Minor league baseball is all about promotions. Ridiculous, over-the-top promotions. That's the only way you'll get casual fans to spend time in a hot stadium in a place like Sacramento or Reno. You would think any minor league affiliate would be happy to have any major league team's prospects play in their park. That's not the case for the Mets. Seriously:
"They're undesirable," said Dave Rosenfield, a longtime Norfolk (Va.) Tides executive. "Nobody wants them."
To be fair to the Mets both them and the city their minor league affiliate is in, Las Vegas, are both undesirable. Nobody wants the Mets because their prospects suck, Buffalo kicked the Mets out last year, BUFFALO!, and nobody wants to play in Las Vegas because it's hotter than hell there and the stadium is an old dump. That's why the last two major league teams that have played in Vegas have been the Blue Jays and Mets (do yourself a favor and look at a map and find Vegas, Toronto, and New York and look at the difference) because Vegas is such an undesirable place to play.
There are three minor league affiliates close to me (Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto) and two others within reasonable traveling distance (Reno, Fresno) but I never go to games because I just don't want to sit in the heat to watch minor league baseball. I could only imagine how bad it is to sit in an old dump like the Las Vegas stadium in that desert heat. I can only imagine that is what hell must be like.
I suggest reading the entire Wall Street Journal article because it's basically just one long LOLMETS page.
(Via WSJ)
My god, that pitcher actually pining to play in Norfolk.
ReplyDeleteBetween the heat and that dump of a stadium (I went there a couple of years ago in early April when it was still reasonably cool in LV) I don't blame him for wanting to be in Norfolk.
DeleteIt's just funny, this notion that Norfolk was the perfect woman the Mets let slip away. It just reminds me when Rochester dropped the Orioles because of their AAA "prospects" sucked in the early 00's & the O's got stuck with Ottawa, which no one liked.
DeleteIn that WSJ article, it mentioned that Buffalo dropped the Mets for having crappy prospects. These minor league cities are cruel.
DeleteLV is one of the last places on Earth I would live in. Their average temperature in July is over 100 degrees! The only thing to do there is gamble. It's a wonderful place to visit but horrible place to live.
ReplyDeleteI kind of had to laugh when that article stated the Mets were kicked out of Buffalo because "Buffalo wanted a winner". Maybe it's because the AAA team here in Salt Lake is basically a few hours of relaxation for people, but those four SB losses the Bills took must have done something awful to that town. What were they going to do if the Bisons won the AAA World Series, spill out from the Anchor Bar to riot?
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