias said:

 

Here's a post I made earlier about BART station distances to Howard Terminal. A roughly mile walk isn't bad, a lot of people do it for Cal games and Giants games. There is also an Amtrak station at Jack London Square where maybe they could get some special commuter service started similar to the Giants and CalTrain. 

 

I don't know if zero public transportation is exactly fair to say, but it's just not directly adjacent like at the Coliseum. 

Given how bad West Oakland is very, very few would make the walk from there to Howard Terminal. 

1 hour ago, OnWis97 said:

Recent teams that have kept names:

• Nets (but does that count?)
• Raiders
• Chargers

 

But what's the last team to move to a far away city with no connection and keep the name aside from the Radier?. The Oilers changed after a few years. The Hornets, but they ultimately changed. The Stars (if you count that).

Could it be argued that aside from the Raiders (who I maintain are a bit of a different case) the last team to 100% keep the name on a relocation of more than a two-hour drive is the Colts?

Everyone forgets the Sacramento Kings who kept the name when they moved from Kansas City/Omaha.

42 minutes ago, the admiral said:

Wasn't it Sterling and Kay on the radio in the '90s/early-2000s, and then Kay went to television once YES started, making way for JAWN JAWN THE GAME IS RUNNING TOO LAWNG JAWN I'M GOING TO BE LATE TO MY MAH-JONGG NIGHT JAWN?

 

Yeah, I mixed that up.  It's what happens when I go off of memory sometimes.  Steiner did replace Kay.

24 minutes ago, Kramerica Industries said:

 

I'll piggy-back off this comment to speak to the rest of New York television broadcasts as well. Mike Breen does the Knicks (Kenny Albert a frequent fill-in), Ian Eagle does the Nets, Brendan Burke does the Islanders, all of them play-by-plays with national profiles as well. Sam Rosen also has a national profile and I still enjoy listening to him but he's really old these days. I suppose the point being that the other New York teams do have broadcasts where the play-by-play (at least) is someone with a high profile and done lots of national work. Michael Kay has done some playoff radio broadcasts before for ESPN, and he did a wild card round series last year, but his national profile otherwise pales in comparison to pretty much every other name I listed here. (I guess it would only be fair to point out that Gary Cohen doesn't have much of a national profile either - that I know about, anyway - but the reviews he and SNY get speak for themselves; Howie Rose similarily isn't someone I know for doing much, if any, national work, but he's always been well-received from Mets and Islanders fans...even Rangers fans for a certain 1994 goal.)

I'm a long-time, die-hard Islander fan and much of the fanbase is afraid of losing Brendan Burke he's that good.  I've also enjoyed Howie Rose over the years because he's always been brutally honest about the teams he worked for be it the Mets or Islanders and he worked for the Islanders during arguably the worst period in team history.  Interesting too how a lot of ex-WFAN guys ended up in the broadcast booth be it Suzyn Waldman, Howie Rose, Ian Eagle, Steve Levy, Bob Wischusen, etc, and if you want to extend it out to WNBC radio (I'm old enough to have listened to this too) Dave Sims with the Mariners who did sports talk in NYC before there was an all-sports radio station. 

2 hours ago, BBTV said:

 

You'd think the New York teams could have their pick of talent - or at least have a huge local pool to choose from.  Yet they each end up with subpar broadcasts (though I've only heard the Mets team a couple of times, so I could be off there.)  Kay struggles just to pronounce names - and the interesting is that he butchers them in such non-obvious ways.

 

My biggest pet-peeve is dopes that don't know the "ll" digraph, and pronounce names like Castellanos "Cast-ell-anos", and can't get it right no matter how many times it's explained.  I find it unhealthily triggering.  It's one thing if you're reading something for the first time, but once you hear someone's name, just say it right.  It's not hard.  But Kay got that part right, but then butchered the stress.  "Cast-AY-yanos".  How the hell does that happen?  

The Mets television booth is arguably the best in baseball followed by the Giants, and I watch every team's broadcast at least a couple of times a season.  Gary, Ron and Kieth do a phenomenal job you should watch them more often and this is coming from a Yankee fan.

Kay was a Yankee beat writer for the NY Daily News back in the 80's which somehow led to him finding his way into the booth, first on the radio side working with Charlie Steiner and then on to television.  The Yankees tv booth is so bad I sync the radio to any game I watch.  IMHO the Yankees tv booth is hasn't been remotely watchable since Phil Rizzuto retired in the early 90's. 

Michael Kay's PBP is so bad I'll sync games to the radio broadcast.  Then again when compared to the Mets the Yankees' television booth's always been subpar going back to the early 90's or so.  The Yankees are notorious for not allowing their broadcasters to criticize the team too hard.  

Kay's radio show is horrible too.  It's damn near unlistenable. 

To make the Devil Rays colors even more disjointed the Authentic Collection I've seen and purchased around it is black so it doesn't match the caps at all.

Considering the current state of the Mets it's the most appropriate jersey sponsor ever.  

The bigger question is what would Tank have to say about this one. 

On 4/4/2023 at 8:48 PM, BBTV said:

OMG the Yankees PC Richards whistle is SO FREAKING ANNOYING.  How do Yankees fans tolerate this?  Every single strikeout is pure agony.  It's legitimately aggravatingly  annoying.

 

 

Even worse, the Yankees do it at Spring Training games.  There's no P.C. Richard's within 1000 miles of here and I still have to hear that damn jingle.

2 hours ago, Sec19Row53 said:

What if the player does something that would cause the HOF to want the jersey

In that case, one representative of each entity will fight to the death in a steel cage for the right to the jersey! 

Looks like Sacramento Republic's owner is buying Huddersfield Town in the EFL Championship.  My first thought was I didn't think he had the financial ability to do that.  Then my second thought was if you can't get your act together here I guess that's what you do.  I think at this point if there was even a glint of hope that Sacramento would successfully get into MLS this ends that discussion.

1 hour ago, monkeypower said:

This Neko Sparks person seems to be a bit of a potential "modern tech person" red flag from some comments I've seen.

 

He doesn't have much of a presence online, has some connection to cryptocurrency and the metaverse and this is what his company does.

 

 

He also links this financial/investment portfolio company website in his Twitter, but everything besides the main page and the contact us is password protected, including the pages where you are supposed to see what companies they have acquired. (In some fairness, this could be a new website for something just created for the Sens bid)

 

Why is the face of this bid a nearly anonymous tech/crypto guy? I do hope the NHL will be looking into finances with all the bids, but who knows? OITGDNHL.

Maybe he's the second coming of John Spano...

On 3/22/2023 at 5:49 PM, tBBP said:

While we're on the topic of hockey jerseys, for any of you who own an adidas-branded versus Fanatics-branded NHL "authentic" jersey (bcuz I know none of them are fully authentic): what is the difference, if any, between the two? I got my hands on some of the Fanatics-branded jerseys (I don't know whether what I was holding was classified as a replica or "authentic", but thin, brittle, and cheap is what I'd call the NOB/number fake-kiss cut/twill treatment); it's been a while since I held an adidas replithentic or any other kind. 

 

Asking for a friend...who drives large five-axle combo vehicles...before he drops another ungodly sum on personalized merchandise...

If your "friend" wants to go a slightly different route what he could do is purchase blank Adidas "authentic" jerseys from whatever source he chooses, then send that jersey off to the place that customizes them for the team.  That's what I find myself doing, and outside of one jersey, I've had no problems and some very quick turnarounds (under two weeks).

Fanatics has produced the "official Authentic Pro" off-ice gear for years now and it's just not good.  The NHL is the easiest league not to buy new merch from.  I've saved a decent amount of money since they switched the off-ice stuff to Fanatics and I look forward to saving more now that they'll have the jerseys too.

On 2/28/2023 at 3:46 PM, spartacat_12 said:

So the NHL's presence is making an impact, even if it hasn't necessarily led to sold out crowds everywhere. We're even seeing a lot of American-born players coming out of non-traditional areas who grew up playing for the NHL sponsored youth teams (ex. Jakob Chychrun & Shayne Gostisbehere grew up playing for the Jr. Panthers in Florida). 

You left out the biggest softball and most relevant guy to the thread...Auston Matthews who if I remember right is from Scottsdale.

30 minutes ago, maz said:

 

See, with rising sea levels and all that, I wonder about the ability of any dildo-based structure to withstand flooding from the storm surge of any given hurricane. Unless we can redirect the lava flow into the sea with a strategically collapsed building ala the 1997 Tommy Lee Jones classic Volcano and use the natural processes of the water cooling the lava into rock to actually build more land.

 

The ability of dildos to withstand hurricane-force winds is still a mystery, though.

 

Flex Seal.  You haven't seen their new commercial have you?

Howard Terminal will probably have accessibility issues too as the closest BART stations are over a mile away, Outside of a couple of bus routes and a cross-bay ferry, getting in and out of there will be a logistical nightmare.

No one seems to remember either that Candlestick was difficult to access outside of the 101 and an express bus from downtown.  They had attendance issues as well.  Giants attendance didn't surge until Pac Bell was built in a more accessible location.

37 minutes ago, who do you think said:

 

Oracle Park is stuck on an allegedly hard-to-access peninsula. The immediate population of San Francisco and Pinellas County is about the same. Why is one selling out the park for eternity while I can have an entire section to myself at the other?

When you find the Tampa/St. Pete equivalent to BART get back to us...