Will the Pirates stay in Pittsburgh?

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by pman

people complain that the same teams always win but the yankess won five in the 30's and 5 in the 50's...long before free agency. they only won 2 in the last decade. maybe florida baseball is like georgia hockey

I am less interested in how often teams win the championship than how often do they win? How often do they make the playoffs? The Atlanta Braves have only one championship but the better measure of their success was how often did they make the playoffs?

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by pman

people complain that the same teams always win but the yankess won five in the 30's and 5 in the 50's...long before free agency. they only won 2 in the last decade. maybe florida baseball is like georgia hockey

I agree. People complain, but it's ALWAYS been this way. Since 1928 The Pirates were great in the 70s and one semi-flukey good season in 1960, had a few good years in the 90s, and that's basically been it. We've had good players in other years, but the playing field never has been level, free agency or not.

[pman]

Originally Posted by SammyKhalifa

I agree. People complain, but it's ALWAYS been this way. Since 1928 The Pirates were great in the 70s and one semi-flukey good season in 1960, had a few good years in the 90s, and that's basically been it. We've had good players in other years, but the playing field never has been level, free agency or not.

you could level the playing field by expanding the number of teams in big markets. ny used to have three teams (two of which were good) when the metro was smaller. baseball insists on keeping florida flops but maybe having more teams in the northeast would help. move the A's back to philly, a florida team to ny (rays to ny?)..over time you fragment the fanbase. that said, the playing field is never level I guess. instead, the system is set up to protect the profits of the owners...look at the problems they had putting the nationals in washington...I'd bet the powerful yankees would put the kibosh on another AL team in ny, even if it were good for the sport overall.

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by pman

you could level the playing field by expanding the number of teams in big markets. ny used to have three teams (two of which were good) when the metro was smaller. baseball insists on keeping florida flops but maybe having more teams in the northeast would help. move the A's back to philly, a florida team to ny (rays to ny?)..over time you fragment the fanbase. that said, the playing field is never level I guess. instead, the system is set up to protect the profits of the owners...look at the problems they had putting the nationals in washington...I'd bet the powerful yankees would put the kibosh on another AL team in ny, even if it were good for the sport overall.

It doesn't help that the Commish so badly kowtows to the BOS-NYY people. The more cynical fans (myself included I guess) expects that all of this talk of realignment/changes to playoff format is just to guarantee that Boston and the Yankees get into the playoffs every year.


It DOES amaze me just how dominant the major markets have been, though. In fact, the list of WS teams strongly resembles the historical largest cities list:
Largest cities in the United States by population by decade - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of World Series champions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


They were a larger percentage of the teams in the past, but look at how many of the past WS participants were from one of the largest cities (New York, Chicago, Philly, Detroit, Brooklyn/LA Dodgers). In the fifties, a New York team played another New York team in half of the years. If anything, the teams in it have become MORE diverse since free agency.

None of this is an excuse for the Pirates to be as terrible as they have been, don't get me wrong.

[pman]

baseball came out of places like the northeast and pittsburgh...it expanded to the west and south later (boston braves, philadelphia a's, brooklyn dodgers, etc). as one article noted, the red sox actually winning has been great for baseball. likewise, a real rivalry with the mets and phillies was important...and for the blue jays, the lost rivalry with detroit is important. these regional rivalries have always been important to the game and perhaps overlooking them is hurting the game a little. it's just a vastly different game than the once a week football contest that people can drive from all over to. I'd be curious what saturday/sunday attendance is versus tuesday night. obviously the pens have been a good team, but the rivalries with the caps and flyers is a good thing for the sport. in ny that regional rivalry is on steroids, with brooklyn pride (though despite being ny's largest borough, they were the worst team). maybe there should be a jersey jerks, a brooklyn dodgers, etc. in the nhl certain teams work better than others