monkeypower

I was reading through the Angels history on Wikipedia, because I've got nothing better to do, and I noticed some things.

Quote

In 1962, under the terms of their agreement with O'Malley, the Angels moved to Dodger Stadium, which they referred to as Chavez Ravine.

 

In 1964, [...] The need for a new stadium became more evident. It was believed that the Angels would never develop a large fan base while playing as tenants of the Dodgers. Also, O'Malley imposed fairly onerous lease conditions on the Angels; for example, he charged them for 50% of all stadium supplies, even though the Angels at the time drew at best half of the Dodgers' attendance.

Stymied in his attempt to get a new stadium in Los Angeles, Autry looked elsewhere. His first choice for a stadium was the site offered by the city of Long Beach. However, the city insisted that the team be renamed the Long Beach Angels, a condition Autry refused to accept. He was able to strike a deal with the suburban city of Anaheim in Orange County, and construction began on Anaheim Stadium (nicknamed The Big A by Southern Californians), where the Angels moved in 1966. On September 2, 1965, team ownership announced the Los Angeles Angels would thenceforth be known as the California Angels, in anticipation of the team's move to Anaheim the following year.

So it was believed the Angels would never develop a fanbase trying to play underneath the Dodgers and then owner balked at a team name preferred by a city and it impacted stadium issues?

Time is a flat circle.

I hadn't heard about the SB Nation news and that's a shame. I haven't really read their articles or visited their site at all, but their YouTube videos (and past videos posted on Jon Bois' old personal channel) are top notch.

Scrolling through the App Store and I come across this game called Super Hit Baseball or something like that.

Check out the logo for the Badgers.

I've recently been having issues seeing embedded tweets in posts. It seems to be just a me issue though because other people are responding to tweet post and quoting it, but it's just blank for me.

It happens on both desktop and mobile.

52 minutes ago, jgiff17 said:

Exactly! Aggies absolutely hate the beveled aTm...is there any example of a beveled logo that actually looks good? They usually look busy and do not Carry over to hats or any small sewn on logo very well

I think Texas Tech's bevel is pretty good and I think is better than the old flat version.

I have a hat with the Tech logo on it and I don't really have any complaints with how it translated over.

The difference with A&M's logo is that 1) I don't believe Aggie fans really like the bevels, and 2) the beveling on the A&M logo is incorrect.

All these images are taken from a website called nobevel.com, hence my point about A&M fans not liking the logo.

Since this thread got bumped again, why not refresh and update, plus explaining my signature.

NHL - Anaheim Ducks: I watched the old Mighty Ducks cartoon on TV (which is on Disney+) when I was really young. I have no idea if I would have known or understood the connection to the actual team, but my parents obviously did because I have old pictures of me in Mighty Ducks gear, some of which is boxed up in storage somewhere.

MLB - LA Angels: I picked the Angels when I was younger because they were the Ducks local team. 

NFL - New York Jets: My mom went to New York sometime around the turn of the century and came back with a Jets shirt for me. I guess I could have just as easily been a Giants fan.

CFL - Calgary Stampeders: Hometown team

NBA - Utah Jazz: I've only really started paying attention to the NBA within the past five years or so and my favourite team wasn't that solid. I floated around a couple "favourite" teams to see what stuck, and I know I have some posts on the boards when I was a fan of these teams, with the Jazz being one of those potential teams because of how much I liked the 90s mountain jerseys. The Jazz were playing on TV one night, so I decided to watch. Rodney Hood hit a buzzer beater to win and I decided right then I was going to be a Jazz fan. So I've been a Jazz fan since December 16, 2016 (in now just looking up the shot again).

CHL - Calgary Hitmen: Hometown team

USports - Alberta Golden Bears: The university I go to

NCAA - Texas Tech Red Raiders: Two summers ago, I became friends with someone who was at Texas Tech at the time and I decided I would also follow the football team because I didn't really have a NCAA team that I was a fan of. I wasn't really intending on becoming a "fan" fan, but then I actually got really invested over the last two seasons. I also claimed the basketball team before last year's March Madness, which ended up being their run to the finals, so that turned out really well.

NLL - Calgary Roughnecks: Hometown team

Jr. A - Battlefords North Stars (SJHL), Drumheller Dragons (AJHL): In a prior life, I did colour for the North Stars and interned in Drumheller for the station that covered the Dragons, though the internship was in the summer

(Summer Collegiate) WCBL - Okotoks Dawgs: Hometown-adjacent team

MiLB - New Hampshire Fisher Cats, Vermont Lake Monsters, Wisconsin Timber Rattlers: New Hampshire has become a special place to me over the past two years and I went to a Fisher Cats game last summer. 

I really like Burlington and went out of my way to find the Lake Monsters office to spend a lot of money at the team store one day when I was there. 

I had a handful of MiLB hats previously, but the Timber Rattlers were the first one I went back and bought a second item from. This happening around the same time I created my Twitter account, so they were actually one of the first teams I followed.

(I still plan to keep collecting MiLB hats/merch and I have, but these three will probably remain my "favourite" teams. For the record, I also don't really care about any allegiances to the Angels system)

This is a change that I only recently came across. The Winnipeg Blues of the Jr. A MJHL were sold to the owners of the WHL's Winnipeg Ice prior to this season and they switched from St. Louis jerseys to the Ice's jerseys, but kept the yellow so there's a lot of colours.

I also think having the Ice logo be the shoulder patch is a weird move.

The Calgary Hitmen raised a banner for former GM/Coach/Executive (and current Vegas Pro Scout) Kelly Kisio with his introduction into the Forever a Hitmen program over the weekend.

They don't have a picture of just the banner anywhere. The thing he's holding in the banner picture is the WHL championship trophy.

25 minutes ago, Ridleylash said:

The Pats have been in Regina for over a hundred years, and the Blades have been in Saskatoon for fifty-six. I have a difficult time believing that either team is going to get squeezed out by an AHL club, especially if they share an arena like how the Hitmen and Oil Kings already share arenas with an NHL tenant.

The NHL and CHL fill different niches in terms of fans and corporate sponsors. The AHL and CHL would fill the same niche, roughly, and could cannibalize each other. I don't think there's a market for both an AHL team and a CHL team because they would be at the same non-NHL level. (I'm willing to give Winnipeg a few more years and see what happens once the Ice, er.. ICE, get their arena).

The Hitmen and Oil Kings are also both owned by the NHL tenant they share an arena with and fill dates as noted by @rams80. Also noted by him is that the Blades and Pats are the primary tenants of their current arenas, so a second team would not be the same situation as the Flames/Hitmen and Oilers/Oil Kings for the above reasons.

25 minutes ago, Ridleylash said:

The B-Sens have an arena capacity of 4,400. The Comets have an arena capacity of 3,860. The IceHogs have an arena capacity of 5,895. If those capacity numbers can support an AHL team, Saskatoon and Regina's arenas can definitely do so.

Duly noted. But like I also said, it's not necessarily just the size of the arena, it's the potential fan support for minor league hockey in Canada.

25 minutes ago, Ridleylash said:

Abbotsford didn't work for the Flames for an entirely different reason; because it was a place filled to the brim with Canucks fans who were never going to support a team directly affiliated with one of their most bitter rivals. There was a direct and heated NHL rivalry there, there isn't in Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan also has a fair amount of Flames fans, from my (admittedly hazy and second-hand) recollection, so a Flames affiliate in Saskatoon or Regina would do a lot better then it did in Abbotsford due to that pre-existing fanbase.

It's not really an entirely different reason. A rival province, not just in sports but also in politics and general provincial pride, hosting the development team for an Alberta team could again be a hard sell.

I also just posted that the Flames weren't one of the top three teams for Saskatchewan in that Sportsnet survey, which doesn't need to be taken as peer-reviewed fact but it should at least be noted.

As an aside, people have got to stop thinking Saskatoon is a viable relocation/expansion spot for the NHL, it's just too small. Saskatoon has around 500,000 less people than Winnipeg, who currently is the smallest population in the NHL.

People point to the success of the Roughriders (in Regina) and the Rush (in Saskatoon) to say that Saskatoon/Saskatchewan could support an NHL team, but the Roughriders are a religion in Saskatchewan and both those teams only play around 10 home games a season and the games are on weekends. Both teams are supported by fans across the province who drive in for the weekend and there are people from all across the province who have season tickets to either team, but you aren't going to get people from Central Butte driving through the snow to Saskatoon for a Wednesday game in December against Florida.

Outside of a massive population boost, I think Saskatchewan is at about the highest level it can go in terms of major sports franchises. I guess you could conceivably do AHL, but I don't think the support is there for that.

3 hours ago, Ridleylash said:

I'm genuinely shocked the Flames haven't just decided to put an AHL team in either Regina or Saskatoon. You'd think that'd be the obvious move to have a team 7 hours away in Regina or 6 hours away in Saskatoon instead of putting it 21 hours away in friggin' Stockton.

Junior hockey is, by and large, more supported than minor-pro in Canada so the first issue would be pushing out either the Pats or the Blades. I don't know how much initial goodwill an AHL team would have with their first move being to force one of these teams to relocate.

Second issue might be a size issue. Now I don't know what the average size of an AHL arena is nor do I know the typical population size of an AHL market (someone with more knowledge can apply my info), but Saskatoon's population is around 246,500 and Regina's is around 215,000. Saskatoon's arena capacity is 15,195 and Regina's is 6,484. Don't be fooled by Saskatoon's capacity though, that arena is not "NHL-ready". From what I have heard, the arrival and success of the NLL's Rush has highlighted how flawed/outdated the arena is with those big crowds. It is also beginning the "quickly approaching end-of-useful life" stage and all the politics that brings.

Third issue I could see arising would be having people from Saskatchewan/Roughrider fans become fans of a Calgary/Alberta team, a bit similar to the Abbotsford situation. A Sportsnet survey from a couple years ago listed the Jets as the favourite team in Saskatchewan with 36% of the vote, followed by Toronto with 14% and Montreal with 7%.

I don't know, I'll miss the T actually being the bone and I almost think the new bull looks worse.

Also I don't know if the new wordmark reads as T-Bones to me because of the placement of the T. It looks more like it should be for the Texas Bones or the Tulsa Bones or "wherever starting with a T" Bones (you know, minus the Kansas City across the top).

1 hour ago, Dante_X said:

Chicoutimi Saguenéens from the LHJMQ were force to change jersey after the first period of their game against Saint John Sea Dogs

Do we know why?

One thing I always forget about but like whenever I remember it, is that the Bruins use the players full names on the retired number banners. Robert G. Orr, Cameron M. Neely, Raymond J. Bourque.

42 minutes ago, wildwing64 said:

 

And here's me thinking it was a reference to the Angels' Rally Monkey

See that would have made sense, but I honestly didn't even make that connection until right now reading your post.

I have no idea what my name means or why I chose it because I accidentally signed up for the CCSLC when I was 12 when I was trying to get an account for commenting on the mothership and then proceeded to forget about it. When I actually tried to create an account here back in 2013, my email was already in use because of this account. But at this point I've had this account name so long and I don't really want to have to come up with a new one.

Monkeys aren't even my favourite animal.

In turns out the Calgary Canucks also went retro for the game, and the rematch tonight, but for the Canucks retro means last season’s jerseys.

The Drumheller Dragons of the AJHL had a throwback night to the Drumheller Falcons, who played in the AJ from 1971-76, then a three year leave of absence and then 1979-83.

The Calgary Roughnecks raised their 2019 championship banner on Saturday. (There hasn't been an "official" picture of all three banners together, so this is just one I found on Twitter).

It's an improvement over the first two because it doesn't look like the logo was cut out by a toddler with safety scissors.

Also interesting to note after looking up the seasons, the 2003-04 and the 2018-19 banners have those dates because both those seasons started in late December so the seasons took place over both sets of years, while the 2009 season started in early January and only took place within 2009. 

Calgary Roughnecks 2019 NLL championship rings.

The NLL unveiled their new, current championship trophy in 2018, so the trophies on the side of the ring with 04 and 09 are technically wrong.

Did Anaheim pay them to change to Anaheim? I always thought it was attributed to Disney.

Again, the whole thing is stupid because the team doesn't even fully commit, so there's very little references to Los Angeles outside of in the media, boxscores and in opposing stadiums when they are on the road, which is I guess what Arte wanted. They aren't addressed by "Los Angeles" by the PA announcer in Angel Stadium. None of their merchandise (outside of throwback) says "Los Angeles Angels" on it, instead going with "Angels Baseball" in places where other teams have "(Geographical Identifier) (Team Name)". None of their logos or jerseys (outside of throwback) reference LA, with their roundel also going with "Angels Baseball".

When the Ducks signed a new contract with Anaheim last year to stay in the Honda Center until 2048, the contract requires that the Ducks will keep their name, and Anaheim's position in it, for the duration of the contract.

On 12/11/2019 at 6:39 AM, McCarthy said:

And 2016 was a GD joke with the U23 North American team who, yes, were very fun and made the Greg Wyshinskis of the world rock hard, but it cannibalized the national team for USA so you had a lot of fans in the states lose interest when our hamstrung team went 3 and out.

Ever since I was a kid watching the Olympics and the World Juniors, it has been always been my dream to put on the maple leaf and represent my country roman numerals and represent my specific age group within my continent.

"Is that a banana coming out of your pants, or are you happy to see me?"

2 hours ago, Gothamite said:

 

 

 

 

Yeah I worded that poorly.

1 hour ago, Brian in Boston said:

As far as West Coast League operations are concerned, the organization that impresses me is that of the Victoria HarbourCats. No, there's not a lot of "whimsy" on display at Royal Athletic Park, but talk about a team that's created an impressive following. Over the course of seven seasons, the HarbourCats have built-up their average attendance to over 2,300 fans per game, which - again - is pretty amazing given the fact that the city and metro area population in the market is a fraction the size of that which exists in Portland.

But, when it comes to identifying collegiate summer baseball's "equivalent of the St. Paul Saints", the closest you're going to find are the Madison Mallards. In 2001, their inaugural season in the Northwoods League , they finished fourth in attendance, drawing just 1,039 fans per game. In their second season, the 1,973 fans per game that they averaged was good enough to lead the league in attendance. Since earning that honor in 2002, the Mallards have yet to cede the Northwoods League attendance crown to any other ball club. In the 2003 and 2004 seasons, the Mallards drew over 4,400 fans per game. In 2005, they exceeded 5,000 fans per game, pulling in an average crowd of 5,738. The 2006 Northwoods League season saw the Mallards average crowd size rise to 6,056. Over 11 of the next 13 seasons, the Mallards' attendance would exceed 6,000 fans per game. The high mark over the past 13 seasons was 2015's 6,358 fans per game. The "low" was an average of 5,884 in 2010. In all, the Madison Mallards have averaged 5,474 fans per game over their 19 years of existence. On the field, the Mallards have won four division titles, qualified for the playoffs eight times, advanced to the Northwoods League Championship Series on four occasions, and won the league championship twice. Any way you slice it, that's impressive.

Another team that could be discussed, that I think many people might not know about, are the Okotoks Dawgs of the WCBL up here in Canada. They are my team, so I am a bit biased.

They began as a youth travel team program in Calgary in 1996 and started the collegiate team in 2003. They ran into issues in Calgary in 2005 when the Vipers of the Northern League (than Golden League) started and the Dawgs were forced out by the Vipers and suspended operations for the 2006 season. They then moved about half an hour south to Okotoks for the 2007 season at a stadium built specifically for them.

Them being forced out of Calgary was probably the best thing for them. They've been top three in attendance for all of summer collegiate for the past couple seasons and have been top five since 2011, which is as far as I can find on Ballpark Digest. (Obviously, this is helped by the fact they draw from Calgary, which I would have to assume is one of the biggest cities in a summer collegiate market). They've continued to build on the youth program (they're top U18 team was ranked the third best travel team in North America last season) and their stadium and field house are highly regarded. Meanwhile, the Vipers folded after the 2011 season.

They just won their fifth championship last season, with four in Okotoks and one in Calgary.