What two cities need MLB teams?

[jmowreader]

Any real baseball fan will agree: the Wild Card race is an atrocity...but when you have 30 teams, the only equal division is three five-team divisions in each league.

By adding one more NL and one more AL team, you can create four 4-team divisions in each league...call them North, South, East and West. The playoffs could rotate combinations from year to year to make it fun.

Now...where to put the teams? I think Raleigh, New Orleans, Nashville, Portland Oregon, and Albuquerque would be fine baseball towns.

[SHRED]

1. San Diego...LOL

[bathroommonkey76]

2. Raleigh? Naw, the people in the Triangle area barely support the

Hurricanes right now. I'd say somewhere in the Triad area- in between Charlotte and Greensboro- I believe NC explored this area around the time the Twins were on the market. I'd go to every home game if NC had a team! People here love baseball.

New Orleans would be an interesting place for a MLB team. And so would Albuquerque.

[4139]

3. Miami and San Diego could use Professional baseball teams

😜

[lastlib]

15. I thought they had the best minor-league teams in the Majors.....!

(or maybe I'm thinking Kansas City*......)

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*I live in Kansas City (suburb)--Go ROYALS!!

[4139]

16. Miami and San Diego are the Top....

Of the bottom 2

[shenmue]

4. Maybe New OrleNs or Portland

I lurv baseball.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. No, no, not Albuquerque.

I happen to like very much living in a state with no major league team in any sport. Those who care, can follow whatever teams they like. The rest of us aren't bombarded with it all the time.

I've lived in any number of cities with various major league teams, and the importance placed on them strikes me as totally surreal.

It is so obvious our enemies do not understand the obsession with sports in this country. If they did, they'd have long ago figured out that the best time to invade would be on a Superbowl Sunday, preferably one in which the Redskins (or whatever name they may go by in the future) are playing. No one in the government would notice until after the game has ended, and if the DC team wins, then no one would notice for a week or so.

Lucky for us, our collective obsession with sport isn't well understood out there.

[Coventina]

17. Plus, your minor league team has the greatest name of all time!!!

If you get MLB, it would definitely change.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

20. Yes, it does.

And ABQ would lose that lovely team -- unless the name were transferred to the new MLB team, and that would be a shame.

There's not another city in the state that can properly host a minor league team that's actually affiliated w/ a major league team. Santa Fe, where I live, has one of those totally independent baseball teams. They're reasonably popular here, but this city can't possibly support anything else.

[lastlib]

21. Now you've given it away!

We're all doomed!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

23. I know!

I first figured that out back in the 1970's, when I lived in the DC area, and I noticed how the town was totally obsessed with the Redskins. Including the Washington Post. They'd make front page articles out of the previous Sunday's game. Then they were in a Super Bowl (lost, but that's not important to this story) and I was stunned at the degree to which the entire city shut down that day.

The only thing that came close was the night Nixon resigned, August, 8, 1974. I was working at National Airport, and I can tell you that planes didn't even board, let alone leave the gate while he was speaking. There was almost no one in that gorgeous Main Terminal. They were gathered in the bar that had a TV. We agents were in our break room, directly behind the ticket counter, taking turns keeping an eye on things. Not a single person came up to the counter during Nixon's address. It was pretty amazing.

To this day, whenever I see a replay of that speech, I'm afraid he's going to say, "I'm not a quitter, and I intend to fight this and remain President."

[Initech]

6. I would say AL: New Orleans, NL: Portland

I don't know if the MLBs no Vegas rule is still a thing, but if it wasn't, Vegas would be an option considering they're getting NFL and NHL teams.

[klook]

7. Atlanta.

Last edited Mon May 22, 2017, 03:38 PM - Edit history (1)

Our team moved to Marietta. Fuck 'em anyway -- I don't want a team with a racist mascot. I hope they fizzle and move to Nashville or Charlotte or Portland under a new name.

[wyldwolf]

24. this

[bluedigger]

8. Nashville (AL) and Portland (NL)

I've been to minor league baseball games in New Orleans - it's too hot. People don't do shit outside in New Orleans in the summer.

[GreydeeThos]

9. Not Nashville!

Nashville has the Sounds. It is a good local team where the locals come out and have a good time. The stadium is nothing flashy with a comfortable air about it.

If they went to full Major League pro team it would just ruin it. There would not be any more local politicians making a friendly appearance, no more celebrities mixing in with the spectators, and the price of admission would go through the roof.

Leave Nashville out of it.

[CanonRay]

10. Montreal and Las Vegas?

[jmowreader]

11. I think baseball already failed in Montreal

The Natinals started out life as the Montreal Expos.

I'm a little reticent about baseball in Vegas; after the Pete Rose scandal the likelihood of establishing a baseball team in Sin City is pretty damn low.

I would like to see a hitter-friendly NL park and a pitcher-friendly AL park...problem is, hitter-friendliness takes elevation and the only city that's both high enough to make for plentiful homers and big enough to support a major league team already has one.

[FSogol]

18. No, baseball failed Montreal. In 1982 they had higher attendance than the Yankees.

They should get an expansion team that isn't tied to Olympic Stadium.

[True Dough]

33. Yes and no

Montreal has a core of fans that will support the team but the money factor will probably sink the chances.

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/quebecers-ready-to-spend-taxes-on-transit-but-not-pro-sports-poll

Miss those guys!

[left-of-center2012]

12. Hell no to Albuquerque

Go away.
I live here.

[First Speaker]

13. Charlotte and Portland

[rurallib]

14. Mexico City and Guadalajara

20 million and 5 million respectively.

Why not?

[whistler162]

19. Honolulu and Juneau

[jmowreader]

22. Anchorage would be better than Juneau

The only problem I see with Honolulu is land...anything level enough for baseball already has something on it and five people waiting in line for it.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

25. NL: New Orleans, AL: Portland

NL East
Washington
NY Mets
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh

NL Central
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati
Milwaukee
St. Louis

NL South
New Orleans
Atlanta
Miami
Arizona

NL West
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Francisco
San Diego
Colorado


AL East
NY Yankees
Boston
Baltimore
Toronto

AL Central
Cleveland
Detroit
Chicago White Sox
Minnesota

AL South
Tampa Bay
Houston
Texas
Kansas City

AL West
Portland
Los Angeles Angels
Oakland
Seattle

[rurallib]

30. I think with all the interleague play they ought to ditch the old AL/NL concept

and simply put together 8/4 team divisions based on location. From there they could create some sort of scheduling emphasizing 'best in area.'

I would think a division of:
Boston, NYY, NY Mets and Philly could create some great rivalries.

Or maybe a Miami, Tampa, Atlanta and lets say Charlotte.

then say an upper Great Lakes with Toronto, Detroit, Milwaukee and Minnesota.

or possible an upper Midwest of Chicago Cubs, White Sox, Reds and Pirates.

Will probably never happen.

The two leagues can't even agree on rules for gosh sakes.

[bif]

31. I like your thinking

Sounds pretty cool. But I'm a traditionalist. I don't even like inter-league play and the DL.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

32. I agree!

I think the divisions should be constituted of teams that are very close to each other geographically, but I bet there would be all kinds of complaints about breaking up old rivalries in the process. I was mostly thinking of how to add a couple more teams without too much disruption of the current system.

It would also make more sense to me if the leagues were divided geographically like in the NBA -- i.e., East and West.

I would NOT want them to adopt the lengthy playoff system of the NBA, though. MLB teams already play a 162 game season! I don't like seeing a team with an incredible regular season being forced through a long playoff gauntlet. Another team with a couple great pitchers, but little else to produce a high winning percentage over the course of a season, can easily pull off an upset in a playoff series.

[retread]

36. No. Just No. Ditch interleague play. While you're at it ditch that stupid designated hitter crap!

[rurallib]

37. I agree, but they are making a buck on it so it will never change now

I pretty much quit watching baseball in the 90s when it became obvious that the owners of the game could care less about the integrity of the game when there was a buck to be made.

[Mme. Defarge]

26. Definitely Portland!

[Locutusofborg]

27. Montreal & Portland

Montreal in AL East/Portland in NL West.

[benld74]

28. Imhop talent already too thin

[jberryhill]

29. Ulan Bator and Lagos

[47of74]

34. Omaha and Memphis

I'd be partial to Omaha getting an expansion team. It has a fairly good sized population of about half a million people. And if you take into account Council Bluffs and the surrounding area you'd have nearly a million people. Plus there's several major metropolitan areas (Des Moines, Lincoln, etc) relatively close to Omaha that could also draw in people.

I'd also say Memphis. It has the largest population of Tennessee and is well positioned geographically.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

35. Omaha has a beautiful stadium that's near MLB size that they barely use....

.....other than a few weeks for the College World Series.