2025 MLB Thread

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Westheim

If you're anywhere near New York and still have two arms attached to your body, I know a pair of baseball teams that will hold open tryouts for fresh pitching talent this month still!

What's this insistence upon two arms? Jim Abbott did alright (technically, he was missing a hand, not an arm) and Pete Gray wasn't bad, either. I would take either of those dudes right now.

EDIT: Yeah, yeah, Pete Gray was an outfielder. I'd still give him a tryout on the mound in this situation!

[Westheim]

I support the inclusion of fully one-armed pitchers, and since everybody gets their own custom rule now anyway, also the inclusion of a designated fielder with a glove that crouches in front of the mound as the pitch is thrown by the gloveless one-armed pitcher.

No, the designated fielder can not also be the designated hitter, stop being greedy!

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Did anyone get the new Texas Rangers New Era cap before it was taken off the "shelves"?

Originally Posted by CONN CHRIS

Those designs are worse than bad and that one was hilarious. Time to clean house in the 'creative' department.

LOL! I just ran across what this is about. People get paid a bundle for their creativity but, alas, not their common sense.

Here are a few other "winners," compliments of The Athletic:

The Houston Astros hat reads “Ashos.” C'mon, can't we just get over 2017?

And,

This is the second time in as many years that New Era has produced a stylized MLB hat with unfortunate results. Last year, the company made an Athletics hat that appeared to read as “A’ss.”

This is my favorite, though. I was just admiring Ariana Grande at the Oscars the other night.

Does she remind you of Audrey Hepburn, or what?

[Amazin69]

Calm yer bazongas, people. The issue with the New Era "Overlap" caps isn't that the Rangers' accidentally contains the Mexican slang for "honkers", it's the designs in general are, well…ass.



I mean, come on. What's this supposed to be, a traffic accident?

ETA: It ain't no better across the Throgs Neck Bridge, either, folks:



Philly is a bit closer to the concept, but it still looks like an over-used art department stencil:



And seriously, haven't the White Sux suffered enough?

[Déjà Bru]

I read that last hat as "Those ChiSox need a kick in the pants to get going! "

[Cobra Mgr]

Tampa Rays chose to not go forward w/new stadium plan.

At this point, the team needs to be sold. I don't think this group & the city could ever trust each other again.

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Tampa Rays chose to not go forward w/new stadium plan.

At this point, the team needs to be sold. I don't think this group & the city could ever trust each other again.

Also they’re going to be playing their games in the 11,000 seat spring training home of the Yankees, which they’ll scramble to redesign once the Bombers fly up to New York. It’s incredible. I never thought anyone could mess up their ballpark situation worse than the A’s(s) but somehow the Rays are gonna do it.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

I never thought anyone could mess up their ballpark situation worse than the A’s(s) but somehow the Rays are gonna do it.

Let's look at some facts. The state of Florida ranks third in population with around 23 million people.



Here are the MLB franchise locations in eastern U.S.A. No crowding in Florida, as you see elsewhere.



The distance between Tampa and Miami is 283 miles (admittedly not as the crow flies).



On the other hand, the distance from Tampa to the next nearest MLB city is 456 miles (more like the crow flies).



My point is this: I have always viewed Florida as "a" (if not "the") cradle of baseball, with its clement climate (between hurricanes) and its relative nearness to other cradles of Hispanic baseball; i.e., Mexico, Venezuela, the Dominican, and even Cuba. According to Census.gov, 27.4% of Floridians are Hispanic/Latino.

Why is it, then, that a baseball team in Tampa is not capable of doing a landslide business in selling professional baseball, enough to finance its own stadium? Especially since their nearest competition are the Miami Marlins who are not paragons of corporate management either?

This is an honest question. I have been puzzled by the poor performance of both MLB teams in Florida for quite some time now.

[kq76]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Why is it, then, that a baseball team in Tampa is not capable of doing a landslide business in selling professional baseball, enough to finance its own stadium? Especially since their nearest competition are the Miami Marlins who are not paragons of corporate management either?

This is an honest question. I have been puzzled by the poor performance of both MLB teams in Florida for quite some time now.

I've never been to Florida, but my guess is it's really hot and humid and would you really want to be stuck somewhere like that for 2-3 hours? I live in Vancouver and even here I feel way too hot sometimes. Sitting in a ballpark in Florida sounds like absolute hell to me.

It's also my understanding that a lot of people who live in Florida are transplants from elsewhere and so their allegiances are probably with other non-FL teams. Personally, I'd pick a local team to become a fan of, but if your local team doesn't keep their best players for long, I can see how it'd be tough to stay a fan.

Besides that, for the seniors who move to Florida, they presumably moved there to partake in outside activities like golfing or fishing. Watching baseball probably just doesn't rank all that high up in the list of options there.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Also they’re going to be playing their games in the 11,000 seat spring training home of the Yankees, which they’ll scramble to redesign once the Bombers fly up to New York. It’s incredible. I never thought anyone could mess up their ballpark situation worse than the A’s(s) but somehow the Rays are gonna do it.

Pretty much all the Pathetics have done in, around, and outside their sewage-speckled dump of a ballpark was self-inflicted though. Can't exactly blame the Traveling Tampas for the hurricane taking the cover off their live-in dumpster.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by kq76

It's also my understanding that a lot of people who live in Florida are transplants from elsewhere and so their allegiances are probably with other non-FL teams. Personally, I'd pick a local team to become a fan of, but if your local team doesn't keep their best players for long, I can see how it'd be tough to stay a fan.

I think the bold is a lot of it. You might change teams, but not sure most would. Imagine being a Cubs, Cardinals, Yankees etc. fan for 50+ years, that's hard to let go of. Plus you are now out of market and can watch them live with the MLB package from your airconditioned condo. Unless they play Tampa, Miami, and maybe Atlanta(black out?).

If you are a NL fan and live around Tampa your team plays three games there every other year. AL and live near Miami, same thing. So every other year you may go to see your team play. Tampa runs a pretty good operation and is competitive with their young players, but they can't keep them. Kind of sucks following a club like that. Miami? Well they're Miami.

I'm a Cubs fan and live about 9 hours from Chicago. Used to make a yearly trip to take in a series, but haven't since the interleague plays everybody every year. The Twins are about 3 hours from me, and the Royals about 3 hours from my son's house. He's a Cubs fan too. They play the Twins on odd years, and Royals on even years. We get a hotel each summer and take in those series. Last time we went to Wrigley was before covid. If I lived near Tampa I'd see the Cubs when they were in town, and go to Miami on the off year.

[mytreds]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Why is it, then, that a baseball team in Tampa is not capable of doing a landslide business in selling professional baseball, enough to finance its own stadium? Especially since their nearest competition are the Miami Marlins who are not paragons of corporate management either?

This is an honest question. I have been puzzled by the poor performance of both MLB teams in Florida for quite some time now.

Because the state is full of retired folks going on cruises and young college kids on spring break /s

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Let's look at some facts. The state of Florida ranks third in population with around 23 million people.

Attachment 1053523

Here are the MLB franchise locations in eastern U.S.A. No crowding in Florida, as you see elsewhere.

Attachment 1053524

The distance between Tampa and Miami is 283 miles (admittedly not as the crow flies).

Attachment 1053525

On the other hand, the distance from Tampa to the next nearest MLB city is 456 miles (more like the crow flies).

Attachment 1053526

My point is this: I have always viewed Florida as "a" (if not "the") cradle of baseball, with its clement climate (between hurricanes) and its relative nearness to other cradles of Hispanic baseball; i.e., Mexico, Venezuela, the Dominican, and even Cuba. According to Census.gov, 27.4% of Floridians are Hispanic/Latino.

Why is it, then, that a baseball team in Tampa is not capable of doing a landslide business in selling professional baseball, enough to finance its own stadium? Especially since their nearest competition are the Miami Marlins who are not paragons of corporate management either?

This is an honest question. I have been puzzled by the poor performance of both MLB teams in Florida for quite some time now.

At this point I think I wouldn’t even question it too much and just accept for now that Florida and summer baseball don’t mix. Clearly they support other sports and clearly they do well in March but for whatever reason - a lack of allegiance to a local team because fans aren’t locals, stadiums that don’t really account for the relatively poor weather for fans, etc - they just don’t draw, especially not in the Tampa Bay area, which is, granted, a midmarket metro area by pure population.

I like some of the idea of moving to Riverside / the Inland Empire although I suspect that would have some of the same issues that Tampa Bay does with the decentralized sprawl (California is a way better environment to sit in the sun for 3 hours though). If not there, there are lots of other potential cities: Montreal, Vancouver, San Jose (especially now that the As are gone), even a 3rd team in NY/New Jersey…

[Amazin69]

Rather odd to think that all of "the South" (other than Florida) has no team other than the Braves.

Whereas…

NFL: New Orleans, Nashville, Charlotte (and also Jacksonville)
NBA: New Orleans, Memphis, Charlotte
NHL: Nashville, Raleigh

I wonder why MLB has been more reluctant to explore this area of the country than the other leagues have been?

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Rather odd to think that all of "the South" (other than Florida) has no team other than the Braves.

Whereas…

NFL: New Orleans, Nashville, Charlotte (and also Jacksonville)
NBA: New Orleans, Memphis, Charlotte
NHL: Nashville, Raleigh

I wonder why MLB has been more reluctant to explore this area of the country than the other leagues have been?

Well, one of the things that I have heard here (and thanks to all for the responses) is that "It's hotter than hell in Florida in the summer." True, and that explains why the NBA and NHL are okay with their indoor arenas. The NFL plays in the fall and winter. Only MLB would have to slog through the hot months.

But until Hurricane Milton perforated the roof, Tropicana Field was air-conditioned. You would think that fans would flock there just for some (albeit expensive) relief. Sure, they can stay home and be AC'ed for much less money. My point, though, is that the hot and humid Florida summers should not have been an impediment to MLB in that state from the 1990s onward.

So, catching (myself) up on this,

The Rays' current ownership has stated that Tropicana Field does not generate enough revenue, and that its location in St. Petersburg is too far from the Tampa Bay area's primary population center in Hillsborough County. Rays attendance has historically ranked among the lowest compared to all MLB teams including seasons following a playoff berth. Rays attendance at Tropicana Field slightly improved in two seasons following playoff berths between 2008 and 2013 but dropped in two other seasons following playoff berths in the same span. After the Rays earned the best AL record in 2010, average attendance in 2011 dropped by 4,100 per game. In 2019 the Rays average attendance was 14,552 per game.

Here is a map of Hillsborough County:



According to Wikipedia, "In the 2020 census, the population was 1,459,762, making it the fourth-most populous county in Florida and the most populous county outside the Miami metropolitan area." If it wasn't for Tampa Bay (the body of water), Hillsborough County would be nearly a perfect square, 36 miles to a side. From the farthest point in the northeast of the county to St. Petersburg is only 45 miles (as that proverbial crow flies).

But probably not a whole lot of the 1.5 million county residents live that far out. Of course, the vast majority would be living in or near the city of Tampa.

One source says the Channel District is the "downtown" of Tampa. A ride by car from there to Tropicana Field is about 23 miles and takes less than half an hour:



So, I cry "B.S." to Tampa Bay Rays ownership and management about that logistical excuse (which, by the way, ignores the quarter-million folks living in St. Petersburg and who knows how many more in Clearwater and other towns north of St. Pete). Even when the team is winning and goes to the playoffs, they fail to attract fans and must beg for public assistance. My response would be "If you can't get fans to travel a half-hour to your stadium, what makes you think a fifteen minute drive will do so much better?"

[kq76]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

...

But until Hurricane Milton perforated the roof, Tropicana Field was air-conditioned. You would think that fans would flock there just for some (albeit expensive) relief. Sure, they can stay home and be AC'ed for much less money. My point, though, is that the hot and humid Florida summers should not have been an impediment to MLB in that state from the 1990s onward.

...

While I'm sure people who like heat would probably roll their eyes at this, if you don't like heat, it's also about the getting there in the heat and then feeling gross while there. And if the Rays are so cheap with their players, how cheap are they with their a/c?

There's also something about seeing baseball outside, without a dome. I don't know how to explain it, but somehow it's much more enjoyable in a park with the roof open. I guess it's something about the fresh air and being able to enjoy the sky. Being in an enclosed stadium I can't wait to leave, while in an open park I don't want to leave.

I think the only way to really know why Floridians aren't more into baseball is to ask them. Like you pointed out with maps it doesn't look like traffic should be that bad, but we've heard so many times from people who have commuted to that park that it was terrible so I can only really go on what they say, not what some maps might seem to indicate.

[Syd Thrift]

Yeah I’m not sure that a commute time done outside of baseball games is a super accurate representation of how long it actually takes to get to Tropicana Field. My own experience with Seattle, which is a somewhat similar situation (mostly separated from the Eastside by two bridges although it's possible to drive “around the horn” for a longer but arguably less stressful time) is that actual rush hour and gameday traffic to T-Mobile Park from Bellevue is a slog. And one thing I do keep hearing from locals is that the Rays’ best chance is to have a stadium in Tampa proper…

[Amazin69]

The White Sox have named Sean Burke as their Opening Day starter.



Interesting choice, but after a year like last year, I support the Sox for being willing to think outside the box. (Or the crease, as may be.)

Cobra has your back, I'm sure.

[Westheim]

Is that outside-the-boxier than the Mets' selection of Clay Holmes?

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

The White Sox have named Sean Burke as their Opening Day starter.



Interesting choice, but after a year like last year, I support the Sox for being willing to think outside the box. (Or the crease, as may be.)

Cobra has your back, I'm sure.

Can they do anything worse than what they did in '24?