The Minor League Sports Bullshit and Miscellania thread

[Richard]

http://deadspin.com/taxpayers-cover-34-million-arena-renovation-hockey-te-1775140156

Frankly any city spending that much on a minor league team deserves what they get. Anyway my condolences KK.

 

[King Kamala]

It wasn't just for Pirates. Cumberland County Civic Center is outdated as shit and tbh, that $34 million renovation is just a band aid on a flesh wound.

Portland Pirates are (or I guess were) a distant third for popularity for local minor league teams with Sea Dogs being #1 and Maine Red Claws (Celtics D League affiliate) being a solid #2. They switched affiliates so many times it was hard to keep track. I mean I know it's impossible for them to be Bruins affiliate since Providence is so entrenched as Boston's minor league affiliate but it's hard to build loyalty when they switch affiliates literally every 2 or 3 seasons. They also had a weird season during the renovations where they played at an even crappier, older arena in Lewiston and averaged less than a 1,000 fans a game.


Assuming Red Claws will move to the Civic Center now to make up for the losses. Former Red Claws GM is now the City Manager (he can run a minor league basketball team so he can run a city!). They've been playing at a 3,000 seat high school gym and selling out so they'll probably move to 8,000 seat arena and playing to mostly empty houses!

 

[King Kamala]

Went to Game 2 of NBA D League Conference Semi Finals between Maine Red Claws and Fort Wayne Mad Ants. EXCITING!

Red Claws blew a 15 point 4th quarter lead. So Red Claws have lost both times I saw them this year. Should probably not go to any more Red Claws games this year. Although if they win Game 3, they face Raptors 905 in Eastern Conference Finals and I'd miss chance to yell at Raptors 905 coach Jerry Stackhouse.

I did get to see Guerschon Yabusele and he looks like potential stud. 18 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists in 26 minutes. Jordan Mickey had 27 pounds and 13 boards.

Tyler Hansbrough is on Mad Ants. He had 27 points and 15 boards. And if anyone was worried about him being humbled by playing in D League, don't worry! He is still a whiny dick!

 

[Baby Shoes]

You should've followed HANDS BRO to the Mad Ants' Comfort Inn

 

[King Kamala]

I went to a Red Claws game last weekend on a Tinder date. Had some awesome seats four rows behind the Red Claws bench. Anthony Bennett got a DNP, so I spent a lot of my Tinder date staring at a bored Anthony Bennett.

Tinder date went well so this is probably best assist he's made in a while! THANK YOU MAINE RED CLAWS!

 

[Baby Shoes]

I went to a Red Claws game last weekend on a Tinder date. Had some awesome seats four rows behind the Red Claws bench. Anthony Bennett got a DNP, so I spent a lot of my Tinder date staring at a bored Anthony Bennett.

Tinder date went well so this is probably best assist he's made in a while! THANK YOU MAINE RED CLAWS!

I hope you name the babies Anthony and Bennett Kamala, Kamala.

 

[King Kamala]

Me and the girl from Tinder date are still together 6+ months later. I wonder if Anthony Bennett would be the Best Man at the wedding...

Also ARON BAYNES is throwing out the first pitch and signing autographs at a Portland Sea Dogs game later this month.

I bought a six game Sunday afternoon day game package to the Sea Dogs this season. They've been awful but it's been fun to wake & bake with my Anthony Bennett loving lady and go watch Slugger the Sea Dog wear awesome costumes and be best mascot in the minors while the Dogs fumble their way to a 9-3 loss to the Binghamton Rumble Ponies.

 

[alkeiper]

End of an era in Pawtucket. The PawSox are moving to Worcester after the 2020 season. Essentially because the state of Massachusetts would give them money and Rhode Island wouldn’t.

 

[KingPK]

McCoy was like 20 minutes away so this really sucks. I fell off going to games as I got older but one summer my dad and I went at least twice a week because tickets were nothing. Can't wait to see how much more expensive the new place is!

 

[alkeiper]

Providence is too big a market to go empty for long. I imagine an Indy league or NY-Penn team will jump and eventually they’ll land an eastern league franchise. I think if they refuse a new stadium they could still draw a NY-Penn team.

 

[Baby Shoes]

Went to a good amount of PawSox games as a kid with lots of family in Rhode Island. Used to love the portraits of the former players walking in.

Also from earlier in the thread, Kamala and the girlfriend revelation explains why we never talk anymore :'(

 

[King Kamala]

End of an era in Pawtucket. The PawSox are moving to Worcester after the 2020 season. Essentially because the state of Massachusetts would give them money and Rhode Island wouldn’t.

PawSox moving to Worcester is a capital B BAD idea. IMO, there's no way that they'll be able to fill up a 12,000 seat stadium on a regular basis there when Fenway is less than 45 minutes away. Plus the proposed stadium (Polar Park! Only upside is it'll be only park where you can get fresh seltzer on tap!) is in Kelley Square, which is one of the most hellacious intersections I've ever seen. Can't imagine this working well. I feel like Lucchino and co. are gonna regret this move quickly.

I have a bunch of friends in Worcester and their collective reaction is "Huh?". Not a bunch of excitement. Except for possibility that Ric Flair will show up for the inaugural WooSox game.

 

[King Kamala]

Went to my last Sea Dogs game of the year. They lost 8-4. Seems like most of the games I've been to this year have been them losing by four runs. New Hampshire Fisher Cats have both Craig Biggio and Dante Bichette's kid playing for them. Bo Bichette definitely seems like a potential stud. Went 3 for 5 with two doubles and a homer. Fisher Cat Jon Berti also hit for the cycle. I think that's first time I've seen someone hit for the cycle. Cool stuff.

 

[alkeiper]

The Durham Bulls were forced to play the entire Governors Cup finals (International League championship) in scranton. I went to games one and five, got to see the Bulls celebrate. Great accomplishment for them, and I never want to hear minor league fans bitch about playoff home field again.

I’ve been out of my groove the last few years, but this year I managed to hit Citizens Bank Park and also visit the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs, Reading Fightin’ Phils, Clearwater Threshers, Lakewood Blueclaws and Williamsport Crosscutters. All five Phillies affiliates and the big club. Also got to the Futures Game, a Tampa Bay Rays game and several Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders game. Good baseball summer.

The affiliation shuffle commences soon. Fresno and the Astros are not renewing. It seems likely the Astros will land with San Antonio’s new AAA team. If the Rangers and Round Rock renew that leaves Fresno, Las Vegas and Nashville to sort out the Nationals, Athletics and Brewers.

 

[alkeiper]

The Las Vegas 51s become the new affiliate of the Oakland A's. Hearing the Astros are actually heading to Round Rock. Assumption is San Antonio becomes a Rangers affiliate.

 

[alkeiper]

San Antonio remains with the Brewers (San Antonio moved from Colorado Springs, the Brewers’ previous affiliation. The Rangers sign an agreement with Nashville. That leaves the Nationals stuck with their AAA team in Fresno, California.

 

[King Kamala]

I guess this is one way to try and get fans to your minor league team's lame duck last season..

 

[alkeiper]

It's a collegiate summer baseball league. That's not entirely inaccurate.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Just finished watching the first half of the women's college lacrosse NC final and, man, it is such a mindfuck to listen to Stugotz actually speak knowledgeably about a sport, instead of spitting refried hot takes.

 

[Baby Shoes]

In going down the rabbit hole of those Funko Pops, I found out that the Mariners minor league team the Everett AquaSox have their stadium sponsered by Funko and do several Pop Giveaways.

This August they are doing a special commerative Jay Buhner Aqua Sox Funko Pop and I feel like I need to take a trip to Everett, Washington.

 

[alkeiper]

Deep dive on this one. I remember attending a USA/Japan exhibition in Scranton in my youth. Dig some digging and was able to find this gem.

http://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1993-07-21-2937056-story.html

1993, a game that featured collegians Todd Helton, Todd Walker and Russ Johnson. Hiroki Kokubo of Japan went on to hit 413 home runs in Japan.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

There's a brother who went to Providence, playing for the US in the Pan Am Games, named David Duke, Jr. Does that amuse anybody besides me?

 

[Baby Shoes]

I have some family ties to Providence so I did a double take the first time I saw him last year

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Also at the Pan An Games, gold medals were awarded today in dressage, mixed team trap shooting, and men's and women's squash. The United States won all four, which hardly seems surprising to me: if those aren't the three most MAGA sports in existence, they gotta be in the Top Ten, right?

 

[SFH]

I need to find my old programs from the two Babe Ruth World Series in the 90s I was in (as bat boy). I am curious to see if ANY of those kids from across the country that descended to my town made it to the minors/majors. Statistically at least ONE of them, right? Also, indicative of human nature that even at the preteen to teen level of sports how many baseballs got shoved into the dugout for us to sign (yes, they even demanded bat boy sign, consistently).

 

[alkeiper]

A man died during the Fresno Grizzlies' taco eating competition.

 

[KingPK]

I went to what might be my last PawSox game tonight (unless I go next year). It was the first time I was in a luxury suite thanks to my boss and her husband. Highly recommended if you can swing it. There might have been less than 500 people in the stadium and they looked like shit on offense, though (3 hits, losing 4-0). I saw Chris Chavis and Rusney Castillo (the only two PawSox I recognized), so yay?

 

[Master Thrasher]

https://wset.com/news/local/heavy-police-presence-in-keeling-area-police-looking-for-armed-man

https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1166520235521904641

 

[Baby Shoes]

I went to what might be my last PawSox game tonight (unless I go next year). It was the first time I was in a luxury suite thanks to my boss and her husband. Highly recommended if you can swing it. There might have been less than 500 people in the stadium and they looked like shit on offense, though (3 hits, losing 4-0). I saw Chris Chavis and Rusney Castillo (the only two PawSox I recognized), so yay?

I had a ton of family in Rhode Island and lived there for a year when I was little so I remember taking many trips to McCoy as a kid. It is weird to hear about them moving as even though I haven't been to a game in probably over 25 years, I still try to have a fresh PawSox hat in my hat rotation.

 

[alkeiper]

The Blake Bivens stuff is heartbreaking. A go fund me already has $33000 raised which is nice to see given the circumstances.