The 2023 Baseball Thread

[simmytbone]

Hey guys,

It was a GREAT Night for the City of Angels, but not so much for the Big Apple

Ohtani OWNS the Judge while Clayton Kershaw gets win #200

Angels def. Yankees in Yankee Stadium and the Dodgers SHUTOUT Mets in Dodger Stadium

Here are the Stories:

Ohtani homers 100 years after Babe, leads Angels over Yanks
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/gametr...30418_LAA@NYY/

Kershaw wins No. 200 in style as Dodgers blank Mets 5-0
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/gametr...30418_NYM@LAD/

[biffbronson]

That's pretty shocking, for Oakland to lose both the Raiders and the A's. "Las Vegas A's"? That would take a long time to get used to.

Originally Posted by opus

Duster76, biffbronson, do either of you have a team you root for?

Fan of the Pirates for many years, but with realistic lack of expectations (lol). I also want to see the Cubs & White Sox do well.

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by opus

Duster76, biffbronson, do either of you have a team you root for?

I guess you could call me a retired or inactive Yankee fan. I grew up rooting for them but really got turned off by the current owner Hal Steinbrenner, if the Steinbrenner family would sell the club I might start following the team again.

[Duster76]

MLB wants to expand placing 16 teams in each league which will lead to yet another expansion of the postseason to 8 teams in the AL and 8 teams in the NL. This brings us around to the announcement that the A's have purchased 43 acres of land in Las Vegas. MLB wanted the dual problems of the A's and Tampa Bay solved by the close of business in 2023, one problem has now been solved. Tampa Bay will either have a stadium commitment by the end of the year or they will be lost to either Montreal or Nashville. The one joker in the deck, believe it or not is Salt Lake City which is in the mix for an expansion team, the city could jump ahead in line and make a play for the Rays. Once the Rays situation is settled MLB can make plans to expand in either 2025 or 2026.

[Yong Fang]

How much does it cost to go to a baseball game? How much are the tickets?

I have only been to one MLB game in my life when I was in sixth grade, my small private school in Memphis (for some odd reason) decided to do a school trip to St Louis with the 4th, 5th and 6th grade going. This was in 1979, 44 years ago to the month (the trip was either in April or May) and at least the 6th grade kids went of not everyone, so a minimum of about 13 kids and a maximum of about 30. I don’t remember any of it at all except the roof of the Cardinals stadium, and that I think the Cards played the Pittsburgh Pirates which looking back doesn’t make sense since the Cards were NL and the Pirate AL. Was their inner league back then? I don’t think so.

I wonder how how much tickets back then was. We were a group so there must have been a discount. Even if tickets were like $5, that would have been $150-200 dollars in 1979 money which would have been upwards of a $1000 dollars now. Considering that probably most of us kids could not have cared less about baseball. I was so young, I was scared about going up the St Louis Arch. How do the elevators work? Wouldn’t they curve over? Looking out the windows gave me vertigo also, take me down from this thing.

I still have a stock joke to anyone I am introduced to who is from St Louis…”Do you still have that art deco thing on the river?”

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by Yong Fang

How much does it cost to go to a baseball game? How much are the tickets?

I have only been to one MLB game in my life when I was in sixth grade, my small private school in Memphis (for some odd reason) decided to do a school trip to St Louis with the 4th, 5th and 6th grade going. This was in 1979, 44 years ago to the month (the trip was either in April or May) and at least the 6th grade kids went of not everyone, so a minimum of about 13 kids and a maximum of about 30. I don’t remember any of it at all except the roof of the Cardinals stadium, and that I think the Cards played the Pittsburgh Pirates which looking back doesn’t make sense since the Cards were NL and the Pirate AL. Was their inner league back then? I don’t think so.

I wonder how how much tickets back then was. We were a group so there must have been a discount. Even if tickets were like $5, that would have been $150-200 dollars in 1979 money which would have been upwards of a $1000 dollars now. Considering that probably most of us kids could not have cared less about baseball. I was so young, I was scared about going up the St Louis Arch. How do the elevators work? Wouldn’t they curve over? Looking out the windows gave me vertigo also, take me down from this thing.

I still have a stock joke to anyone I am introduced to who is from St Louis…”Do you still have that art deco thing on the river?”

Well a couple of housekeeping issues before I begin:

The Pirates are in the National League always have been. 1979 was the "We Are Family" season for the Pirates they won not only the NL pennant but went on to beat the Orioles in the World Series after trailing the series 3-1. This was the second time in history the Pirates accomplished that feat, they first accomplished it in 1925. It was also the last season the Pirates won the World Series!

The second point, St. Louis played at the original Busch Stadium in 1979, while it was a multipurposed stadium but it had no roof.

The last major league game I attended was in 2018 at Minute Maid Park in Houston, attending was a last minute decision so I purchased the tickets at the box office, I paid about $176 dollars for a party 7, unreserved grandstand behind home plate. Where they really get you at these parks is the concession stands, I know someone who went to a Yankee game in 2013, it was a night game on a cold evening in early May, he went with his son, he purchased two 12 oz hot chocolates, he paid $9.50 each, $19 bucks total! That's nothing short of price gouging, it's disgraceful. The fact that public money goes into building these parks and the teams are allowed to get away with such consumer ripoffs infuriates me to no end.

[opus]

Originally Posted by biffbronson

Fan of the Pirates for many years, but with realistic lack of expectations (lol). I also want to see the Cubs & White Sox do well.

Yeah, Pirates almost won 100 in 2015 and then quickly dropped off in the following years.

I always thought in Chicago someone was required by law to only choose one or the other.

[opus]

Originally Posted by Duster76

I guess you could call me a retired or inactive Yankee fan. I grew up rooting for them but really got turned off by the current owner Hal Steinbrenner, if the Steinbrenner family would sell the club I might start following the team again.

I’m a current Yankees fan. Just there for the team and the sport. Don’t really care who’s paying the bills. (I do know a bunch of people who hate Brian Cashman though).

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by opus

I’m a current Yankees fan. Just there for the team and the sport. Don’t really care who’s paying the bills. (I do know a bunch of people who hate Brian Cashman though).

You know one more, I agree with the people you know who hate Brian Cashman. At some point I don't blame Cashman as much as I blame Hal for continuing to employ him, he's failed, he should have been held accountable years ago.

[biffbronson]

Originally Posted by opus

I always thought in Chicago someone was required by law to only choose one or the other.

There's a lot of truth to that in Chicago I believe. But I've always lived in Indiana, so I've considered myself exempt in a way, and I like both. However I will say that I know of ardent White Sox fans in Indiana who are close to the Illinois-Indiana border and they have a pretty deep hatred of the Cubs.

My dad was a Cub fan for many decades and I've seen tons of their games on WGN-TV over the years. The sting of 1969 remains to some extent.

As far as the Chisox, I've met Hawk Harrelson briefly, well-known as the Sox play-by-play announcer -- his wife's extended family are members of the same church as I am, and reportedly Hawk lives right in my area (a long commute to Chicago).

[opus]

Originally Posted by 1960'sTVfan

Last years A's team that finished with a 60-102 record is looking like a team of champions compared to the mess that is this years squad, unless they start playing better as the season goes along I think there is potential they could lose 130 games or more.

And as time goes along, the team relocating to Las Vegas is looking increasingly likely, I imagine there will be some news regarding that situation in the fairly near future.

Oakland A's say team is moving to Las Vegas after signing deal to purchase land for new stadium

[biffbronson]

There have been several examples in MLB history of teams moving from the west eastward, where historically the reverse has been far more common:

> St. Louis Browns move east to become the Baltimore Orioles
> Milwaukee Braves move east to become the Atlanta Braves (their 3rd city)
> Seattle Pilots move east to become the Milwaukee Brewers
> Oakland A's move east to become the Las Vegas A's (their 4th city)

The Montreal Expos moving to D.C. may qualify, but I don't know the geography.

With the A's now calling their 4th city home, that may well be the MLB record (Phila/KC/Oakland in the past). The old Washington Senators have a complex history entwined with the Twins & Rangers, but even that mess I think involved only 3.

[opus]

Originally Posted by biffbronson

Fan of the Pirates for many years, but with realistic lack of expectations (lol)

Pirates have the best record in the National League. I figured I should post that quickly, before they don’t.

The Pittsburgh Pirates Have The Best Record In The NL

[TJ]

Tigers/Phillies and White Sox/Yankees postponed because of poor air quality caused by smoke from Canadian wildfires. It looks like a scene in Blade Runner or Night of the Comet.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...dian-wildfires

Embedded Tweet

[opus]

With Aaron Judge on the lL, Yankees could use another couple of weeks of apocalyptic smokeouts.