God knows they’ve tried. How many new stadium plans have come and gone? The current plan honestly looks awesome; the proposed park design is revolutionary and beautiful, and I’ll believe it will happen when I see people playing major league baseball there and not a moment before.
Tampa is locked into an awful lease. You know they’re desperate when they proposed that insane Tampa/Montreal plan.
Do you have a link to the Oakland Stadium plan?
The good news for the Rays and Baseball is that 2027 is the end of the awful lease. So at least now there is a light at the end of tunnel.
It looks amazing - but I’m with Asimovian, I’ll believe it when I see it.
Wasn’t the Coliseum supposed to be a fantastic park, prior to the installation of Mt. Davis?
The Coliseum was always a mixed use stadium with all the drawbacks of that, and it’s not well located. At least it had grass, unlike many mixed use giant stadiums of the era, like Veterans, Three Rivers, or Busch 1.0. Or Stade Olympique, God help us. I cannot begin to explain to you how bad it was.
Seattle’s King Dome was so very bad.
And, it, along with Rogers Centre, are the only multipurpose stadiums left in MLB (though neither of those stadiums still also host a pro football team).
Riverfront was another one, and while it came around later than those, the Metrodome was a DUMP.
SkyDome is not a good stadium, but as a Toronto resident I’ll tell you this; it’s better than those stadiums, and it’s a lot better than the park it replaced, Exhibition Stadium, often cited as the worst baseball stadium of modern times. It actually wasn’t; Olympic and Tropicana are/were worse. Exhibition was horrible, but
Thank you.
I’ve watched a decent amount of 70s baseball on YouTube during lockdown. My god, those stadiums were just awful. And, of course, made worse by the astroturf.
Exciting comeback win by the now-tied-for-first-place (sorta) Nats, after Max staked Atlanta to a 4-run lead early. Especially considering all the second-stringers in the Washington lineup.
Barry Larkin during the current Pirates/Reds broadcast: “Strap it on, cuz it’s gonna happen fast and furious.”
I…think he meant “buckle up”?
Exhibition certainly wasn’t ideal. I attended many Blue Jays games there in the 1970s and 1980s, and well remember, typically early in the season, bundling up in winter gear (parka, mitts, warm hat, etc.) to attend games. If you were lucky, it wouldn’t snow. Some springtime games got nice weather, but not all.
In fairness, Exhibition Stadium was built as a football stadium, and I went to a number of Toronto Argonauts games there. It could also accommodate events like rock concerts, marching band competitions, and car stunt shows, but it was never designed for baseball. The “retrofit” they had to do to make a Major League ballpark out of it was clumsy at best.
The intention was never to use it as long as they did, even though the awarding of the team was done very quickly. (It is often forgotten that the Blue Jays exist because of lawsuits.)
Nats dropped both ends of a little league (7 inning) doubleheader. What’s next… hitting off a tee in extra innings?
We already have the stupid runner on 2nd to start every extra inning rule. Boy do I hate it.
Yeah, I like neither rule. The runner-on-second thing serves little purpose. The 7x2 doubleheader thing isn’t needed anymore and should be done away with.
I don’t mind rules changes; I can think of several I’d make tomorrow, some quite dramatic and radical. But the rule change should have a specific purpose that improves the game or have a positive effect on player safety. The runner on second thing just eliminates very long extra inning games, which were extremely uncommon anyway. So why do it? And the 7x2 thing, come on.
The Cubs are in a real pickle. They only have 21 hits through the first 6 games. Do they try to re-sign Bryant, Baez, and/or Rizzo, whose contracts (IIRC) are up at the end of the season? The Cubs offense has really declined in the last few seasons. If they try to trade their soon-to-be free agents before the trade deadline, they may not get much in return.
I feel for any Cubs fan who watched all six games. That’s downright painful.
Do we think there is anything fans can do to get this changed back? I would guess around 90% of fans feel this way.