Still MIGHTY

Or when we invented the hockey puck?

OC Register: Anaheim leaders propose year extension to Angels’ stadium lease to give time for negotiations

Yes, Fox keeps FS1 and FS2 because Disney already owns ESPN.

Having just been in DC for the Ducks/Caps game on Sunday (and oh hot dandy what a goddamn game that was), I've got to say the two things that truly stood out among the Caps fan experience were the "Unleash the Fury" montage/standing ovation (pretty cool and unique moment) and the unreal canonization of Tom Wilson. Especially with it being the game after the New Jersey hit, like I really just don't get the fervor of support for the guy. As a Ducks fan, I'm obviously no stranger to the "hate them on other teams/love them on your team" guys (see: Perry, Corey or Kesler, Ryan), but at a certain point, how does Tom Wilson get to still be that? Perry and Kesler are annoying, sure, but they're not out kabong-ing dudes in the same way Wilson does. Yes, I know, 7 goals in 7 games and like you said, Crabcake, you say that the Caps play better with him in the lineup, but the dude is just flat out reckless. You walk around the concourse, and the ad boards flashed between advertisements and graphics of only three separate players: Ovechkin, Holtby, and Wilson (and at least in my corner of the upper deck, it only seemed to be Ovechkin and Wilson). Wilson shirseys are everywhere, and one of the more prominent non-Ovechkin ones in the team store. Plenty of Wilson jerseys. Again, there are always the on-the-line players on every team, and usually, the hometown fans love that type of guy and fight for his side. But when that guy now has several suspensions on his record with the exact type of thing we're trying to get out of the game? I don't understand how they can still throw THAT LEVEL of support behind him every night.

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And yet... Here we are. --- But yeah, the whole of Southern California is a giant urban sprawl. Technically, it's all one thing. But as others have pointed out, with the sheer amount of people and the geography, there are different areas that present different challenges of getting to one place or the next. And along those lines to address something in the quoted post, there isn't a market from the border to Santa Barbara. San Diego is significantly separated from LA culturally and with one big geographic barrier: Camp Pendleton. While there's plenty of mingling between Ventura/LA/Orange and even San Bernardino and Riverside counties, that doesn't happen between SD and OC. That 20-mile buffer zone does a heck of a job breaking up the humanity. Anyways, honestly, the Chargers best bet was to take a page from the Angels/Ducks book and claim a part of the sprawl that claims its own identity and feed off that. But they're making the mistake that the Angels/Arte Moreno tried and might try again of taking on a bigger battle they have no shot at winning. They're both on a lower rung than the big brother team, and that's fine. Just accept it, embrace it, do your best with it. You can do pretty well with even a slice of SoCal.

I’m not sure about the Anaheim area in particular, but yeah, we have a bunch in south Orange County. Its not a bad option, but I never found that AMC to be a great movie location anyway. If I’m going to Disney, I’m not seeing a movie. And if I’m seeing a movie, I’m not dealing with Disney.

It is. They already are. Earl of Sandwich has reopened. Rainforest Cafe said they’d like to reopen their location. No announced plans for the ESPN Zone or AMC Theaters they cleared out. Both are pretty unique structrues internally, so I’m quite curious what those become.

No, he's up. Which is partially why the Angels opted out now and said they'll negotiate next month with the new mayor and council. Also, low key info, Disney kind of wanted out of that hotel anyway. They weren't that mad about having to cancel the project.

Oh yeah. With the Mouse on the prowl for any and all open Anaheim land, they would swoop in instantaneously and knock it all down should the property become available. I have no doubts on that.

I don’t know where you’re looking, but it’s there.

We have. ——— Look, the Angels aren’t moving to LA proper. There’s no space and no one willing. I actually think it could be kind of detrimental considering that large majority of the fan base they’ve built is to the South (OC) and to the East (Riverside) of DTLA. And I’ll guarantee the majority of those people aren’t driving up to LA for 81 games a year. The City of Industry/Grand Crossing idea is interesting, but that 57/60 interchange is its own special kind of hell without something actually going on there. Elsewhere in the IE would be interesting too, but again, you start to alienate the core of Angel fans that currently exist in OC. Taking the 91 out of OC at 5 pm any day of the week again is a special kind of hell. The only in-OC/non-Anaheim option that was ever sort of seriously pursued was Tustin. Which I mean there’s space to do it and it’s actually closer to where I live, however, Tustin also isn’t coughing up any public dollars and putting a professional stadium in Tustin is... weird. Just weird. You’re really getting into suburbia at that point. And if anything, it’d give them even less claim to “Los Angeles” than they already have. So, it’s Anaheim or bust, I think. I probably overreacted in the first post because I was kind of seeing red, no pun intended. Something will get worked out. Whether it’s upgrades or building in the parking lot, something will happen. But if not, really, kick rocks Arte. It’d be one way to kill the baseball in this sports fan.

If the Angels ever did somehow move to LA proper (they won't), they're not putting the A's or Rays in Anaheim. And I could say with some pretty good certainty, we wouldn't want the Rays or A's in Anaheim.

The Angels say they're going to wait until after next month's election to talk to the mayor and city council and evaluate their options. They also say that they're not set on leaving and aren't trying to pressure the city into renovations, to which I call bull because that's exactly what Arte Moreno has been trying to do from Day 1. Look, I get it. Angel Stadium is the fourth oldest in baseball, and with another boom of stadiums, could stand to be majorly updated or replaced with a sparkly new one. However, Anaheim has been pretty hard line on this especially since Arte took over (and especially when we went through the whole "of Anaheim" fiasco). Not to mention with the current climate in California, I see no reason that Anaheim will give up anything. You look up and down the state and there just isn't public money going into stadiums anymore, and you look right up the freeway and see what the Rams (and Chargers) are building in Inglewood on their own dime, I just don't see what Arte thinks he's going to get done. On the other hand, sure. Anaheim has bent over backwards in the past for Disney and Disneyland, but there's also been a bit more push and pull with that lately. This either ends one of three ways: 1) They negotiate with the new council and Arte agrees to pay/build a brand new stadium 2) The new mayor/council lick Arte's boots and give him anything and everything he wants to "please, please, please, pleeeeaaasssseeeee don't leave" 3) The Angels are gone. Not to Tustin, not to any where else local. They're gone. I do love the Angels. I do. I also hate Arte Moreno. I don't want the city to give in and let this guy that's bullied and diminished the city and dried this team out on a vine get what he wants and win. It would also crush every bit of me to see the Angels leave. But if they did, I know where to squarely put the blame, and its not a different target than I've already had. you, Arte.

Perfect illustration of one of my issues with the current version of the Bill Simmons Podcast is the latest episode. Episode title: "The Next NBA MVP With Ryen Russillo and Kevin O'Connor, Plus John C. Reilly" Length: 1 hour, 36 minutes NBA MVP Discussion: 30 mins John C. Reilly conversation: 1 hour Why is this not just the John C. Reilly conversation? How is an hour-long conversation the "plus" of a hour and a half podcast? Why does the John C. Reilly conversation need to be prefaced by an NBA MVP odds conversation? I almost deleted this one straight away before I looked in further and saw, oh, this is actually the John C. Reilly conversation. Because when you see the podcast in the lists, you see "The Next NBA MVP with Ryen Russillo and Kevi..." You'd have no idea that 2/3 of this is an acting conversation with Reilly. He did this a little while ago with the Jason Bateman podcast, except the opposite. Title: "Jason Bateman on His Crazy Career, Plus Mallory Rubin on Football and 'Thrones'" Length: 1 hour, 48 minutes Rubin: 27 minutes Bateman: 1 hour, 21 minutes Here, Bateman is the star of the main title, makes sense. But the podcast starts with the "plus" discussion. If I'm clicking on this podcast based on what you see initially, I see "oh, Jason Bateman, that sounds interesting" and then you start listening, and you're like "who is this buzzard squawking about Clemson and direwolves?" This happens all the time, but those were the ones that stood out to me. As someone trying to consume your product, they make it hard to know what the product I'm consuming actually is.

Wait... they're giving fans a replica Western Conference Regular Season Champion (it's different on the giveaway) banner??? Dear lord, Nashville... Come on... And yeah, if they ever do it, it'd be gold.

Regular Season Western Conference Champion Nashville Predators.

Regular Season Western Conference Champion Nashville Predators.

They did the Miami Vice movie. They owe a lot of people a lot of stuff.

Yes yes, stop-reel-line-mint, but I wanted to type this out, walk through it mentally and I'm bored: Northwest: Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton Pacific: Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, Vegas Southwest: Arizona, Colorado, Dallas, Nashville Central: Chicago, Minnesota, St. Louis, Winnipeg Northeast: Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston Metropolitan: NY Rangers, NY Islanders, New Jersey, Philadelphia Lake Erie: Detroit, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Buffalo Southeast: Tampa Bay, Florida, Carolina, Washington Western Conference is easy enough to sort out, but not without its own smaller issues. I'm sure Nashville would lobby to stay with Chicago, but that's not life or death. That led to playing with an all-Canadian Northwest where Winnipeg goes to the Northwest, Seattle goes to the Pacific, Vegas goes to the Southwest, Nashville goes to the Central. I did like that layout for geography, but then you're splitting Seattle and Vancouver which seemed silly, as that's been a small selling point. But again, all easy enough. The Eastern Conference gets trickier. This is the way that probably works best, but you get stuck with a sort of wonky "Lake Erie" Division. Geographically and culturally it makes sense, but you still have Washington split from Pittsburgh, Philadelphia split from Pittsburgh, Detroit split from Toronto. There's no way to get all those rivalries to work in the 8x4 model without getting some seriously screwy geography (not unlike what we're currently dealing with in the present Atlantic Division). But I think this works, you get Ohio-Michigan, you get Columbus-Pittsburgh, you get the Pens/Wings back to back Cups, you get... Buffalo.

Um, no, to almost all of that. Your super/major market thing means mostly nothing in the NHL. See Winnipeg's success last season and prospective success this season. See both the Rangers and Islanders probably missing the playoffs. See Chicago's last place finish last season. See Toronto's years of struggles. See Montreal's current struggle. Columbus has finally rounded into form thanks to competent management. "Your" Hurricanes have faltered because of bad management. That's what succeeds in the NHL. Good vs. Bad Management. The other stuff doesn't matter as much as it does in other sports. I'm not against 8 divisions of four teams once Seattle comes in, however, Boston's not getting split from Montreal, so your "super market" division doesn't work there. And knowing the NHL, they probably stick with the format they have for a bit. So Seattle would go into the current Pacific, but that would mean pushing out one Pacific team to the Central, to which the choices would be Vegas (newest team, closerish to Colorado) or Arizona (furthest east).

Yeah, I like Tess generally, but he was much more suited for college, especially because whatever game he had always was some crazy, lose-your-mind situation.

This. Look, I do enjoy Ringer podcasts, a fair amount of them. But here are A LOT that I delete almost sight-unseen. I skip the first 5 minutes of every single BS Podcast because all it is is saying what's on their website, which I just flat out don't visit, ever.