The Minor League Sports Bullshit and Miscellania thread

[Kageho]

Okay. Why not just make the entire logo blue? I mean, the other colors aren't different shades of blue. Totally against what the name is.

 

[Damaramu]

*palm to face*

SIGH

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

So...assuming you and your son aren't going to become Oklahoma City Blue season ticket holders, Dama?

 

[Richard]

Why have your d league team in the same city? shouldn't they be in the sticks somewhere?

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

http://www.nba.com/dleague/draft2014/results.html?ls=iref:nbahpts
NBA D-League Draft is always fun for the "He's still around!?" aspect. Had no idea Dominique's nephew/Gerald's son Damien Wilkins was still playing. Erik Murphy was the #3 pick LOL. Red Claws first pick doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry. Summer League Favorite Yuki Togashi got drafted in the second round by Santa Cruz.

EFF YES! The Red Claws picked John Stockton's kid in the third round. 8)

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

http://www.celticsblog.com/2014/11/15/7226089/boston-celtics-assign-rookies-james-young-and-dwight-powell-to-maine-red-claws
Woo hoo! Got tickets to see the Red Claws home opener on Friday.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

EFF YES! The Red Claws picked John Stockton's kid in the third round. 8)

There must have been some sort of trade, because Stockton's kid plays for Reno.

Apropos of nothing, I can't stand Reno's horseshit Grinnell offense.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Oh yeah. Stockton's kid got traded to Reno right after the draft/I made that post.

We got Florida Gulf Coast/Dunk City star Sherwood Brown returning this year though! That's gotta be worth something!

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

I know I already said this, but I really, really, really, really, really hate this horseshit Grinnell system. Someone stick the whole Aresenault family in an oven, please!

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

New Britain Rock Cats (Colorado Rockies Double A Affiliate) are moving 10 miles up the road to Hartford in 2016. Amazing that Hartford hasn't had a team until then. They have (or well, soon to be had) to be the largest city without a pro baseball team at any level, right, alkeiper?


Also closer to home, Old Orchard Beach, Maine is gonna have their first professional team in 27 years. The East Coast Baseball League (which is so new/obscure that it doesn't even have a Wikipedia page yet) is gonna have one of their inaugural franchises there. They say it's gonna be equivalent to Class A Baseball. I can't imagine this team lasting more than a season. I really don't see the need for it with the Double A Portland Sea Dogs a ten minute drive away but who knows...

I'm amazed that Old Orchard Beach once had a Triple A Team.

 

[alkeiper]

New Britain Rock Cats (Colorado Rockies Double A Affiliate) are moving 10 miles up the road to Hartford in 2016. Amazing that Hartford hasn't had a team until then. They have (or well, soon to be had) to be the largest city without a pro baseball team at any level, right, alkeiper?

Depends on semantics. If a team ten miles down the road doesn't count, then the answer surely has to be Dallas. Portland recently got a Northwest League team in a suburb, before that they were left out of baseball. Maybe Montreal, I don't know how close to the city the CanAm teams are. A few California cities have exploded in population like Riverside, Santa Ana, Long Beach, but we know they're served by ballclubs. I think the runaway winner is Orlando, which hosts the Spring Training Braves but no other home teams.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

True. New Britain really is basically a suburb of Hartford. Not sure how many people from Hartford were going to RockCats games though. I went to a RockCats game about five years ago since it was the nearest minor league team to where I went to college. It was mostly families and empty seats. Other thing I took away is the RockCats ran onto the field to Sable's theme!

I coulda swore Orlando had the Devil Rays' Double A affiliate but Wikipedia's telling me that was over ten years ago.

 

[Smartly Pretty]

I've been to the Braves spring training facility down there, ESPN Sports World or some shit like that. It'd be a fun place for a full time FSL affiliate but I think, in that it's attached to Disney, they prefer it as a venue for like, high school softball championships and the like.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Larry Lucchino's bought the Pawtucket Red Sox and I guess he wants to build a new ballpark in Providence and move the team there. So that covers another big city that kind of sort of but doesn't really have a minor league baseball team.

That would leave Worcester as the biggest city in New England without a pro baseball team. I saw a Worcester Tornadoes game like 3 or 4 years ago before Jose Canseco bankrupted them. It was not good!

 

[alkeiper]

I've been to the Braves spring training facility down there, ESPN Sports World or some shit like that. It'd be a fun place for a full time FSL affiliate but I think, in that it's attached to Disney, they prefer it as a venue for like, high school softball championships and the like.

I think it'd be difficult to maintain a franchise, even given the paltry attendance standards of the FSL. It's well outside Orlando, it would be a chore for residents to attend games regularly. You can't hold day games in Orlando, the heat and humidity are oppressive. Keep in mind other FSL teams are on the coast where the Ocean/Gulf keeps things milder.

I'd love to see Orlando proper get a minor league team. But then I'd like to see just about everybody get a new team. With private funding of course.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Also closer to home, Old Orchard Beach, Maine is gonna have their first professional team in 27 years. The East Coast Baseball League (which is so new/obscure that it doesn't even have a Wikipedia page yet) is gonna have one of their inaugural franchises there. They say it's gonna be equivalent to Class A Baseball. I can't imagine this team lasting more than a season. I really don't see the need for it with the Double A Portland Sea Dogs a ten minute drive away but who knows...

They just announced that the team name would be The Surge.

Anybody who knows Old Orchard Beach would know that it's kind of appropriate that they'd name their minor league team after a soda from 1998.

 

[KingPK]

I wish I could have gotten to McCoy more often; after the renovation it was a good mix of old school ballpark atmosphere with newer amenities. Hopefully they don't jack the prices up on everything like I'm at a Providence Bruins game.

 

[alkeiper]

The Rhode Island Surge? Man, I hate the new naming trends in minor league baseball.

You go through the Midwest League for example and you get teams like the West Michigan Whitecaps, Great Lakes Loons, Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. Instead of teams representing a long history of minor league baseball in their cities, you have to research where they even are. I mean, the Great Lakes Loons could be in any one of several states! And given that they usually represent teams from far away, they are utterly anonymous and interchangeable within their leagues. It's terrible long term.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

The Rhode Island Surge? Man, I hate the new naming trends in minor league baseball.

It's the Old Orchard Beach Surge. But it could be worse. I was looking at the East Coast Baseball League's website and one of the other team's name was the Waterloo Whiskey Jacks. That's the worst/best team name I've ever heard. The frig is a "Whiskey Jack"?

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Watching the Maine Red Claws-Fort Wayne Mad Ants (speaking of terrible minor league team names) D League Playoffs game on ESPNU right now.

At first, I was kind of wondering why they would show this game on ESPNU but it's kind of obvious that they're using a college video production crew so I guess it sort of makes sense.

Good to see Jordan Crawford again.

Fort Wayne seems to be a perfect example as to why D League teams are moving to smaller & smaller arenas (or in the case of the Lakers D-League affiliate, just using their parent club's practice court). There's like 500 people in 10,000 seat arena. 500 might be overly generous.

 

[Baby Shoes]

I wish I could have gotten to McCoy more often; after the renovation it was a good mix of old school ballpark atmosphere with newer amenities. Hopefully they don't jack the prices up on everything like I'm at a Providence Bruins game.

I have a ton of family in RI and lived there for a bit when I was little. Went to tons of games at McCoy and even have a present day PawSox hat in my rotation to the confusion of many on the West Coast.

Hearing the move makes me very sad.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Even though I really enjoy going to minor league baseball games, I've probably been to two or three Portland Sea Dogs games in the past five years.

Then this week they announced that Kelly Olynyk would be throwing out the first pitch and signing autographs at a game last weekend of June and Mick Foley would be doing the same thing on July 2nd. It seems like they're personally trying to appeal to me to come out to more games.

I looked at the Sea Dogs schedule and I guess Big Bird is throwing out the first pitch the day after Olynyk. They're trying to appeal to four year old me too.

 

[alkeiper]

Mr. Belding nights have become a regular occurrence around the local minor league circuit. It kinda baffles me.

 

[claydude14]

Well I'm guessing Belding will do anything he's into clinging onto that character and whoring himself.

Bret Hart is in Rochester (NY) next week or the week after for the Red Wings. It's on like a Tuesday though not sure I'm putting in the effort (I work til 8 and would need to use time to get out early)...

 

[Baby Shoes]

Even though I really enjoy going to minor league baseball games, I've probably been to two or three Portland Sea Dogs games in the past five years.

Then this week they announced that Kelly Olynyk would be throwing out the first pitch and signing autographs at a game last weekend of June and Mick Foley would be doing the same thing on July 2nd. It seems like they're personally trying to appeal to me to come out to more games.

I looked at the Sea Dogs schedule and I guess Big Bird is throwing out the first pitch the day after Olynyk. They're trying to appeal to four year old me too.

I've wanted to go to Sea Dogs before but now I feel I must go.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Mr. Belding nights have become a regular occurrence around the local minor league circuit. It kinda baffles me.

Saved By The Bell nostalgia seems about as huge as ever. Which is bizarre cause SBTB nostalgia is like 15 years strong now. And Belding is the most affordable, least crazy SBTB alumnae. It's weird but not that weird.

Belding was at the Sea Dogs either last season or the season before btw.

 

[SFH]

From what I've been hearing since the mid-90s is that New Orleans Zephyrs games are apparently awesome for fan experience, yet I've only been at that ball park for charity events. Hell, six years strong now, I've been supposed to have arranged attendance for the wife when they have "star wars night" but I keep flaking.

I love live baseball, too.

Hell I don't even like LSU but enjoyed the hell out of myself the time we were gifted tickets to their baseball game against 'bama.

 

[JHawk]

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers are doing Saved by the Bell Night on 7/17 complete with Mr. Belding appearance. I work until 5:30, the game is at 7:05, and the stadium is within walking distance of my work. I kind of want to go just to see how much weight he gains between now and then

 

[Baby Shoes]

The better question is how much weight he gains inning to inning.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Went to my first Portland Sea Dogs game of year against Trenton Thunder, on a whim. Beautiful day for baseball. Red Sox pitching prospect Teddy "Stanky Leg" Stankiewicz started and put on a clinic. 6 IP, four hits, six strikeouts. Hope he makes the majors so I can hear sports anchors yell "Put some STANK on it" during his highlights. Really good pitching duel. Both teams offense looked super crummy so it might be a combination of good pitching and bad hitting. Sea Dogs won 1-0 with a walkoff double in bottom of the 9th.

Plus it was a 12 P.M. game so it was done by 2:15-2:30. Day baseball rules.