MLB Stadium Saga: Oakland/Tampa Bay/Southside

[The_Admiral]

Then why double up on any media market? Move the Mets to Raleigh. Move the Angels to Salt Lake City. Only game in town, baby! What if Nashville just sucks for hosting and televising a Major League Baseball schedule, especially for a team that moved in from somewhere else like everyone else did?

[GDAWG]

 

[Sodboy13]

"Here's Brodie Brazil" was as far as I got and as far as I needed to in that video.

[pmoehrin]

4 hours ago, Cujo said:

Going back 35 years... Would the White Sox have been better off/could they have renovated Old Comiskey into a landmark-type relic, ala Fenway or Wrigley?

 

The baseball fan in me would love it if Comiskey, Tiger, and Old Yankee Stadium were all still standing, but I don't think that's the main issue with the White Sox. The main issue is their owner.

 

Before Reinsdorf took over the team, there wasn't much of a difference in terms of popularity between the Cubs and White Sox. The dynamic of the Cubs being the clear-cut #1 team in Chicago and the White Sox being the #2 doesn't start until the late 90s. The last year the White Sox outdrew the Cubs was 1994, and there were several years in the 90s and 80s when the Sox outdrew the Cubs for the year as well. But we're coming up on 30 years since that last happened. And what's been the only consistent during that time span? It's Jerry Reinsdorf owning the White Sox.

 

Do you know how I know Jerry Reinsdorf sucks as an owner? Because he makes the Cubs ownership group look good by comparison. His greatest accomplishment as a sports owner was lucking into Michael Jordan in the draft.

 

If he owned the Cubs, I have no doubt they would be playing in Rosemont right now, drawing around 20k a game, and probably doing the same fiddling with .500 act the White Sox have been doing for the past 30 years. Just competitive enough to maintain fan interest but not so good that you have to start paying big bucks for star players.

 

They've only gotten to the LCS round three times in the 40+ years Reinsdorf has owned the club and hasn't gotten that far in nearly 20 years. And that's because for the White Sox to make the playoffs in any given year, everything has to break just right for them because when it comes to spending money in free agency or making a big deadline deal, Reisndorf doesn't go for spit. They've only had one player (James Shields) have a season where they made at least $20 million a year. Do you know how many players the Milwaukee Brewers have had? Two.

 

And the fans know it because they've been watching this act play out for over 40 years now. What have the Bulls done since Jordan left? Aside from their little run when Derrick Rose was healthy, the answer is notta.

 

I feel for White Sox fans. They say only the good die young, and by my count, Reinsdorf is one of only four owners in MLB history to own a club for at least 40 years. The other three are Horace Stoneham, Tom Yawkey, and Phillip K. Wrigley. Between the four of them, it's over 170 years of ownership experience and two World Series rings.

[infrared41]

1 hour ago, pmoehrin said:

The dynamic of the Cubs being the clear-cut #1 team in Chicago and the White Sox being the #2 doesn't start until the late 90s.

 

It didn't hurt that every other movie in the 80s and early 90s was set in Chicago and the Cubs were in all of them. Rob Lowe (or something just like him) made being a Cubs fan look cool.

[The_Admiral]

That the Sox fanbase is as geographically limited as it is makes them admittedly a neat oddity of baseball. The only other team that that's the case for is the Islanders. (Topic for another day and another thread, but the Bears really punch below their weight as a national fanbase on both the "Chicago team" and "major-market NFL team" axes.)

 

Anyway, Jerry Reinsdorf just fired his adopted son and a Jewish guy (not an adopted son) from the top of the org chart, so crap, maybe he is cashing out.

 

 

 

[McCall]

9 hours ago, infrared41 said:

 

It didn't hurt that every other movie in the 80s and early 90s was set in Chicago and the Cubs were in all of them. Rob Lowe (or something just like him) made being a Cubs fan look cool.

John Hughes.

[BBTV]

10 hours ago, infrared41 said:

 

It didn't hurt that every other movie in the 80s and early 90s was set in Chicago and the Cubs were in all of them. Rob Lowe (or something just like him) made being a Cubs fan look cool.

[Brian in Boston]

2 hours ago, McCall said:

John Hughes.

“Heeeeey… batta, batta, batta, batta, sssss-wing batta! He can’t hit, he can’t hit, he can’t hit, he can’t hit, he can’t hit… sssss-wing batta!”

[Sodboy13]

2 hours ago, McCall said:

John Hughes.

 

It is here that I feel obligated to point out "Only The Lonely" is a forgotten little film that perfectly captures a certain slice of South Side Irish, down to the baked-in bigotry, the absurdist Catholic guilt tripping, and the ability to Know A Guy in seemingly any situation that arises within the city limits.

[Brian in Boston]

18 minutes ago, Sodboy13 said:

 

It is here that I feel obligated to point out "Only The Lonely" is a forgotten little film that perfectly captures a certain slice of South Side Irish, down to the baked-in bigotry, the absurdist Catholic guilt tripping, and the ability to Know A Guy in seemingly any situation that arises within the city limits.

Maureen O’Hara’s final  theatrical release. And, man… how I miss John Candy. Terrific cast overall, really: Ally Sheedy, Anthony Quinn, Kevin Dunn, Jim Belushi, Milo O’Shea, Bert Remsen.

[RyanMcD29]

9 hours ago, the admiral said:

That the Sox fanbase is as geographically limited as it is makes them admittedly a neat oddity of baseball. The only other team that that's the case for is the Islanders. (Topic for another day and another thread, but the Bears really punch below their weight as a national fanbase on both the "Chicago team" and "major-market NFL team" axes.)

Are the White Sox kind of like the Mets in terms of the geographic and demographic split we have in New York? So like the Mets fanbase is mainly Irish and Jewish or you're from Queens or some of Long Island if you're not in a majority Italian neighborhood (and unsurprisingly the two demographics has a lot of the old Brooklyn Dodger fanbase) while the Yankees pretty much have everyone and everywhere else. Then for the White Sox's case replace Jewish with Black and Queens with the Southside.

[GDAWG]

2 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

Maureen O’Hara’s final  theatrical release. And, man… how I miss John Candy. Terrific cast overall, really: Ally Sheedy, Anthony Quinn, Kevin Dunn, Jim Belushi, Milo O’Shea, Bert Remsen.

 

I had read that if Candy was still alive today, he would do more dramatic stuff and most likely would have followed Bill Murray's path in terms of comedic films (ie appearances in Wes Anderson films).

[leopard88]

15 hours ago, infrared41 said:

 

It didn't hurt that every other movie in the 80s and early 90s was set in Chicago and the Cubs were in all of them. Rob Lowe (or something just like him) made being a Cubs fan look cool.

 

Underrated . . . 

 

[Dilbert]

Then there is this national treasure

[Sport]

Always felt bad for the White Sox growing up because their drought was basically just as long as the Cubs and Red Sox, but they never got any of the same sympathy or cache. And when they finally won a World Series it happened to come the year after the Red Sox and everyone nationally was like "This again? We just did this. *snooze*" Even their name is a boring version of a more well-known brand. This is why I've always kind of liked them. Plus the black and white hats are Top 2 in baseball. 

 

I don't think Reinsdorf is serious about moving or serious about anything. They're the 16th most valuable franchise in baseball where they sit and they have history and tradition you cannot buy. Moving to Nashville would make them the Kansas City A's. Don't move to Nashville. Nobody should. 

[infrared41]

1 hour ago, leopard88 said:

 

Underrated . . . 

 

 

I thought it was pretty solid. These days, it would probably sweep the Oscars - which says more about the current quality of movies than it does about the quality of About Last Night.

[infrared41]

42 minutes ago, Sport said:

Always felt bad for the White Sox growing up because their drought was basically just as long as the Cubs and Red Sox, but they never got any of the same sympathy or cache.

 

Three things always come to mind when I think of the White Sox.

 

All the different uniforms they've had.

 

Knuckleballer Wilbur Wood went 24-20 for the White Sox in 1973. Everyone made a big deal of him winning 20 and losing 20.

 

The SI cover with Dick Allen juggling while smoking a cigarette in the dugout.

 

 

 

 

[spartacat_12]

To keep the John Hughes Cubs train rolling

 

 

[Sport]

7 minutes ago, infrared41 said:

 

Three things always come to mind when I think of the White Sox.

 

All the different uniforms they've had.

 

Knuckleballer Wilbur Wood went 24-20 for the White Sox in 1973. Everyone made a big deal of him winning 20 and losing 20.

 

The SI cover with Dick Allen juggling while smoking a cigarette in the dugout.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm too young to remember the White Sox in red so the first time I saw it on a baseball card I went "WHHHHHHAATTT?" It's still wrong to my eyes. Had a similar experience when I learned the Penguins started off in light blue. Both teams current color schemes seem too perfect for them to have ever used anything else.