People, look East(ern)

Well, as I wrote my last entry, the situation changed pretty drastically. According to Ballpark Digest, Richmond is in line for an Eastern League franchise after all, and will replace the Connecticut Defenders (a San Francisco Giants affiliate, though that contract expires at the end of this year) in the league lineup.

Whether they get the actual Connecticut franchise appears open: minor league entrepreneur Ken Young has requested to move his Bowie (MD) Baysox franchise to Richmond, and then have the Connecticut franchise replace him in Maryland. Young owns four minor league baseball franchises: the AAA Albuquerque Isotopes (PCL) and Norfolk Tides (IL), the aforementioned Baysox, and the High-A Frederick Keys (CL). All but Albuquerque are affiliated with the Baltimore Orioles — in fact, Young abandoned a nearly forty-year relationship between Norfolk and the Mets after the 2006 season to secure the O’s affiliation for the Tides. Bowie holds the Orioles’ AA contract through 2010; whether the Orioles would balk at having their players pulled an extra two hours away from Baltimore is unknown, as is whether Bowie fans would support the new, O’s-less Baysox, since the affiliation has been a cornerstone of their marketing with the ballpark located twenty miles from Camden Yards.

Read More »

Heads Carolina

UPDATE: Overtaken by events. Revised thoughts here.

In all the pre-vacation/Olympics hoopla, I missed a big story. According to Baseball America, Richmond is under consideration to receive a Carolina League (CL) franchise next year. Not an existing one, though — rather, the CL is negotiating to take in two California League (CaL) clubs, then place them in Richmond and another city within the existing CL footprint.

I’m all for it. If Richmond can’t replace the R-Braves with another AAA club, the High-A CL is probably the best option available. Geography complicates a AA alignment: Richmond would be three hours outside the current limits of both the Southern and Eastern Leagues, and though the EL would be most likely, it’s a cultural misfit and thus difficult to build fan-perceived rivalries. (Even with the International League’s more mid-Atlantic base than the EL’s New England-heavy alignment, Richmond’s IL position was still greatly aided by having a Virginia-based partner in Norfolk. Bowie, Maryland wouldn’t do that.) The CL has no such problem, with stable clubs in Salem, Lynchburg and Woodbridge.

Read More »

Wanted: Olympic ringers

I hate agreeing with the IOC on… well, just about anything. But they’re right that without major leaguers, Olympic baseball is second-rate. If the 2016 games are awarded to Chicago or Tokyo (the two front-runners), and baseball and softball are reconsidered, MLB needs to swallow its pride and try the NHL model for a year. (Especially if a Chicago Olympiad would force two teams into a nearly three-week roadtrip anyway.)

Mark Byron offers some suggestions on how to accomplish this: ditch the All-Star Game, push the end of the season back three days, and move spring training up a week. He extends further by suggesting a World Tour of sorts for the first week of the regular season to both market MLB and avoid weather issues for northern teams.

The major logistical issue is travel time. Teams that have played season-opening two-game sets in Japan have generally played them a week ahead — this year, the Opening Series between the Red Sox and A’s took place on March 25-26, with the teams playing exhibitions with Japanese teams in the four days prior, and the teams didn’t resume regular-season play in the US until April 2. Would MLB teams be willing to start spring training by 21 February (earlier for pitchers and catchers), fly to Asia or even Australia on just over 3 weeks’ practice (~14 March), tour a day or two and play a couple exhibition/jet-lag adjustment games, then play a week straight of games and fly home for another 3-4 days of time zone readjustment? I have to wonder.

Read More »

Tripping: Denver/PNW

What would this blog be without random travel observations?

Denver

• Denver International Airport strikes me as a larger-scale, updated repetition of the Dulles model — right down to its location miles away from anything.  Driving Peña Boulevard must be what the Access Road felt like 40 years ago, before development transformed northwest Fairfax County.
• That said, every terminal at DIA is nicer than even Terminal B at Dulles.  Starting from scratch in the modern era helped DIA do terminal design right, baggage systems aside.
• False economy, thy name is Advantage Rent-A-Car — and the TV blaring Nancy Grace to the line didn’t help my opinion. Nor did the Dodge Caliber we received with a nasty gouge in the roof and an unreliable fuel gauge. Yes, all the rental car agencies are on the same loop and require a shuttle bus. But had I rented from Hertz with my (free) #1 Club Gold membership, we’d have been 3/4 of the way to our hotel by the time we got our Advantage car.
• The RTD light rail is well-designed, but their operations after the Rockies game and Friday night’s storms demonstrated why Americans flee mass transit when they have any other choice. One track’s overhead wires were down south of the I-25/Broadway station, so they single-tracked that stretch, and a backlog on the northbound side needed to be cleared. The logical choice would have been to hold our packed southbound train on the three-track Broadway platform, where we had options (up to and including ad hoc taxi pairings, like I’ve done from the Yellow Line in Pentagon City) if the wait got too long. Instead, they moved us a hundred yards south onto an incline, then announced the problem and stopped with no departure estimate. Trapped, we cursed the RTD until the train started moving again 10 minutes later. Dumb decision, angry customers, bad rep for mass transit. Customer focus matters, and they showed none.
• Special demerits to the on-airport Circle K for charging 44c/gal over the local average for regular unleaded. Don’t reward this behavior. Instead, take the last pre-airport exit from I-70 East onto Chambers Road, turn left (northbound), choose one of several gas stations there, and just be sure to top off to cover the ~10 miles you have left.  Continue on northbound Chambers until it T’s out at 56th, turn right, then continue to a left onto the Peña Blvd/Airport onramp.

Read More »