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MLB Changes 2020


kimball

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from Nine Nations (via archive.org, looks like ol' Joel stopped paying his hosting fees):

 



Somewhere, perhaps below Durant, Oklahoma, we cross the Red River, leave Little Dixie, and are in Texas, on the last lap of the boundary tour.

The problem here is that, as in Indiana, three nations come together, in this case, Dixie, the Breadbasket, and MexAmerica. In Indiana, the lines of force are tough to define because Indianapolis is the place where three nations peter out. Here, however, it's tough because the values of three nations have been and are coming together and clashing with great force and many fireworks.

Here are the facts. East Texas near Louisiana is pure Dixie of loblolly and slash piney woods. Not only is it unlike the rest of Texas by being moist and densely forested; it is poor, it is black and "peckerwood" white, it is isolated, it is suspicious, and it has been so for a long, long time.

South Texas near Mexico is dry, hot, and Spanish. Climatically, geographically, and historically, it belonged to Mexico, and at the rate the Spanish-speaking population is making itself felt, it may again. In the vast King ranch south of Corpus Christi, Hispanic workers do not say they work "for" the man; they work "with" him. It is MexAmerica.

The West Texas hill country is where the chaparral starts. This is the land of Lyndon Baines Johnson, and "outlaw" country-and-western music star Willie Nelson. It is cattle and, farther north into the Panhandle, cotton and wheat. And it is very Anglo.

It is the real home of the great Texas myths about plain-spoken square-shooters. It is the most colorful part of the Breadbasket. These three nations are competing for influence over a triangle approximately 250 miles on a side defined by Dallas and Fort Worth in the north, Houston in the southeast, and San Antonio in the southwest.

Historically, Dixie had the upper hand. Although well into the Plains, Dallas, the cosmopolitan merchant town then at the end of the railroad line, was long considered southern. Not only did it have merchants, gamblers, and prostitutes; it had "society" and "good families" and a fixed sneer for its sister city, Fort Worth. Fort Worth was separated from Dallas by only a few dozen miles and the Balcones Fault, a geological fault of more interest to natural historians than anyone else, but Fort Worth always was either "where the West begins" or "a godforsaken cowtown," depending on who was talking. Breadbasket towns have always suffered from the theory that they're hick.

Meanwhile, Houston, right on the edge of the pines, and only inches above sea level, is a swamp of heat and humidity only an air-conditioner repairman or an oil engineer could love. Dixie had a hold on it because of the climate, location, and opportunity it offered to both poor blacks and whites.

Yet San Antonio was always part of MexAmerica. It has one of the largest Hispanic communities of any city well north of the United States border, and certainly one of the best organized politically. In Mexico, there are a lot of folk who literally think that San Antonio is the most important city in the States.

With the rise of Houston and Dallas as cheerfully, obnoxiously arrogant world capitals of glass, steel, and money, the Anglo Plains culture is clearly now dominant in this crescent.

But it's still tempting to draw the Dixie line right down the middle between Dallas and Fort Worth - smack on Runway 17 Left, the main north-south slab of concrete of that improbable megastructure, the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. From there, the boundary heads toward Houston and the Gulf of Mexico.

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

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Fort Worth deserves more love, coming from a resident. It has all the most of the same stuff as Dallas, but with more culture and less traffic. Also people forget that they are the 13th largest city in the US, bigger than San Francisco, Boston, Denver, Seattle, and Charlotte. We deserve a minor league team at least (Ft Worth Cats return!). 

Excellent!

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11 minutes ago, Krz said:

Fort Worth deserves more love, coming from a resident. It has all the most of the same stuff as Dallas, but with more culture and less traffic. Also people forget that they are the 13th largest city in the US, bigger than San Francisco, Boston, Denver, Seattle, and Charlotte. We deserve a minor league team at least (Ft Worth Cats return!). 

Teams don't really get awarded to cities as much as metropolitan areas and TV markets. So yes, Fort Worth is big, but it's generally considered to be territory covered by the Dallas teams.

 

I'm sure there are exceptions to this rule. All the noise about Hamilton deserving a NHL franchise despite its proximity to Toronto being one of them. 

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Just now, gosioux76 said:

Teams don't really get awarded to cities as much as metropolitan areas and TV markets. So yes, Fort Worth is big, but it's generally considered to be territory covered by the Dallas teams.

 

I'm sure there are exceptions to this rule. All the noise about Hamilton deserving a NHL franchise despite its proximity to Toronto being one of them. 

Yeah I agree, an nba team in Fort Worth would be stupid. That’s why I said minor league baseball, something that’s pretty city specific.

Excellent!

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2 minutes ago, gosioux76 said:

I'm sure there are exceptions to this rule. All the noise about Hamilton deserving a NHL franchise despite its proximity to Toronto being one of them. 

 

It's more that the GTA could pull off a second team, and Hamilton is the place with the arena right now. It's assumed their territory would be coterminous with Toronto's (Ontario minus Belleville and points east, Thunder Bay and Kenora shared with the Jets).

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

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56 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

I'd say New Orleans would be the furthest west portion of the Southeast, specifically because all of Texas falls under the Southwest geographically. Granted Texas doesn't even like to be considered to part of anything other than itself in most things. A&M peeps won't even consider themselves part of the Southeast even though they are members of the SEC. 

 

I'd say Houston is a transitional point between the southeast and a transitional gradual hillside leading to the southwest. The east side of the Houston metro area is wooded and the smaller towns on the outskirts are very much like similar sized communities you'd find around the southeast. We have the same hot and humid weather as the rest of the gulf coast. Dont get me wrong, its still texas therefore different than much of the southeast, but in my college Texas Geography class it was presented that all of texas east of I-45 could be considered SE.

 

As far as A&M people not considering ourselves as part of the SE....well I wouldnt say College Station is like the SE as far as terrain goes as there arent any pine woods. Enough of the students are from Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin that it makes it a Texas melting pot where you dont just get the texas small town students that would have made it seem more "southeastern" in culture 70 years ago.

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1 hour ago, Krz said:

Yeah I agree, an nba team in Fort Worth would be stupid. That’s why I said minor league baseball, something that’s pretty city specific.

I think that could work. Especially because the MLB is trying to make the St. Paul Saints an MiLB team, despite the Twins playing just across the river

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1 hour ago, Maroon&Gold said:

I think that could work. Especially because the MLB is trying to make the St. Paul Saints an MiLB team, despite the Twins playing just across the river

It could, but there are 3 other minor league teams in the area currently: Frisco (AA), Grand Prairie (AAIPBL), and Cleburne (AAIPBL). Fort Worth has had minor league ball in the past, but its a very crowded market with the MLB team being 18 miles away. Not that the proximity has stopped other minor league teams from existing

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11 hours ago, gosioux76 said:

That brick-and-black Astros set was a stark example of a franchise confused by its own brand. 

 

A franchise that started out with an Old West theme (Colt .45s) switches to a Space Age them (Astros) and 30 years later adopts uniforms that try to accomplish both at once. There aren't many visual themes that are more different from one another than the Old West and Space. 

No. That was a BS, Nike-esque narrative/story concocted by their huckster owner to mask the fact he changed the team's colors to be closer to his trucking company's red and black colors. Drayton McLane was, is, and always will be a con artist, and it was a great day when he sold the team.

 

I'm not a fan of the Astros current home wordmark, but the road wordmark is pretty close to previous road sets. Overall, I'm satisified, given they're are back in rightful navy and orange colors and with the H star.

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8 hours ago, Maroon&Gold said:

I think that could work. Especially because the MLB is trying to make the St. Paul Saints an MiLB team, despite the Twins playing just across the river

 

For the Twins I think making the Saints a MiLB and somehow getting them in AAA would be a fantastic move.  I feel like attendance would be enormous and travel time for players called up/sent down would be non-existent.

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I see the saints being a AAA team, as it would make some good sense in terms of location. I think the Twin Cities would be able to handle it, they almost sell out of their games anyways! As long as they can keep their somewhat silliness. 

 

Otherwise put them at single A or AA if there are less restrictions. I dont know too much about how the minors work.

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11 hours ago, Gothamite said:

Not sure about the Twins having their own AAA club in the market.  Maybe AA would be better - not saying that they have to pull a Brooklyn/Staten Island and go with the lowest level of the minors, but AAA seems awfully high. 

My understanding is that MLB’s desired plan for MiLB contraction includes promoting the Saints to a new midwestern/central AAA league, but I’m not sure anyone knows what the exact details of the plan are right now.

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I've been thinking about this for awhile, and i've gotta say.... i've definitely come around to the new revised Brewers BiG logo.  Originally I hated the changes and wanted them to just keep the old logo, but now... Now, I definitely think the changes were needed.

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I think the Brewers' new identity is great. But it's more that they've finally picked something. The issue was they couldn't decide if they wanted their 2000s look or their old look. At least now they've picked something that should be around for the foreseeable future. Now if only the Padres could pick something.

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11 hours ago, Quillz said:

I think the Brewers' new identity is great. But it's more that they've finally picked something. The issue was they couldn't decide if they wanted their 2000s look or their old look. At least now they've picked something that should be around for the foreseeable future. Now if only the Padres could pick something.

 

Didn't they pick brown and yellow?

Smart is believing half of what you hear. Genius is knowing which half.

 

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