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Major League Baseball In Providence


09/21/38

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It's probably not practical, but building a ballpark on one of the state house surface lots would be ideal. It seems like there's a lot of square footage (pending further investigation). It would be within walking distance of downtown, walking distance of the train station, all the Charles Street and North Main Street buses let off right down the hill, and you can construct it so that you have either views of the state house or downtown (probably more so downtown since I would imagine that most ball parks are oriented with homeplate in the North and the outfield South). Some challenges would be the run off into the Moshassuck River and land acquisition (private ownership would be ideal because the state would get the cash and have property added to the tax roles). Just my $0.02.

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Now that the Fenway yahoos have finally won a couple, I can say - without fear of a mob beating - that I've been a Mets fan since...well pretty damn long. I was in Che Stadium in 1969. If the pitcher doesn't hit, it ain't baseball.

But I will be righteously pissed if the Revs have to go from being second banana at Gillette to second banana at Cianci Stadium. Also, MLS would not be too pleased (maybe). All new teams needed to have a soccer-specific stadium, so they said. Except the new team in Seattle will play at Quest, and there's no talk of a new stadium there.

It's just plain embarrassing to host a playoff game with freakin' football lines all over the place. (True fact: there was an international friendly double-header in September, I think, and the Krafts laid an entire natural grass field (required) on top of the striped flubber the Pats play on.)

Whaler-dude, the problem with Hartford is that population rapidly drops of to the north and west. Draw a circle with a 75-mile radius around Hartford and you'll see the problem. Given the density patterns, PVD really is situated in the right place.

But I disagree with MLBs assumption, if in fact this is all accurate. More teams will only water down an already watered down sport.

Far better would be to adopt the European 'relegation' system where the worst few teams drop to the league below replaced by the best from the minors. Pittsburgh Pirates = AA at best. Buffalo Bisons would be in the Bigs, as would the Pawsox.

That, of course, would be a complete shift in "business" plans. If you don't know, MLB is one of the few Congressionally-sanctioned monopolies in the US. It is illegal to make money playing baseball unless sanctioned by MLB. As a result, the players are commodities that move up and down the 'farm' system, all of it serving the top team. Curtis Flood's basic argument that won him (and all MLB players) free-agency was the MLB was essentially slavery.

In the relegation structure, the teams move up and down based on their merits. Anybody can start a 'club,' and enter at the lowest level. Good management and perseverance brings teams to the highest heights. I think they call that a free market.

MLB is best described as National Socialism, IMO.

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Let me add a bit to the fire. I have two aquintances in MBL (Yankees and Rays). The Tampa Bay Rays barely sustain themselves in St Petersburg (35 miles from Tampa) in a 2.4 metro. PVD would draw on a 1.6M metro and a bit of Boston (maybe 3.4M more)...looks good.
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Far better would be to adopt the European 'relegation' system where the worst few teams drop to the league below replaced by the best from the minors. Pittsburgh Pirates = AA at best. Buffalo Bisons would be in the Bigs, as would the Pawsox.
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It's not so much you get a mob beating... it's more we just stare at you with a funny look and just wonder... why? Most of the hatred and mob beating is reserved for the Yankees fans, and there seems to be quite a lot in R.I.

Anyhoo... I think PVD is a bit too close to Boston and too involved in Red Sox Nation to be landing a team of its own. And if you're not entrenched with the Red Sox, you are with the Yankees. Providence metro area could possibly support a team, and it would be cool to have, but the question is... about how many people would actually watch it? And where would this team come from to move to Providence?

At least with the Mets coming into the league, there were the fans of the Giants and Dodgers that had a void once those teams left to California. The Mets was... alright, here's your NL team back. Providence doesn't have the same situation.

The European relegation system would be awesome... but too bad it would never happen

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Anyhoo... I think PVD is a bit too close to Boston and too involved in Red Sox Nation to be landing a team of its own. And if you're not entrenched with the Red Sox, you are with the Yankees. Providence metro area could possibly support a team, and it would be cool to have, but the question is... about how many people would actually watch it? And where would this team come from to move to Providence?

At least with the Mets coming into the league, there were the fans of the Giants and Dodgers that had a void once those teams left to California. The Mets was... alright, here's your NL team back. Providence doesn't have the same situation.

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All of the cities you list have major problems when it comes to attending an outdoor event. In Portland it rains to much in April and May. Charlotte can't keep a minor leaque baseball team going plus this is NASCAR territory, San Antonio would be as bad or worse then Arlington in the summer as far as the heat and in Salt Lake they couldn't sell beer at the game. And the temp. there is regularly in the 90's in July and August.

None would match the fan base in New England.

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