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pmoehrin

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Everything posted by pmoehrin

  1. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being pulling the trigger on the move, and 1 being having internal about the possibility of a move, the Giants moving to Tampa comes in at a 9.8 The NL owners voting the move down 9-4 is the only thing that stopped it. The framework of the deal to sell the team to Vince Naimoli was not only in place, the paperwork was being drawn up to be signed. The owners’ vote was the last major hurdle the deal had to clear before being finalized. If the vote had gone the other way, the Giants would have been playing in Tampa Bay starting in 1993.
  2. He was, and his cheapness is what led to this deal. He basically agreed to put up 100% the team’s revenue over the next 30 years as collateral for a free stadium. But if you don’t intend to own the team for 30 years, what difference does it make? The downside of the deal was always intended to be the next guy’s problem.
  3. There is. It would cost the Rays about $200 million for each year the Trop goes without a tenant. To leave the Trop now, the Rays would have to give the city of St. Pete $1.6 billion. This is why the Rays are effectively locked into playing at the Trop for the foreseeable future. Blame Vince Naimoli for signing this crazy lease agreement. This is the only lease in sports where the terms of breaking it are this onerous.
  4. The Rays can talk to Montreal all they want, but the city of St. Pete has already announced any potential move like this violates their lease agreement. I doubt the Rays are going anywhere until at least 2027.
  5. I don't get it. I could understand if using the LA name actually made a difference to the bottom line. But as far as I can tell, in every case where its been tried, it doesn't. Around 13 million people live in the LA metro area. Out of that 13 million, only about 4 million actually live in Los Angeles. That means more than 2/3rds of the residents in the LA metro area DON'T live in Los Angeles. It also means a team could do just as well playing immediately outside of Los Angeles as they could in downtown LA. But by using the LA name, you risk pushing the very same fans you're trying to attract away. And for what? For some vein notion that Los Angeles is the only city in the area that matters? It strikes me as going out of the way to attract a fan that likely isn't coming regardless of what the team goes by. They had it right with California Angels. It perfectly reflected their identity as a suburban team trying to attract LA sports fans who don't live in LA. Every name change since has been a downgrade from the one preceding it.
  6. The area around the foul poles is going to be narrow no matter what. The one thing you could do with the upper deck is to take out some seats next to the tunnels, and have those section(s) of the concourse open to the field. That would allow you to bring the concourse closer towards the field and would give you a little extra room to work with. The Royals did this in two areas of Kauffman in the last renovation. It’s not as good as a modern design, but it would be better than status quo.
  7. The current outfield situation is almost irrelevant because that part of the park would be completely redesigned, likely dropping capacity in the process. The scoreboard alone would necessitate this. Anything that's in the main grandstand that can be moved to the outfield or outside the park, I would move it. Once I had an idea of how much extra concourse space I have to work with, then I would look into the areas you're referring to and figure out how we can make changes. If stuff is to be moved out of that section of the park to somewhere else, it needs to have a place to go. If that's not enough, then you would likely have to tear down the exterior wall and move the park out more into the parking lot. At that point, you might as well just build a new ballpark IMO. Basically, I would want to do a simpler version of the Wrigley Field renovations.
  8. I have never been to Angel Stadium, so take a lot of what I’m saying with a grain of salt. Anyone I’ve ever talked to that has been has never been disappointed, but never blown away either. Again I’m not getting too detailed with renovation plans, but I would want to keep at least 70% of the ballpark as is. Aside from the Big A scoreboard, most every other change I would want to make wouldn’t be noticeable to an outsider. Deisgn wise the park is fine. I just think you could shift some things around park, such as moving the team store out to the outfield. That would open up more concourse space which the stadium doesn't have a lot of compared to more modern stadiums. Again, I’ve seen more ambitious projects with more obstacles get done.
  9. I've never been, but it reminds me of a lot of Citi Field in the sense that its perfectly serviceable ballpark, but I could picture all 30 MLB teams playing there. There doesen’t seem to be much personality to the place, and I agree with the notion that the Angels present themselves almost as if they're ashamed of their history. If it were me I would bring back a modernized version of that Big A scoreboard and put it back out in left field for starters. Honestly, that was about the only distinguishing feature of the park that didn't make it look like a cheaper version of Dodger Stadium. I would also lose the rocks out in left field. It looks like a landscaping demo. There are other things I would do as well, but I'm not getting too in-depth on a project that's never coming to fruition. Let's just say I've seen teams do more ambitious renovations with less to work with.
  10. You would be trading in the biggest pro of staying in Anaheim has over Long Beach which is land. I would also agree with Gothamite’s assement that the land has more value to the Angels as a parking lot than any potential development.
  11. Probably at least a decent chance of that happening. Location wise there’s nothing wrong with where the Angels are right now. That alone makes their situation drastically different from what the Rays and A’s are going through. Staying put is also the cheapest realistic option, and therefore probably the most likely scenario. I think Long Beach could work. It’s just going to have a very expensive price tag attached to it, which I think the Angels will balk over.
  12. That's how I would recommend using the land if I were in Disney's shoes. If they were going to incorporate the park with that land, my guess is they would have done it when they owned the Angels. Instead, they operated them as separate entities, and I would assume there were good reasons for that. They would probably have to buy up a lot of the surrounding land to use it as a theme park, but that doesn't mean there aren't at least half a dozen other potential projects for the area that Disney could utilize in conjunction with the park.
  13. That's basically what the city told the team during the lease negotiations and the Angels threw a fit over it. A Disney expansion is just one option of what you could do with that land. You look at what's around there on a map, you could justify building almost anything there. If the Angels leave, whether it be Disney or somebody else, the city of Anaheim is not going to be at a loss for finding potential developers.
  14. The footprint seems a little on the small side, but aside from that, I can't find any criticisms to offer on it. If you're going to go to Long Beach, that's where you would want to go without question. In terms of accessibility and built-in infrastructure, it checks every box anyone could think of. I wouldn't even bother considering any other location in Long Beach if it were me. But as I said before, the Angels are not the only ones with that location marked off as a potential development spot. We'll see what happens going forward.
  15. This is true. The Bay Area is explicitly laid out where the Giants can play and where the A's can play. Technically speaking the Angels could build a new stadium in the Dodger Stadium parking lot if they wanted to. There is a reason Long Beach was the original spot picked out for the Angels. They can still keep the biggest advantage Anaheim has over LA, which is pulling in Orange County residents, but their local fanbase will also jump by about 100k. The question is where do you find the land to build a stadium and for how much? The most logical choice would seem to be right around where the Queen Mary is docked, but the city is not going to be at a loss for developers wanting to do something with that land. The other factor to consider for the Angels is that this is moving about a half hour away from their old stadium. That's going to significantly change the makeup of potential season ticket buyers. That can be a good thing, or it can completely blow up in your face. It sounds like a good idea on paper, but a lot of factors need to line up for this thing to come to fruition and I don't see it happening. I believe local opposition is going to be strong and I think the price tag is going to be too high for the Angels liking.
  16. They should rename themselves the Clippers and let the basketball team keep the Chargers name and identity. It would provide the basketball team with a great new look, and it would give the football team a constant reminder about how much their owner sucks.
  17. A hole in the ground is a better fit for the Chargers than LA is. Up to this point, the Chargers in LA have been an unmitigated indefensible disaster. Not even two years in and the franchise has already resigned itself to being the stepchild team. It may go down as the worst and most short-sighted franchise move in pro sports history before all is said and done.
  18. I will be stunned if the Angels leave Anaheim simply because no other market would give them a better option. A stadium deal is sweet, but long-term it's your market size that matters the most, especially in a sport like baseball where so much of the revenue comes from local television. I always hear people bring up how the Browns moving to Baltimore is a move that shouldn't have happened. From a fan's perspective this is an easy argument to make, but from a financial one, the move to Baltimore long term has made the franchise more valuable. The lousy move from that time I don't understand is Bud Adams moving the Oilers from Houston to Tennessee. Regardless of what the stadium situation would have been in Houston, its the sixth largest metro area in the country. Where do you think you're going where you're getting a better situation than that? For the last decade or so, the Texans have consistently been one of the ten most valuable teams in the NFL, while the Titans have been one of the ten least valuable teams in the NFL. Once Houston built a new stadium and made it a level playing field with Nashville, it's not even close regarding which market you own an NFL team in. It's much the same I see with Orange County. The only other market I could see matching Orange County would be Northern New Jersey. That will never happen because of the Mets and Yankees territory rights over the area. After that its a tossup between Portland, San Antonio, Austin and Charlotte as I see it. To a lesser extent Vancouver and Montreal. Possibly even Mexico City depending on the circumstances. But in every case, I would much rather stay put in Orange County than take a chance on any of these places regardless of the stadium they were presenting.
  19. He and his buddies did a great job of covering his ass. They never found his clothes from that evening and the murder weapon was clean of any DNA. Everyone knows Lewis did something that night, but nobody can definitively say what. Scream enough motivational advice at enough people mixed in with some Jesus references and how it’s “for the kids” and people will start to think you’re actually a good person after awhile. Worked for Jim Brown minus the screaming part.
  20. One thing about Reinsdorf you will hear from most anyone that has worked for him is that he is very loyal to the people around him. Neither the Bulls and White Sox have a lot of turnover and that’s the way Jerry likes it. So when you do get drama, a lot of I think is Reinsdorf trying to keep everyone happy without getting rid of anyone. The Bulls dynasty effectively ended because he wouldn’t fire Jerry Krause. But everyone forgets Krause had been with the Bulls since ‘85. You add that part of the equation in and Reinsdorf’s stance to keep Krause suddenly makes a bit more sense. He wasn’t keeping around some no name executive he hired yesterday. Whether or not it was the right decision is a different story altogether. I’m not saying it’s a good or a bad thing. It’s just what it is. Loyalty is a double edge sword. It can save you just as well as it can burn you and there’s plenty examples of both in Reinsdorf’s tenure.
  21. Harrelson was not the first GM to have a manager forced on him that he didn't want and didn't hire. But he is the only one I can ever recall all but openly complaining about it to the media before Spring Training ended. It was a red flag that pointed to someone who didn't know how to deal with being put in a difficult situation, but there were plenty of other reasons Harrelson’s GM tenure was just one year. The idea of having two pitching and hitting coaches with contradicting philosophies. Trying to turn Carlton Fisk into a left fielder. Trying to overhaul the front office with loyalists. (Why current Red Sox GM Dave Dombroski was fired) The fact that Harrelson was all set to fire La Russa's replacement Jim Fregosi after the '86 season which would mean the White Sox would have been on their fourth manager in less than two years. There is nothing positive to be said Harrelson's tenure as GM. He was an outside the box thinker in all the wrong ways, didn't know how to handle adversity and was more interested in golf than the necessary due diligence of day to day operations.
  22. He wasn't the worst play by play guy I ever heard. From from it, several of the best calls in baseball over the last 50 years have come from him. I loved the fact that he didn't talk like every other announcer which is one of my knocks with present-day announcers because they're all trained to sound exactly the same. That said, Hawk could be unbearable to listen to at times. His criticism of Sabermetrics is the baseball equivalent of a scientist questioning the existence of global warming. Nobody working in a front office is questioning the usefulness of advanced statistics as an evaluation tool and hasn't in quite some time. What's ironic is that for all his criticism of modern front office decision making, his tenure as White Sox GM was an unmitigated disaster. People think that all you need to be a good baseball GM is just knowing the sport. But that's only half of it. The other half is knowing how to deal with people and who to hire to carry out your philosophy. In this aspect Hawk was maybe the most clueless GM in major sports history over the last 40 years. He grated on virtually everyone in the organization to the point where if Harrelson didn't leave as GM, a third of the front office was going to quit. The relationship he had with Tony La Russa is the ugliest I've ever read between a GM and a manager. Hawk was not shy about telling the media that La Russa was being forced on him by Reinsdorf and that was before the season started. The two didn't speak for nearly a decade after Harrelson fired La Russa. Although the two have since patched things up, that should be all you need to know about how well those two got along with each other. A funny side note from that is that one of the managers on Harrelson's short list to replace La Russa was Billy Martin. Obviously, he wasn't hired and to my knowledge never even interviewed for the position, but I could only imagine the headlines and news stories about those two egos trying to coexist. I'll miss Hawk the announcer, but I am not going to miss Hawk the personality.
  23. Reminds of someone I know. Guy talks more smack than anyone I know, but the second you try to answer back he just goes into the corner and cries. Almost literally in some cases. So if you want to be friends with him, you just have to let him rip on you constantly and not say anything back, because if you do say something, he can't handle it. Not a whole lot else you can really do. Needless were not really friends anymore, but if its a similar situation I can definitely sympathize. I wouldn't be sad to see someone like that go either. Someone that outspoken and that sensitive is bound to get on anyone's nerves at some point.
  24. Yeah that's just an entry error on my end. It's supposed to be Twins and RedHawks. Just forgot to switch it over on the spreadsheet. If that's all anyone has though, than I think good as far as AAA is concerned.
  25. Based on the feedback I've gotten so far I added in a 75 mile territory rule and updated the AAA affiliates to be as follows: Haven't added it in yet for AA, but again open to any and all feedback on both. Team MLB Affiliate Akron RubberDucks Cleveland Indians Albuquerque Isotopes Kansas City Royals Birmingham Barons Atlanta Braves Buffalo Bisons Toronto Blue Jays Charlotte Knights Washington Nationals Colorado Springs Sky Sox Colorado Rockies Columbus Clippers Pittsburgh Pirates Durham Bulls Baltimore Orioles El Paso Chihuahuas Arizona Diamondbacks Fort Wayne TinCaps Chicago Cubs Fresno Grizzlies Los Angeles Dodgers Frisco RoughRiders Texas Rangers Indianapolis Indians Chicago White Sox Iowa Cubs Minnesota Twins Jacksonville Suns Miami Marlins Lansing Lugnuts Boston Braves Las Vegas 51s San Diego Padres Lehigh Valley IronPigs New York Yankees Louisville Bats Cincinnati Reds Nashville Sounds New York Giants New Orleans Zephyrs Tampa Bay Rays Norfolk Tides Brooklyn Dodgers Oklahoma City Dodgers St. Louis Browns Omaha Storm Chasers St. Louis Cardinals Pawtucket Red Sox Boston Red Sox Reading Fightin Phils Philadelphia Phillies Reno Aces Oakland Athletics Richmond Flying Squirrels New York Mets Rochester Red Wings Montreal Expos Round Rock Express Houston Astros Sacramento River Cats San Francisco Giants Salt Lake Bees California Angels Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders Philadelphia Athletics Tacoma Rainiers Seattle Mariners Toledo Mud Hens Detroit Tigers West Michigan Whitecaps Milwaukee Brewers
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