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| A scorecard from days when Sox called Milwaukee home |
Some
suspect that if this plan occurs, it’s just a scam by which Montreal (which lost
its ballclub to Washington, D.C. following the 2004 season) can reclaim a slot
in the major leagues.
WHILE
OTHERS CLAIM it would be unprecedented chaos. Total mayhem would be wracked
upon baseball operations. Where will the ballplayers live? Envision the massive
taxation that will be incurred by the players?
What
would you even call the team? What would their identity be?
All
of which I find to be silly, largely because baseball has something of a precedent
in this area. Think back to the late 1960s just after the Braves fled Milwaukee
for Atlanta.
For
1968 and 1969, the old Milwaukee County Stadium that once had star players like
Hank Aaron, Eddie Matthews and Warren Spahn (all Hall of Famers) at their peak,
the home team became our very own Chicago White Sox.
WHERE
EVENTUAL BREWERS owner Bud Selig (a Hall of Fame executive) convinced the White
Sox to transfer a share of their home games to Milwaukee. Literally 9 games in ’68
and 11 in ’69 – or one game against each of the other home teams in the
American League those two seasons.
It
literally meant ballclubs in Chicago had to take a bus trip one day each season
to Milwaukee to play a ballgame. With Seattle Pilots pitcher Jim Bouton recalling
in his 1969 book “Ball Four” about his confusion over which city he was playing
in – and him making it out to the ballpark that night only a half-hour before an evening game time.
Some
were convinced it was part of a scam to get the White Sox to move to Milwaukee –
although the Sox remain in Chicago, and it became the Pilots, a 1969 expansion
ballclub, that wound up making the move to the land of cheese heads.
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| What coudda been; da Sox in Tampa! |
For
the White Sox, they kept their home identity, representing the Sout’ Side of Chicago
even for those 20 games (out of 162) they played in Wisconsin those two
seasons.
SO
I EXPECT it would be that the Tampa Bay Rays would keep their identity, even while
playing games at the old Olympic Stadium in Montreal – which would be the interim
facility used until a permanent ballpark could be built.
As
for those who think that people of the Tampa/St. Petersburg metropolitan area
would be getting cheated out of their team, I sort of find their attendance
woes amusing.
Yes,
it seems that Florida people like spring training baseball, which is played at
a cheaper cost. But the actual expense of supporting a major league ballclub
during the season seems to be over their heads – so to speak.
And
that is the market, in fact the very ballpark, that the White Sox themselves
were prepared to leave Chicago for back in 1988 – which only failed to come
about when then-Gov. James R. Thompson managed to pull off a political deal
that still leaves some Illinois legislators miffed. The one that resulted in
the state picking up the cost of building the structure now known as Guaranteed
Rate Field.
WITH
A LEASE offering up favorable-enough financial terms that the White Sox manage
to meet their bills – even in those years when their attendance levels plummet.
And when they do draw, they make “big bucks” off their fan base.
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| Le stade that housed Bruce Jenner's Olympics greatness would like another taste of Major League baseball |
In
fact the only good thing that came about by the demise of the Expos was that it
meant the return of baseball to the national capital – which went from 1971 to
2005 without a team of its own. Unless you regard nearby Baltimore is a part of
D.C.
Although
it has me wondering if an eventual move from Tampa/St. Pete means an opening of
that market – with some fans clamoring nostalgically for a return of the Rays.
Although I’d argue the name would have to be restored to its original full “Devil
Rays” – the trim truly was one of the silliest moves that baseball ever made.
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