Just AAAsking

[Guest AG/DC]

DocTee wrote: Montreal should have a AAA squad.

Montreal should have an unaffiliated squad.

[Fman99]

="DocTee"]Montreal should have a AAA squad.

Montreal was a AAA squad.

[Guest themetfairy]

="Fman99"] ="DocTee"]Montreal should have a AAA squad. Montreal was a AAA squad.

Jackie Robinson played on the Dodgers' Montreal farm team before coming up to the big leagues.

[Benjamin Grimm]

If I could go back in time and revise history, I would have given two of the 1969 expansion teams different names:

I'd call the Montreal franchise the Royals, and the Kansas City franchise the Monarchs.

[soupcan]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: If I could go back in time and revise history, I would have given two of the 1969 expansion teams different names: I'd call the Montreal franchise the Royals, and the Kansas City franchise the Monarchs.

This a fun exercise that we've done before. What should the expansion teams been named?

Colorado Rockies - Denver Bears

Florida Marlins - Miami Marlins (just might get my wish on this one - name change to 'Miami' is supposedly one of the new stadium conditions)

Arizona Diamondbacks - Phoenix Rattlers or Rattlesnakes

Tampa Bay Devil Rays/Rays - for some stupid reason I liked Tampa Bay Manatees. No idea why, I know it's a bad, if not worse, than the actual name.

San Diego Padres - Perfect

Los Angeles Angels - fine.

Houston Colt .45s/Astros - Houston Rockets

Toronto Blue Jays - if Blue Jays are indigenous to Toronto, fine.

Seattle Mariners - I like this one a lot.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm with you on the Denver Bears.

I would have named the Arizona team the Phoenix Firebirds. (That was the name of their AAA team. I think it was a Giants affiliate.)

It looks like Toronto's old minor league team was called the Maple Leafs, so I can understand why they didn't stick with that.

[Guest AG/DC]

Relocated/Renaemed teams --

Washington Nationals is fine but the look isn't doing it for me. That may be because nothing is doing it for me.

Texas Rangers - fine.

Minnesota Twins is too much of civic compromise, at two levels. Something mid-western like Millers or Pioneers or Plainsmen or Ingalls Family.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The minor league team that played there was the Minneapolis Millers.

"Lakers" is a great name for a team from Minnesota. I'm guessing the NBA team hadn't yet vacated to Los Angeles when the Senators arrived from Washington?

[MFS62]

Farmer Ted wrote: Buffalo stadium review: http://www.ballparkreviews.com/buffalo/buffalo.htm Syracuse Stadium review: http://www.ballparkreviews.com/syracuse/pc.htm

Thanks. I remember when the Buffalo team played in old War memorial Staduim. It was a football field jury-rigged (anyone use that term any more?) for baseball. Like the L.A. Colliseum, it had a very short left field line with a high screen. IIRC, Pirate (then) minor leaguer Bob Veale had a game there in which he struck out 15-17 batters in around 7 innigs and gave up 7 runs on cheap homers over that screen.

The new park looks a lot better suited for baseball.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

From A. Rubin's blog:
- "The Daily News has learned that [u:114e26a19b]the Mets are trying to buy a portion of the Syracuse franchise[/u:114e26a19b]"... but if they don�t succeed Buffalo�s facility, which averages nearly 9,000 fans a game, is more attractive than the one in Syracuse.

[Frayed Knot]

More from Rubin:
Triple-A Buffalo is expected to announce its new affiliation at a press conference next Monday. While nothing is official, I�d wager that�s where the Mets are relocating from New Orleans. Syracuse seems like a pretty dysfunctional situation from this distance.

[MFS62]

Verifying that they'll be shufflin' off to Buffalo:
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2008/09/mets_pick_buffalo_over_chiefs.html

Later

[metirish]

Those were the days Eliot .

[Fman99]

MFS62 wrote: Verifying that they'll be shufflin' off to Buffalo: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2008/09/mets_pick_buffalo_over_chiefs.html Later

This stinks. Of course Buffalo routinely draws twice the attendance to their AAA park than Syracuse does and our scoreboard is shot.

It doesn't matter -- the Mets' best prospects always play more in AA and a Buffalo affiliate means regular trips to Syracuse. In the past Norfolk only came up here once per year.

[soupcan]

Boy, the Mets are sure doing a good job in forcing their fans to try to look on the brightside of things these days aren't they?

[Guest themetfairy]

I'm fine with it. It might prompt me to visit Buffalo one of these years. My dad's family is from there, so it would be a good excuse to check out my family history.

Buffalo is also convenient to Niagra Falls and Toronto, both of which are great places to visit.

And Buffalo in the summer is a big improvement on New Orleans!

Road trip anyone?

[soupcan]

themetfairy wrote: Road trip anyone?

To Buffalo?

You must be high.

[Benjamin Grimm]

When it comes to places worth visiting, New Orleans has it all over Buffalo.

But if I ever decide to take the kids to see Niagara Falls, I might make a point of doing it while the Bisons are playing at home.

[Valadius]

]Source: Indians tap Columbus for new affiliate By TOM WITHERS, AP Sports Writer 1 hour, 21 minutes ago CLEVELAND (AP)�The Cleveland Indians have agreed to terms on a four-year deal with the Columbus Clippers, who will be the club�s top minor league affiliate. The agreement with Columbus runs through 2012, a person with knowledge of the negotiations said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the deal had not yet been finalized. An announcement could come as early as Friday. The deal was first reported on The Columbus Dispatch�s Web site. The Clippers, who were the New York Yankees� Triple-A team from 1979-2006 and Washington�s the past two years, are opening a new $55 million downtown ballpark next season. Huntington Park is located in the city�s Arena District, just down the street from where the NHL�s Columbus Blue Jackets play. Columbus played its last game at 76-year-old Cooper Stadium last month. Cleveland recently broke ties with the Buffalo Bisons, who served as the Indians� top minor league team since 1995. The New York Mets are reportedly close to finalizing a deal with Buffalo. Cleveland�s move to Columbus has been expected for months. With a team in the state capital, the Indians will now have four minor league teams in Ohio. They already have affiliates in Akron (Double-A), Lake County (Class A) and Mahoning Valley (Class A).

[Met Hunter]

I say move to either Buffalo or Syracuse, then move the NYPenn team to that city and move the AAA team to Brooklyn.

[Farmer Ted]

Buffalo is cool with me. Good lakefront entertainment spots. Of course, early season is not weather-friendly.

[Frayed Knot]

Met Hunter wrote: I say move to either Buffalo or Syracuse, then move the NYPenn team to that city and move the AAA team to Brooklyn.

This has been discussed here before but it seems to get brought up all the time. Promblem is the Mets can't simply do that. The ownerships in Buffalo and Syracuse are the ones who have membership in the Int'l League, not the Wilpons.

The road to pull off what you're suggesting involves a lot of steps and outside approvals. They would have to:
- Find someone willing to sell them a AAA franchise and buy it
- Expand the park in Brooklyn so it meets Int'l Lg standards (if possible)
because it doesn't now
- Strike an agreeemnt with the Int'l Lg to make Brooklyn one of their teams (they control who's in their league the same way MLB does) and, if granted, move their newly-owned franchise there

And even then I don't think they can do it without permission from the Yanx of all people because I believe NYC territorial rights cover the ability to control both MLB and MiLB teams in this area. The Mets & Yanx basically granted each other the right to allow NY-Penn lg teams here because both benefitted the same. Don't think the Steinbrenners would look too fondly at a AAA in Brooklyn. I'm also not sure if the Wilpons would be into it either. They might thing that giving fans a close-to-MLB option nearby would have an affect on attendance in the big park.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Triple A is, in many ways, not a terribly interesting level.

If I were in Brooklyn I'd be coveting the AA franchise in Binghamton instead of the AAA franchise in Buffalo. (Not that that's necessarily any more likely to happen.)

[Met Hunter]

I wrote that because I'd heard that was the Yankees plan once they landed the Scranton rights. Move the team to S.I. The loophole being that they wouldn't need permission because they already had minor league approval. I guess it's not that simple. But I also agree that I'd rather see AA caliber ball.

[Valadius]

AA sounds better to me as well. AA ball mostly features guys on the verge of making it, all in their 20s. AAA is a mix of guys almost there and 35-year-old retreads. AA is far more exciting.

[Frayed Knot]

Met Hunter wrote: I wrote that because I'd heard that was the Yankees plan once they landed the Scranton rights. Move the team to S.I. The loophole being that they wouldn't need permission because they already had minor league approval. I guess it's not that simple.

I suspect that any rumors of moving AAA to Staten Island either came from the type of bragging Yanqui fan who thinks rules don't apply when it comes to his team or from the type of paranoid Met fan who sees pinstripes around every corner the same way Joe McCarthy did with communists.

'Minor Legue Baseball' is one big umbrella organization but it's made up of a bunch of different leagues operating independently and on different levels so teams can't just unilaterally decide to cross from one to the other.

[G-Fafif]

A minor league article in every sense of the word from a Syracuse columnist here.

]I must report that I remain disappointed that we here in Syracuse appear to have lost the New York Mets' Triple-A club to Buffalo. To that end, I compiled for today's editions of The Post-Standard 25 reasons why the Mets seem to be on the verge of making a grave mistake. As a public service, then -- and ever hopeful that the Amazins will come to their senses -- I repeat those 25 reasons why the Mets should choose us (Syracuse) over them (Buffalo): 1. We haven't lost a single Super Bowl. They've lost four of them. 2. Because we had the world premiere of a big-time Hollywood flick right here in our town just last week, and they didn't. 3. How good of a baseball city can Buffalo be? The world champion Boston Red Sox were founded there, but in 1901 they took a quick look around and bolted for the Commonwealth. 4. Tom Cruise, the world's biggest movie star, lived in Syracuse. The guy who played Boss Hogg on TV lived in Buffalo. 5. Our NBA team, the Nationals led by Dolph Schayes, won a title before it left for Philadelphia. Their club, the Braves led by Marvin Barnes, didn't get a sniff before defecting to San Diego. 6. In the early 1900s, Syracuse's Gustav Stickley made his first chair, no doubt a comfy work of art. A few years earlier, Buffalo's Alfred Southwick had invented the electric chair, which was so, um, ineffective that after its initial use a bystander said, "They should have used an axe." 7. Us: Ernie Davis. Them: O.J. Simpson. 8. Have Leo DiCaprio and the ever-fetching Bar Rafaeli ever strolled, hand-in-hand, along a Buffalo boulevard? Well, they did in Syracuse just last year. 9. Ben Schwartzwalder went 151-93-1, and in 1959 his Orangemen won the national championship. Hank Bullough went 4-16, and in 1985 his Bills drew 21,831 for a home game against the Jets. 10. Because Bobby Mills III, a character in "A Chorus Line," never mentioned Syracuse. But he did say, "To commit suicide in Buffalo is redundant." 11. If the Mets choose to come to Syracuse, they could play America's pastime that much farther away from Canada, eh? 12. Our face: Vanessa Williams. Their face: Fred Smerlas. 13. The Alliance Bank Stadium groundskeeper, Wes Ganobcik, treats every blade of grass inside the joint like a favored child. Meanwhile, after a drizzle over there at Dunn Tire Park you can catch carp in the outfield. 14. Us: Erie Canal. Them: Love Canal. 15. Because the Mets would be replacing that loser, Toronto . . . which means we'd love them even if they only played .500 ball. 16. While president of the United States, Bill Clinton, who could have vacationed anywhere, did so during two breezy summers along the shores of Skaneateles Lake just west of Syracuse. He never did consider Tonawanda, Cheektowaga or Lackawanna. 17. The Syracuse basketball team won the national championship in 2003 and the Syracuse lacrosse team won the NCAA title in 10 different seasons. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Wings and the Buffalo Stampede used to play in now-defunct roller hockey leagues. 18. Felix Cavaliere left Syracuse and formed a band called The Young Rascals. John Wayne Bobbitt left Buffalo and formed a band called The Severed Parts. No, really. 19. Otto, the symbol of Syracuse University, and Mr. Met, New York's big-headed mascot, look like they were separated at birth. Sort of. If you squint. 20. Our 22nd & 24th president, Grover Cleveland, romped as a fair-haired lad in Fayetteville, a leafy suburb just east of Syracuse. Our 25th president, William McKinley, was shot in Buffalo. 21. The Flutie Curse, which has kept the Bills out of the playoffs for all of this 21st century -- or since the boobish Wade Phillips benched Doug Flutie for no good reason against Tennessee in that lost 1999 postseason game -- might unleash termites on the Mets' bats. 22. Us: The New York State Fair. Them: The Erie County Fair. 23. Come to Syracuse and the Mets would be an hour or so north of their Double-A club playing in Binghamton. Go to Buffalo and they'd be an hour or so north of 600,000 gallons of radioactive waste buried in West Valley. 24. Who knows? This Destiny USA thing might work out, which means that some day there might be a mall kiosk with the Mets' name on it. 25. Finally, we have the International Mask & Puppet Museum, and they don't.

[Frayed Knot]

I wonder if Chuckles Schumer, considering that he made a fairly big show out of championing Syracuse as a way to move the Mets to NYS, will take credit for their arrival even though I don't believe he ever mentioned Buffalo?
Knowing the unusually strong and scientifically unexplainable magnetic attradtion between the Senator and TV cameras I suspect he might.



Mets announced that they've re-upped their agreement with South Atl Lg affiliate Savannah, GA for their Low-A team.
I believe all the other affiliates have already been extended so, aside from awaiting the offical word on the AAA shift, the rest of the lineup will be the same for the next two years.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Kingsport goes on and on and on...

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Baffalo News reporting this is a done deeleeo