Nationals Uniforms to be Unveiled

[M59]

Look for whatever city (other than Washington) to hold a Linda Cropp Bobblehead night as their first promotion after they get the Exponationals!

The DC "government" could not organize a one-car funeral!

[GeorgesL]

CCSLC get together at Olympic Stadium in 2005! (Then again maybe not)

I'll bring the Molson!

[KennyRock]

Ah, good point - I'd heard that Arizona didn't like the idea of playing in the AL, but I did not know it was ion their franchise agreement. If you get San Diego to switch instead, you could have Seattle-Colorado and Arizona-San Diego in scenario 1, and Seattle-Las Vegas and San Diego-Arizona in scenario 2. None of those matchups are that good, and San Diego's switch to the AL would be hard to justify, that's for sure.

[dfffd61]

what about san antonio and the alamodome as an option?

[thegame4219]

Look for the "Nats" to look for a east coast home to prevent a re-order of divisons

[TruColor]

I realize this isn't an original thought, but I suspect this latest move is a strong-arm position by the MLB to get the D.C. folks to break.

I think we'll still see the Washington Nationals next season, and for the future.

(but then again, I thought my Arizona Cardinals might have had a chance this year)

[RickV]

what about san antonio and the alamodome as an option?

Sadly the Alamodome cannot be configured for baseball. It has been thrown out before, here in SA. We dont have any facility that is MLB ready. The only baseball stadium we have is for our AA team, and it only seats about 8000 people.

[The_Admiral]

Sadly the Alamodome cannot be configured for baseball.

Well I think you're not trying hard enough. Besides, we can't have San Antonio lose the mystique of being a one-sport town.

[amare32]

I realize this isn't an original thought, but I suspect this latest move is a strong-arm position by the MLB to get the D.C. folks to break.

I think we'll still see the Washington Nationals next season, and for the future.

(but then again, I thought my Arizona Cardinals might have had a chance this year)

I tend to agree. I don't think there's time to prepare a viable alternative in time for 2005, although one could argue the Expos situation hasn't been viable for at least 2 years.

There's time to get this straightened out. Both sides are playing "hardball" at this point. I read the Washington Post online on a daily basis. There's some pretty good coverage of the situation there, if you're inclined to read it.

Mayor Williams is pisssssssssed! He was convinced Council Member Cropp was gonna get onboard in light of the concessions he'd secured from MLB -- community investment, expanded rights for the city to use the stadium, a limitation on liability for the city if the stadium was not ready by 2008. But she claims that MLB "regurgitated" its position on the question of public/private financing and that issue prompted her move to amend the financing proposal.

I think DC remains the best fit for MLB. If cooler heads can prevail, I think there's time and motivation enough to cut a deal. Time will tell.

[TBGKon]

hmmmm....east coast town, the only ones I can think of this late at night are Norfolk, Buffalo, Charlotte, and maybe Memphis (but that ones a stretch)

[jonkj]

One, baseball becomes kind of like football, where AFC-NFC matchups are peppered into the schedule like normal games ... and even the casual fan would be annoyed the Interleague matchups he wants to see are scattered through the year.

Two, and more importantly, you don't want teams playing interleague opponents in September with divison titles on the line..

In response....

1) Wouldn't there be enough opponents within your league in-between interleague matchups that it would hardly be noticeable? Let's say the Blue Jays play the Phillies for a series. Then, wouldn't the Blue Jays play a bunch of series against AL teams until another NLer comes up? It could be weeks in-between.

2) This might be a moot point since the schedules are already unbalanced and different BECAUSE of interleague play. For example, the Cubs always play the White Sox, while the Cardinals always play the Royals. The schedules that these teams play while vying for the same division are ALREADY different. Same thing for wild-cards. We have teams like the Angels and Red Sox battling for one wild-card slot when their schedules are already quite different. I don't think one interleague game in the league per day would be more harmful than that.

You make solid points, though. Nice debate. Thanks.

[JamesCraven]

You know, this was supposed to be a thread about the intro of the Nats' uniforms. However, when someone at a sporting goods posted a pic of the home and away uniforms, this became in due time sports' answer to Watergate.

[Mac the Knife]

Diamonbacks will not play in the AL, ever. It was a condition of their franchise agreement when the ownership group was granted the expansion franchise. Thye paid an extra 10 million or so for it.

Actually not entirely true - Colangelo got a proviso in the deal that said the DBacks wouldn't be realigned out of the NL West prior to 2001. Now today if it came down to it, particularly since Colangelo is on his way out and the new owners probably wouldn't object as much, it could happen.

[Mac the Knife]

Look for whatever city (other than Washington) to hold a Linda Cropp Bobblehead night as their first promotion after they get the Exponationals!

The DC "government" could not organize a one-car funeral!

IF they get the team, look for this woman to get the ever-lovin' crap kicked out of her on Opening Day by some "fans."

Either that, or she doesn't show up there at all. This woman seems possessed to see her political career is ruined apparently.

[Mac the Knife]

hmmmm....east coast town, the only ones I can think of this late at night are Norfolk, Buffalo, Charlotte, and maybe Memphis (but that ones a stretch)

Raleigh'll get picked before Charlotte if it came down to it. Raleigh has a history of supporting minor league teams, while the Charlotte Knights allegedly can't draw flies, losing millions of dollars a year since the Panthers were born.

[Puckguy14]

You know, this was supposed to be a thread about the intro of the Nats' uniforms. However, when someone at a sporting goods posted a pic of the home and away uniforms, this became in due time sports' answer to Watergate.

Well reason being, the unis were supposed to be unvieled today, then suddenly that was canceled because of the DC vote about the construction of a new ballpark. Welcome to Ballparkgate.

Cropp apparantly is considering running for mayor soon, so this can be a political thing too. And for baseball fans in DC, Cropp is going lose more than the D-Backs did this year.

Hey what about the 162-game roadie for these guys? Didn't the Montreal Royales of the now defunct Canadian Baseball League do that?

[amare32]

Diamonbacks will not play in the AL, ever. It was a condition of their franchise agreement when the ownership group was granted the expansion franchise. Thye paid an extra 10 million or so for it.

Actually not entirely true - Colangelo got a proviso in the deal that said the DBacks wouldn't be realigned out of the NL West prior to 2001. Now today if it came down to it, particularly since Colangelo is on his way out and the new owners probably wouldn't object as much, it could happen.

Actually, that's not true either. There was a window during which MLB could have compelled the Diamondbacks to move to the AL. If memory serves, that window closed before the 2004 season. Now that MLB has no power to require the switch, for all intents and purposes its an impossibility, as Arizona considers itself an NL franchise w/ NL rivals. They'll never move voluntarily.

[Mac the Knife]

Diamonbacks will not play in the AL, ever. It was a condition of their franchise agreement when the ownership group was granted the expansion franchise. Thye paid an extra 10 million or so for it.

Actually not entirely true - Colangelo got a proviso in the deal that said the DBacks wouldn't be realigned out of the NL West prior to 2001. Now today if it came down to it, particularly since Colangelo is on his way out and the new owners probably wouldn't object as much, it could happen.

Actually, that's not true either. There was a window during which MLB could have compelled the Diamondbacks to move to the AL. If memory serves, that window closed before the 2004 season. Now that MLB has no power to require the switch, for all intents and purposes its an impossibility, as Arizona considers itself an NL franchise w/ NL rivals. They'll never move voluntarily.

Uh, Amare? I have copies of the DBacks and DRays franchise agreements with MLB. I can quote the provision confirming the restriction until 2001 if you'd like...

[KennyRock]

jonkj  Posted on Thursday, December 16th, 2004 - 02:18:10

 

QUOTE (KennyRock @ Thursday, December 16th, 2004 - 02:34:25)

One, baseball becomes kind of like football, where AFC-NFC matchups are peppered into the schedule like normal games ... and even the casual fan would be annoyed the Interleague matchups he wants to see are scattered through the year.

Two, and more importantly, you don't want teams playing interleague opponents in September with divison titles on the line..

In response....

1) Wouldn't there be enough opponents within your league in-between interleague matchups that it would hardly be noticeable? Let's say the Blue Jays play the Phillies for a series. Then, wouldn't the Blue Jays play a bunch of series against AL teams until another NLer comes up? It could be weeks in-between.

2) This might be a moot point since the schedules are already unbalanced and different BECAUSE of interleague play. For example, the Cubs always play the White Sox, while the Cardinals always play the Royals. The schedules that these teams play while vying for the same division are ALREADY different. Same thing for wild-cards. We have teams like the Angels and Red Sox battling for one wild-card slot when their schedules are already quite different. I don't think one interleague game in the league per day would be more harmful than that.

You make solid points, though. Nice debate. Thanks.

Well, under the alignments I made, every team would play 6 interleague series. 28 weeks in the Major League season... you'd play an Interleague game every month. That's a fair enough point. And I'm for Interleague play, but I like it in the current system, where the entirety of the playing time is in June. It gives it a special classification, where everyone sees it as something different AND it doesn't get lost in the huge MLB season.

For the second point, though imagine this scenario: You're the Chicago Cubs, and the Texas Rangers take 2 out of 3 games from you in late September, and you go on to lose the division by a half-game. I think that would get a lot of people angry, including the Cubs. The whole reason September is so exciting is that a club, with the exception of one, maybe two series plays the entire month solely against their division. Take that away, and you'll get divisions decided in late August, and there'll be no real pennant race. How great was it when the Angels-A's AL West race came down to the finals series of the year? The chances of that happening are less if Interleague games are played in September.

[FiddySicks]

hmmmm....east coast town, the only ones I can think of this late at night are Norfolk, Buffalo, Charlotte, and maybe Memphis (but that ones a stretch)

Raleigh'll get picked before Charlotte if it came down to it. Raleigh has a history of supporting minor league teams, while the Charlotte Knights allegedly can't draw flies, losing millions of dollars a year since the Panthers were born.

accually memphis would be a very good choice for a team, because as far as i know, memphis and sacramento are the only two cities that have minor league baseball parks that are designed to be "officially" expanded in case they ever got a major league park. and although other parks have the possibility to be expanded, these two were built specifically for this purpose,and both memphis and sacramento are big enough to support major sports franchises. look at the grizzlies and kings.