Pearly Gates is...Quick ReferenceRecent postsLinksRichard's other blog:Hall Of Fame:
The "Real" Media:
Halosphere:
Minor League Affiliates:
Other Baseball Blogs:
Other Random Crap (in a good way):
Soccer:Archive
Blog*Spot ArchivesContactRichard Ceccarelli Josh Mandir |
Saturday, June 26, 2004Do you want to be the one to tell Art Howe it's a dry county?I've mentioned a couple of times before that I greatly enjoy the Salt Lake City area. It's clean, quiet, and cold- everything Southern California lacks. It's Toronto, with green money. While I certainly would never want to live there, a yearly trek to Park City is required to "recharge the batteries" in my opinion. That being said, this suggestion from William Rhoden of the New York Times is asinine (hat tip: Flushing Local): The "Lovable Losers" motif was fine in its day, but losing is not lovable anymore. Someone has to win, someone has to lose. But embracing losing - coming up oh-so-short, as the Mets have done - is not where it's at anymore.I hope this was written in jest. The idea that the Mets are suffering from lack of fan support in New York is ridiculous. Sure, they play second fiddle to the Yankees- always have and always will- but the table scraps the Yankees leave behind would be a feast for almost any other club in baseball. The New York media market is nearly 20,000,000 strong. Even if you assume that Mets draw support from only 1/8th of the population of New York (just a conservative estimate), that's still 2.5 million. That would be the 16th largest market in the US- larger than Minneapolis, Baltimore, Denver, and St. Louis among others. For comparison's sake, Salt Lake City is 42nd on that list. As Flushing Local points out, Salt Lake City is actually a smaller market than is Columbus, Ohio (the home of the Yankee's AAA club) as well as the Northern Virginia area where the Mets' own AAA franchise is located. In fact, it's smaller than about 16 other minor-league markets. There is no way a major league team could ever survive in the Salt Lake City market. The other problem is the fact that, while Salt Lake is my kind of town, it's practically hell on earth for a young professional athlete. They do a fine job of supporting the Jazz, but when was the last time the Jazz brought in a top-flight free agent? That's right- never. Why would it be any different for a baseball team? Salt Lake City is quaint, calm, and a fabulous getaway. But let's face facts- it's a strictly minor-league town. Besides, we don't need another Coors field. |
