WHITE ELEPHANTS: J.T Ramsay has a plan to revive the moribund Oakland Athletics franchise -- relocate it back to its original home, Philadelphia.
In other Athletics news of interest to the blog, Royce Clayton is playing Miguel Tejada in the Moneyball adaptation, this guy is Alex Rodriguez, and this guy was an extra and wrote about a night at the ballpark with Jonah Hill.
And Parks and Rec's Chris Pratt as Scott Hatteberg?!? That's enough to justify a rental right there.
ReplyDeleteOnly if we also get the Golden State Warriors. All I know of the A's is the 1929 team was the best of all time, and the Phillies were able to win the fan-base because they appealed more to the working class of the city.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that the history of the Braves in Boston has been completely glossed over -- they were far more progressive and fan-friendly than the Red Sox, but to hear it today, you'd think that all of New England was always die-hard Sawks territory, which is just false.
Still, if you're going to move the A's (again) and accept that San Jose isn't an option, what about Portland? It would at least keep a rivalry with the Mariners going. Or else Vancouver. Philadelphia, or any major East Coast city does not lack for a baseball team. If you want to move the team East, you'd have to re-do the divisions (no real problem, imo), but better candidates would be Charlotte or Nashville.
Benner -
ReplyDeleteThe obvious place to move the A's, if you can't keep them in Oakland, seems to be Sacramento. The town is a pretty good supporters of the Kings, Raley Field's grounds (AAA River Cats) has plenty of room to build a full size ballpark right by downtown, and you still keep a fair amount of the fan base from the Bay Area in tact.
The interview suggested -- and I have no way of knowing this but it makes sense -- that any venue in California is out because of state budget issues. If they were to move to a minor league stadium in the short term, why not just stay in Oakland? As far as San Jose goes, wouldn't a ballpark there also create a horrible traffic nightmare? But I suppose it is where the money is (or was). I sort of like the idea of keeping the cross-bay rivalry going as much as possible, but the larger point is that we don't want the team in Philadelphia. The idea that the Phillies even half-fill the stadium is a recent phenomenon, and another baseball team would just hurt he Phillies' finances, and we're not exactly a moneyball style operation.
ReplyDeleteNot sure we can also handle another sports team that routinely makes the playoffs and then blows it, looking at you Andy Reid.
But on the plus side, Philadelphia would get an AL team. Even better, it would be an opportunity to finally do a proper re-alignment of the NL & AL division problem; A's move to the AL East, Toronto (as the team located the furthest west) moves to the Central, and the Royals move to the West. Then the Houston Astros move to the AL West from the NL Central and bing bang boom, you have six divisions with an equal amount of teams and the Cubs don't have to worry about the possibility of being in 6th place anymore.
ReplyDeleteWhy not just move the Astros to the AL East. It balances the division, and instant rivalry with the Rangers. I assume other people have suggested this.
ReplyDeleteNo, you need to keep the leagues at 16/14; otherwise there's always an interleague game every day.
ReplyDeleteThat would be fine if the AL wised up and got rid of the DH.
ReplyDeleteBay Area local here. CA venues are not out and there are some strong contenders that don't empty the public coffers. Portland and Sacramento (and Las Vegas as well) have all been extensively studied and all come up short and I doubt any will happen.
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