FiddySicks

Wait, does this mean they’re moving immediately now, or still in the off season? 
 

EDIT: N/M. I forgot how close to the end of the season we already are. 

9 hours ago, tBBP said:

 

And you know, now that you say this, as many times as I've been out to UT & Salt Lake specifically, I've never thought of it that way. I know it's west, but I never thought of it as southwest. Probably because Utah's probably more well known for the Wasatch Front...or the Delicate Arch in Moab. 

Utah and Nevada outside of the southern tip I wouldn’t really consider “southwest” in that sense. It’s the Great Basin, which I wouldn’t put into the same category. 

On 4/11/2024 at 8:17 AM, TruColor said:

I JUST moved to Arizona over the weekend. 

My condolences. 

Yup. The corporate base is the killer. It’s getting better (I think), but still lags way behind most other markets. 
 

As for the lack of expansion to Raley Field (I agree, I’ll never get used to SHP), I’ve actually heard a slightly different story. What I’ve heard was that the idea was tossed around by the construction firm as a potential feature, and the club kinda just ran with it. Put up a sign on the stadium with the expansion renderings and everything. But when they actually looked into the logistics of it, and had a surveyor look at the park, it was determined that the foundation wouldn’t be able to hold it (something to do with the land. It’s basically on an old riverbed). 

Yeah hockey in Phoenix just isn’t gonna happen. It’s been long time to move on.

I’m totally fine with three helmets. It also makes me slightly less worried about what the Broncos are apparently going to do. 

5 hours ago, BottomlessPitt said:

 

Former Kings owner Gregg Lukenbill wanted to privately finance a multi-purpose stadium to try and lure an mlb or nfl team to Sacramento. I'm sure @FiddySicks can better fill us in on it a little bit better. 

Yeah it was like a lot of these attempts to bring teams to Sac. They get amped up, find a face willing to try, and then everyone realizes there isn’t enough of a pot to pull money from, and it falls apart. 
 

Even the Kings situation was weird. The NBA wasn’t quite what it is today, and the original building they played in (Arco 1) was a converted office building (which has since been converted back to an office). The whole thing was sort of a smash and grab, which is actually pretty similar to how Vivek is playing the angles here with the A’s.  
 

That failed baseball stadium sat and rotted for three decades, and I think is being converted into a medical school. 

The NCAA tournament actually gives me some pause when it comes to expanding the football playoff. We have this huge 64 team tournament where the opening round is usually the top seeds straight thumping the lower seeds, and whenever a lower seed does get through a game or two, they never actually win. The winners are always the same few teams. UConn/Duke/UNC/Whoever has the biggest name recruit/whoever has the top “one and done” coach. Wash, rinse, repeat. It just makes the entire thing feel so bloated and wasteful.  I’m kind of starting to wonder if we’re just going to get the same with football. 
 

I’ve never really liked the tournament, but I basically checked out when Butler (who is the closest we’ve gotten to a small school winning in SO long) lost two title games to two of the most common champions you could possibly find. 

I didn’t pay a lick of attention to the mens tourney this year (women’s I flipped on once, maybe twice). 
 

Oh. UConn won again what a shocking result to the most boring and overrated sports event on the American calendar. 
 

I’ll see myself out. 

Sutter Health Park was also built with the idea that it would some day be expanded into a MLB sized park. Sacramento has low key been vying for a MLB team since at least the year 2000. 

6 hours ago, MCM0313 said:

Is BoJack off the wagon again?!

Did Bo do what to the wagon, now? 

[Same Cardi B Lyrics joke but replace LOLcat with Phillie instead of Yankee]

6 hours ago, FrutigerAero said:

Anyone get a PNC-park vibe from Sacramento Rivercat's ballpark?

I’ve been to hundreds of RiverCats games (including briefly being a mascot for them in high school) and it’s one of my favorite parks in all of baseball. The view of downtown is phenomenal. I can definitely see the comparisons. 

20 hours ago, WBeltz said:

Maybe it because I don't live in Colorado anymore, but I have always loved the flag. It's so beautiful and the most iconic of all the state flags. I'm bummed I never grabbed a Rockies hat with that logo.

Hard to agree with this when we have California’s flag in the union. 

1 minute ago, BottomlessPitt said:

If Vegas fails to materialize: A 35,000 seat retractable roof park in Sacramento, built next to Sutter Health Park (which would be demolished). Vivek Ranadive luring his old buddy Joe Lacob to buy in. Just a vivid thought. 

Pipe dream. Especially the retractable roof part. Why is that necessary? 

22 minutes ago, bosrs1 said:

 

The Rivercats are who invited them. This won’t screw the Rivercats long term. Heck this is a back door way for Sac to make a run at the A’s when Vegas inevitably fails to materialize. 

Yeah I think that’s ultimately the plan. I don’t think it’s going to work, though. Then Sacramento is going to also be stuck with a huge mess. 

23 minutes ago, Digby said:

 

Best "Connection" will just be raiding the closet of the apartment they're squatting in. Major League RiverCats, baby.

I’ve thought about this, and while I wish the city could’ve demanded that they changed their name to the Sacramento RiverCats (I get that it’s a crazy and unreasonable idea), them playing a game or two in RiverCats “Throwbacks” would be close enough, and would fulfill one of my oldest sports fantasies. 

1 hour ago, bosrs1 said:

A’s made it official, moving day is October 1 to Sacramento.

 

https://x.com/Athletics/status/1775898900282687717?s=20

Gross. We don’t want them. 
 

All this is going to do is :censored: up the long term viability of the RiverCats. I can’t see them sticking around during this stretch to try and directly compete with a MLB team who shares their field. I’m not even sure the league would allow that, as the RiverCats not only can but absolutely would outdraw the A’s the vast majority of those three years. 
 

They’re using this as a “trial run for a MLB team in Sac” and I’m sorry but lol what? They couldn’t even get the soccer team off of the ground and now that’s completely out of reach because of the $500 million expansion fee. And now they want to try and pivot to MLB expansion? sure, Sacramento. 
 

This whole thing is a terribly half baked idea put out by the two dumbest sports ownership groups (Kings and A’s) in the state of California. 

Why the would Denver switch to a white helmet? Good Christ is that an infuriatingly bad idea. This has been a blue helmet team for like half a century now, and even before that they never wore a white helmet. 
 

They’re about to sacrifice like 50 years of brand consistency for this tacky “icy” 5280/CoLoRaDo PrIdE nonsense.
 

Colorado has a dumbass flag anyway. I legit hate that goofy Cubs logo with a sun in it looking ass logo. “Well, Coloradans love it!” Don’t care. Then you’re all dumb with bad taste. 

5 hours ago, BBTV said:

 

This is probably what should happen, though it would likely mean the permanent end of the line for the brand.  It's a shame that he has such little equity at this point, but it's time to retire "Athletics" and move on.  It's a lousy fit for Vegas anyway.

 

Has there been more of a "coming back with tail between their legs" situation than this in the past 30 - 40 years?  It was basically announced as "done", they had renderings, a welcome presser, and all that jazz, now they're in the awkwardest of awkward spots.

 

I can think of in-market moves that collapsed on the brink of construction (Sixers move to Camden, for ex) but nothing that was to a whole new market since the teams that played Tampa for fools and the SD>DC move that resulted in the actual "Washington NAT'L League" baseball cards.

Closest one I can think of I was involved with, and that was an expansion franchise falling apart. 

More than the A’s have. They would probably demand a lot of clauses built in with the phrase “in perpetuity” included. 

45 minutes ago, BBTV said:

So the Phillies and Braves don't play each other again until... July?  Godsdamned July?  How the hell can two divisional teams go more than three full months without playing each other?  Screw this schedule.

That happened with the Giants and Dodgers a few years ago. They played either the opening series or the second one, and then not again until end of June or early July. I think it’s one of those quirks with the schedule that happens every so often and there just so happens to be two teams kind of left out of the loop. I think it started happening, or at least more frequently,  when they fully integrated the AL/NL schedule. 

1 hour ago, The_Admiral said:

I remember Lance Briggs doing that once. Crashed his Lamborghini on the Edens, got out, and walked away. I think he also reported it as stolen, which may have been a tactical error.

I think Matt Kemp also did this while playing for the Dodgers. Might have the player wrong, though. 

39 minutes ago, SFGiants58 said:

I’d rather emphasize what Ball Four or literally any pre-WWI baseball stories do, which is the wackiness and the often-rebellious nature of the players.
 

It’s so much more entertaining than the Norman Rockwell-like garbage.

A bit of a sidebar here, but if you’re looking for a lot of crazy old baseball stories like that, check out The Dollop podcast. It’s FANTASTIC. And it really emphasizes how much of a circus baseball was back in those old days. You’re right, it’s miles more interesting than the sterile Ken Burnsificatuon of baseball history we have now. 

9 minutes ago, SFGiants58 said:

Yup, the false importance and “mystical Americana nature” really bugs me, if that makes sense. I’d rather emphasize what Ball Four or literally any pre-WWI baseball stories do, which is the wackiness and the often-rebellious nature of the players.
 

It’s so much more entertaining than the Norman Rockwell-like garbage.

Yes. Exactly. I fell so hard into ALL of this when I was younger. But then you get older, realize what the world actually is (or, in the very least, what it’s become), and realize that a lot of the mystique around baseball is just their fabrication of their own place and importance within society. They use it as a warm blanket to cover up the warts, and as a screen to avoid dealing with any of the actual problems. It’s as soulless of a money making operation as any other business entity. 
 

And I’m not indicting baseball alone on this. There are countless “American institutions” that rest on these laurels and use it to hand wave anything that’s problematic. But people are starting to push back on some of this and baseball certainly isn’t going to be immune from that. 
 

Baseball has a choice to either stick to their guns and continue to shrink in popularity, or adapt. For as dumb as some of these guys at the top are, they’re at least trying.
 

I just wish the HoF would start to reflect some of that, too.