I went to the hearing that Congress convened after MLB announced it's intention to contract. Other topics that came up were the coming CBA war and drugs, and in fact the contraction threat was just MLB flexing it's muscle in anticipation of the coming CBA. Then-Governor Jesse Ventura was a surprisingly effective witness for the cities facing the loss of their teams and being strongarmed into providing new facilities (strongarmed by the same maneuver that MLB was strongarming the MLBPA with --- well played, Commissioner Selig!). He insisted that he, as a former wrestler, could also see the issues from the perspective of an athlete. When this drew broad laughter, he angrily raised his voice, "Say what you will about wrestling, but we use existing facilities and pay rents set by the free marketplace." Nobody laughed at that one. But his most damning testimony was showing pictures of the HHH Metrodome, and pointing out that the trees planted around the outside hadn't yet matured, and here he was being told that the league was firing the city because their facility was woefully out of date. It was scored as "HR-Ventura" by any non-biased bookkeeper in the room. If only it was a 15th inning walkoff. The Metrodome was about 17 at that time, if I remember correctly.