[MLB] 2023 Major League Baseball Season (MLB Thread)
- Thread starter jwhouk
- Start date
) I still love watching the WBC. There's joy in it from the players that you don't get much in MLB games. Also the uniforms. Regardless of how you feel about their country, China's came to slay.
Wtf? You're a witch!
All right, you all may know about my current situation here in Arizona, and that something is happening one state over that's got a trickle-down effect on my fair city.
The Athletics Baseball Club of the American League has signed two (TWO! ah ah ah ah) separate "binding agreements" to purchase land on the Tropicana Avenue corridor in Paradise, Nevada (aka "The Strip"). The second of these is the actual site of the Tropicana Hotel and Casino on the corner of the Strip (aka Las Vegas Boulevard South) and Tropicana Avenue.
As of this moment, there are no plans, no conceptual drawings, no nothing other than an "agreement" to purchase the property and build a retractable roof domed stadium with hotel space. The first "binding agreement" on the other side of I-15 was for what could generously be called a huge truck stop with a lot of buildings that would be not out of place on the West side of downtown Phoenix (aka "The Zone").
Meanwhile, back where the Ath-a-let-ics are "allegedly" playing their ballgames alongside the 880 Freeway in the East Bay, the city of Oakland has shut down negotiations with the team - while fans and politicians continue to support the Howard Terminal redevelopment project.
What's my place in all of this, you may ask? Well, in case you missed it, there's a reason why I've got an interest in all of this - and I drive past it every day for work.
The trickle-down effect, essentially, is that if the A's finally make their call on what they want to do with their stadium situation - either way - that this will likely lead to expansion talks. That's something Ol' Robbie Manfred has mentioned regularly as the A's and Rays have struggled to get new ballparks. The Rays' recent success has made talk of a new ballpark - albeit just down the road from their current one - more of a reality than Howard Terminal.
Thus we'd get two new teams. The likelihood is that one of them would be in the Western US - which would mean they'd need a spring training site. And boy oh boy, do we have one that needs a major league baseball team in the worst way...
Now, as I've been following the A's (as the "sometime hometown team"), I've become painfully aware of a few facts:
The Athletics Baseball Club of the American League has signed two (TWO! ah ah ah ah) separate "binding agreements" to purchase land on the Tropicana Avenue corridor in Paradise, Nevada (aka "The Strip"). The second of these is the actual site of the Tropicana Hotel and Casino on the corner of the Strip (aka Las Vegas Boulevard South) and Tropicana Avenue.
As of this moment, there are no plans, no conceptual drawings, no nothing other than an "agreement" to purchase the property and build a retractable roof domed stadium with hotel space. The first "binding agreement" on the other side of I-15 was for what could generously be called a huge truck stop with a lot of buildings that would be not out of place on the West side of downtown Phoenix (aka "The Zone").
Meanwhile, back where the Ath-a-let-ics are "allegedly" playing their ballgames alongside the 880 Freeway in the East Bay, the city of Oakland has shut down negotiations with the team - while fans and politicians continue to support the Howard Terminal redevelopment project.
What's my place in all of this, you may ask? Well, in case you missed it, there's a reason why I've got an interest in all of this - and I drive past it every day for work.
The A's spring training facility is located at Fitch Park here in Mesa. They play spring games over at HoHoKam Stadium, which is located less than a mile up the road on Center Street.
The trickle-down effect, essentially, is that if the A's finally make their call on what they want to do with their stadium situation - either way - that this will likely lead to expansion talks. That's something Ol' Robbie Manfred has mentioned regularly as the A's and Rays have struggled to get new ballparks. The Rays' recent success has made talk of a new ballpark - albeit just down the road from their current one - more of a reality than Howard Terminal.
Thus we'd get two new teams. The likelihood is that one of them would be in the Western US - which would mean they'd need a spring training site. And boy oh boy, do we have one that needs a major league baseball team in the worst way...
Now, as I've been following the A's (as the "sometime hometown team"), I've become painfully aware of a few facts:
- They tend to always step in it when they try to do something.
- They tend to go for the cheap - something that goes all the way back to the 1960's and the Coliseum.
- Moneyball was probably the worst thing to happen to the team, as it made them out to be something they're not - a savvy team that spends money wisely. On the contrary, they hate spending wisely and they only want some sort of an edge to make the next buck.
- A new stadium - whether at Howard Terminal, Dean Martin Boulevard, or the Tropicana - will only stem the bleeding.
Boy, lot has gone on since I last posted. Well, here goes:
Back in September of 2004, in the nascent days of the internet, I decided to do something that I really don't regret doing.
I bought a ticket to a game that I had no way of getting to, and had no intention of ever trying to get there to see.
That game was Wednesday, September 29, 2004. The Florida Marlins won the game, 9-1, over the home side...
...who were playing their last ever game as the Montreal Expos. The paid attendance was 31,395 (according to Retrosheet.org), but I know that at least one of those tickets was unused.
It currently sits in with the rest of my sports memorabilia collection, hanging from a frame. (Seats weren't bad, either; $19.50 for section 129, row S - first base line, about halfway up. Inflation says they'd cost $29.30 nowadays.)
Unfortunately - or fortunately, depending on how you see it - I decided to do something similar again.
Thing is, I already had an account with the team I purchased the tickets from. Kinda expected, since they're technically my "hometown" team here in Mesa.
I now have one, single ticket on the top of Mount Davis in Section 242, row 1, seat 4 of the Oakland Coliseum for the September 24, 2023 final home game against the Detroit Tigers.
The note I have seen on the seats while doing a cursory check of the interwebs is: " A country mile from the field with obstructed view of outfield."
It is from about this area where I am not going to be watching what is looking like will be the final game of the Oakland Athletics.
Back in September of 2004, in the nascent days of the internet, I decided to do something that I really don't regret doing.
I bought a ticket to a game that I had no way of getting to, and had no intention of ever trying to get there to see.
That game was Wednesday, September 29, 2004. The Florida Marlins won the game, 9-1, over the home side...
...who were playing their last ever game as the Montreal Expos. The paid attendance was 31,395 (according to Retrosheet.org), but I know that at least one of those tickets was unused.
It currently sits in with the rest of my sports memorabilia collection, hanging from a frame. (Seats weren't bad, either; $19.50 for section 129, row S - first base line, about halfway up. Inflation says they'd cost $29.30 nowadays.)
Unfortunately - or fortunately, depending on how you see it - I decided to do something similar again.
Thing is, I already had an account with the team I purchased the tickets from. Kinda expected, since they're technically my "hometown" team here in Mesa.
I now have one, single ticket on the top of Mount Davis in Section 242, row 1, seat 4 of the Oakland Coliseum for the September 24, 2023 final home game against the Detroit Tigers.
The note I have seen on the seats while doing a cursory check of the interwebs is: " A country mile from the field with obstructed view of outfield."
It is from about this area where I am not going to be watching what is looking like will be the final game of the Oakland Athletics.
Holy shit! Go 'stros!
