Other Options for special MLB games?

[DG_ThenNowForever]

10 minutes ago, DEAD! said:

I feel like the "nostalgia" themes have been done to death. We've had throwback uniforms, "retro"-style ballparks and the like, and now we're throwing back to a movie? What's next? The Natural and Bull Durham themed games? ... yeah, and forget about having "Major League" themed game. 

I get people want to remember a more "innocent" time, like the 20s or the 50s or even the 90s, but I don't want to look back to eras where we had segregation, fighting for civil rights, banning interracial or gay marriage, the Cold War or even the decade after 9/11.  

 

I like this take. Lots of people in the stands and on the field wouldn't have been able to be there if there were an actual cornfield game in the 1910s or whatever.

 

My idea is to go far in the other direction. Blackout the field. Put blacklight reactive tape on everything. Make the whole stadium look like Tron -- let's take advantage of 4K OLED TVs and turn that :censored: out.

[spartacat_12]

If they want to keep the movie theme going, they should try a Hardball game in Chicago near where the movie was filmed. Les Miller Field isn't far, and would provide some great views:

 

 

It would be a completely different vibe from the Field of Dreams, but you could involve some of the inner-city youth baseball teams. The field is pretty close to halfway between Wrigley & Guaranteed Rate, so it would be a good venue for a Cubs-Sox game. They could even get Keanu and some of the other cast members to come out to Big Poppa playing.

[bosrs1]

29 minutes ago, ninersdd said:

How bout Diamondbacks vs Indians/Guardians next year?

 

I mean that would be an easy one to pull off for a game during spring training. Send Cleveland and Chicago down the 10 to Tucson for a game. The Cubs did that for years running up the road to Las Vegas. 

[TBGKon]

1 hour ago, Dilbert said:

My thought is that each team hosts a game each season at their AAA affiliate. We saw MLB return to Buffalo, how about Louisville, Columbus, Worcester? The game in Omaha a few years ago was a success. My other choice would be hold a regular season game at Doubleday in Cooperstown during the Hall of Fame inductions. It works for the NFL preseason in Canton and I know they used to have an exhibition game each year in Cooperstown.

I had a thought aside from this that they could host a game in Durham and do something for Bull Durham.

[GriffinM6]

I'd love to see a summertime game in Alaska between the Mariners and another west coast team. I'm sure they could find some beautiful backdrops. 

[ManillaToad]

 

1 hour ago, ninersdd said:

How bout Diamondbacks vs Indians/Guardians next year?

 

Lol I don't think MLB is gonna be doing any promoting of a movie where Wahoo is basically a minor character

[schlim]

Already in this thread, people have forgotten about the civil rights game in Memphis, where Cleveland? and their opponent wore generic uniforms for whatever reason that was. It may have happened a couple years in a row and it may have just been an exhibition game or two, but is it any different? The Royals (no offense forgetting this one) played in Omaha where the College World Series is played just two years ago, how 'special' was that event? I forgot about the military base one too.

 

it seems like all of this is just silly dress up, feeding off nostalgia. The fact most of the suggestions here veer into movies or other old nostalgia is a weird baseball thing that is the first thing baseball haters accuse baseball of (being too tied into the past, out of touch currently). Field of Dreams is 30 years old already!

 

Go play a game in Venezuela or something, where people would go crazy to see baseball! Leave the corn sentimental  syrup and nostalgia laden Kevin Costner speeches at home. I really don't need to see Tony LaRussa do a Walter Matthau impersonation chugging beer in the dugout and yelling at his players in a fake uniform to enjoy baseball, he's already done enough in that respect.

 

Playing a game in Coney Island to respect Brooklyn's past NL team sounds insane and something that lacks any visual or historical interest. The Elysian Fields where baseball started were built over by Maxwell Coffee probably 80-100 years ago. I don't care to see a game played in the parking lot covered in dirt and grass to honor the game.

 

Cosplay is for comic cons. Play some honest to God neutral site games in different cities if you want to 'grow the game', or at least make a realistic effort to pretend to keep minor league baseball going,  which affects way more people and communities than a one game hosted by Kevin Costner.

 

I'm glad a few thousand people from Iowa were able to watch a major league game in their state, but how about the rest of the time when most if their neighboring teams are blacked out?

 

Ugh. Sorry, rant over. Visually the game looked great in the clips I saw, but the copy of a copy of this game is going to be way worse,  and the copy of that copy, etc....

 

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

The cool thing about the Hall of Fame Game from a uniform standpoint is that, for most of the game's history, both teams wore their road uniforms.

 

From the 1976 game. (Willie Mays was a Met coach at the time.)

 

 

Eventually that tradition ended, as we can see here in the 1984 game.

 

 

 

I'd like to see a yearly game in Hoboken, the actual birthplace of baseball. 

 

Unfortunately, there is probably no adequate venue, unless Major League Baseball would be willing to pay to install a temporary grass field at Hoboken's JFK Stadium.

[DoctorWhom]

As already mentioned, I think a game in Alaska would be pretty cool. Maybe between the Mariners & Blue Jays? 

There's got to be a suitable stadium someone there. But the logistics would be a nightmare I reckon. 

[DEAD!]

I would rather see Alaska host a NHL outdoor game between the Kraken and the Rangers with Russell Crowe at the ceremonial faceoff

[The_Admiral]

6 hours ago, DEAD! said:

I get people want to remember a more "innocent" time, like the 20s or the 50s or even the 90s, but I don't want to look back to eras where we had segregation, fighting for civil rights, banning interracial or gay marriage, the Cold War or even the decade after 9/11.  

 

[Kevin W.]

How about an NBA preseason game at Rucker Park?

[kimball]

I think seeing teams play more “classic games” at old stadiums still standing will be more of a thing. There aren’t many, but what about the Sacramento Kings playing in Rochester or 76ers in Syracuse? Their old buildings are still standing? Or Packers at the old City Stadium?

[BBTV]

2 hours ago, kimball said:

I think seeing teams play more “classic games” at old stadiums still standing will be more of a thing. There aren’t many, but what about the Sacramento Kings playing in Rochester or 76ers in Syracuse? Their old buildings are still standing? Or Packers at the old City Stadium?

 

IDK if pro athletes that are so coddled that they travel with (and diddle) masseuses and make $30M/year want to be going to work and showering in a 50-y/o facility that hasn't been touched and is probably a little grimy, and using the equivilent of HS gym lockers.

[The_Admiral]

I think the Packers do some preseason scrimmages or other tertiary events at old City Stadium.

[Red Comet]

Have the Kings play a few games in Omaha or Kansas City. 
 

Or better yet, have the Grizzlies play games in Vancouver. 

[FiddySicks]

Play a game at Edgewood Golf Course in Lake Tahoe. Have homers land directly in the lake. 

[dont care]

The last thing I want is communities to build these temporary stadiums for 1 off games and they just decay and become monuments of American gluttony and hubris.   

[The_Admiral]

2 hours ago, dont care said:

The last thing I want is communities to build these temporary stadiums for 1 off games and they just decay and become monuments of American gluttony and hubris.   

I'm against monuments to gluttony and hubris, too, which is why I'm so opposed to the Oakland A's moving to Las Vegas.

 

Overall, I'm wary of trying to recreate the magic of this particular game, which it did seem to be, despite the protestations of Julie DiCaro and her ilk. As other people mentioned, there have been one-offs in ~ i c o n i c ~ settings before this game, like some game at Fort Bragg, but no one remembers it. I sure didn't. If this were to become an exercise in making sure every team gets its little pat on the head, it'll wear out very quickly and be far more trouble than it's worth. I don't know, I'm still deeply annoyed by the post upthread that implied that even 2009 was A Big Oof From Me, whatever.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

16 hours ago, dont care said:

The last thing I want is communities to build these temporary stadiums for 1 off games and they just decay and become monuments of American gluttony and hubris.   

I also would not want communities to be saddled with paying for creating venues. That's why, in my fantasy about Hoboken, I mentioned that the temporary conversion of the local high school stadium would be paid for by Major League Baseball.

 

Also, my fanciful comment imagined a Hoboken game as a yearly event, not as a one-time thing. So, in that case, it would not be the taxpayers paying for any kind of monument to greed, but, rather, Major League Baseball paying to stage a commemoration of the sport's origins — which would give the city's residents an annual holiday to celebrate an important part of civic history. The Hall of Fame is in the apocryphal location of baseball's origin; this would be Major League Baseball's acknowledgment of the real location of baseball's origin.

 

For me the same condition must apply to the suggestions of a game in Alaska, or to the other suggestions that we have seen here. The costs ought to be borne by Major League Baseball, not by municipalities.