By David Jensen
While listening to the Twins last night, I also watched Seattle v Tampa Bay. The D-Bags were back in the Tampa Dome after playing a series in Orlando. Not surprisingly, nobody noticed. Only 9,254 showed up to watch the Rays lose 5-3. By the eighth, there were no more than a thousand people left in the stands. I felt sorry for the players. Losing is bad enough without having to do it while wearing those dopey cut-off uniforms in an empty stadium.
I came to the conclusion that a change needs to be made. The Rays are going nowhere in Florida. As I mentioned, they’ve recently resorted to playing home games at a minor league park in Orlando. At least they almost filled that stadium. Waning interest can’t be blame by Floridians alone. Management has been inept from the franchises inception, doing little to create fan interest or a culture of winning.
There’s only one way to fix the problem: move the team to Montreal. Although there are a lot of fair weather fans, Montreal is a good sports town which is ready to embrace the Expos more than they did before. If you don’t think they support their teams, try getting Canadiens playoff tickets. You can probably blame Bud Selig for the city’s apathy in the last years of the Expos.* Threatening contraction and publicly stating that the team will head to Washington, D.C. is a good way to alienate a fan base.** And Expos fans couldn’t have been happy when the magical season of 94 was ended by the strike.
There is still a decent stadium downtown which is far better than the Rays current home. If you think the Metrodome is bad, you’re crazy. But you should see what the Devil Rays call home. With bad sight lines, catwalks and hanging wires, Tampa’s dome may be the worst venue in Major League Baseball. The steel roof doesn’t even let the illusion of sunlight in like at the beautiful Metrodome.
So give Montreal a second chance. If you do it right, Baseball can thrive in the great white north.
*Almost everything wrong about baseball can be blamed on Bud Selig.
**Sound familiar, Twins fans?
3 comments:
I had just started getting over the Expos, and you had to go and bring it up...I'm going to go cry myself to sleep now.
I'm sorry but I can't think that Montreal deserves a baseball team. Yet. If you give them back the Expos too soon they will not truly appreciate what they are missing.
The answer is contraction. Remove the Nationals and the Devil Rays and we will get a massive surge in the overall talent, and maybe cause a short windfall in free agent salaries.
In 5 years Montreal will practically be begging for a baseball team, and might just appreciate them more for it.
Miss the spos. I have no National League team to cheer for now. Great uniforms, great logo. Delino Deshields, Marquis Grissom, Tim Wallach, Oil Can Boyd, great history. One of the true tragedies of my life time.
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