caulfield12

Baseball has actually done a great job protecting and expanding their revenue streams, especially for a sport where those who list it as their favorite are 57 years old already. That’s not the ideal target demographic for marketers, to say the least. Look at all the challengers and challenges. Minor league baseball…that’s always been there, of course. The Internet. Social media. Netflix. The rising cost of cable and satellite t.v. College, high school and NFL football towards the end of a season. Golf has been a lot more popular since Tiger Woods, NASCAR had its run, mixed martial arts, now the biggest thing around the world is e-sports. Disney+. Hulu. Home theatre systems and increasingly affordable big screen t.v.’s. The list goes on and on. Fewer and fewer African Americans engaging with the sport. 4 1/2 hour games, shifting and bullpen over reliance. Instant replay. Cue Greg rant about concessions and souvenir prices for good measure. If nothing else, 6.8% inflation guarantees rising costs…with everything likely going up at least 10-15% regardless of the lockout.

Are they teaching only Ayn Rand now in high school economics? It’s like 75-80% of the country “sympathizes” with job creators when only 2-3% in the US own and operate companies with over 100 employers. Then we look the other way when Zuckerberg, the Walton Family, Bezos and Trump, etc., pay less than 10% in Federal taxes and receive numerous write offs (written into the tax code as a result of lobbying and politicians in their pockets). They’re basically taking advantage of every possible loophole to get the government to pay as much as possible for health care (and retirement) so they’re no longer responsible like in the 1950’s through 80’s. When a venture goes awry, their vendors take a bath while they simultaneously declare bankruptcy. Read Black Edge about Steve Cohen, Poppysox. Look at how many SAC Capital Advisers went to jail while he got off scot-free. It’s like taking the side of the mortgage companies, banks and rating agencies over a decade ago. Until recently, they even got taxpayer financed public stadiums, or benefitted from TIF and various other abatements and workarounds. Now that window has closed, at least.

Greensboro in the Sally League had that name in the past as well...

I think a Spanish name might be a bit controversial...other than the obvious influence on the names of the US cities themselves. Then you have to consider the political correctness of cowboys vs. Native Americans, and the fact that the Dallas football team essentially has the same name. Roadrunners works. You have the El Paso Chihuahuas I guess, as well as the Diablos/Devils.

They're going to have to prioritize somewhere. It's going to be getting the younger players higher salaries and/or earlier free agency or veterans that are at risk of being pushed out of the game because of the overall affordability of much younger replacements...but it seems the only thing that would really help the mid-tier veterans would be the institution of salary floors. That said, more and more teams could continue the trend of going towards those early-career (or at least in mid 20's) extensions that we've seen the last 5 years with many White Sox players and Sale/Eaton/Q in the past...another form of redistribution from older to younger/youngish players.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/texas-mlb-expansion-team/ Here's a much more in-depth article that looks at the A's and/or Rays leaving their markets...with two more teams coming into the majors to balance it at 32 teams. Looking like more of a 7-10 year window, with the stadium issue (financing) being the single most important issue, as well as ownership groups/buyers. Obvious point is that it would pretty much have to be an NL team. Fire Ants? Lone Star Hipsters?

That's the interesting thing, because non-Texans think of it as more of a football state. Then again, with the all the Friday night and Saturday college games...and then the NFL having Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays now, there's bordering on too much football. (Surely, those words are sacrilegious.) SA and Nashville (to me) have always seemed like more viable minor league markets for baseball, but who knows. Charlotte (of the southern cities) seemed the likeliest, wedged between DC and Atlanta. However, with all the general population and specifically high tech movement into that area of Texas, anything is possible. https://www.opportunityatlas.org/ Going by these "wealth/higher salary" areas, the logical place would be the I-35 tract (most of the money in SA is in the northern or western suburbs) between Schertz and New Braunfels.

Well, the owners definitely have an idea how much it's already impact season ticket sales/deposits as well as promotional nights/sponsorships/giveaways.

Movies recently watched Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 3.5/4 Eternals 1.5/4 Power of the Dog 3.25/4.0 (although most reviewers are giving it 3.5 after a second watch, for quite obvious reasons if you have watched it) West Side Story 3.5/4.0 Dune 3.25/4.0 Tick, Tick...Boom!!! 3.5/4.0 (highly-recommended if you like musicals or Andrew Garfield) Licorice Pizza... 3.5/4.0 mix Once Upon a Time in Hollywood's feel with a coming of age romance (25 year old woman with 15 year old "boy") Really liked this one a lot...especially the fact that the two leads are pretty much unknowns. Others on the viewing list include some more GG nominees, like King Richard (Will Smith meets Richard Williams of Williams tennis playing sisters renown and aces the role, supposedly), Belfast, Being the Ricardos, A Hero (amazing Iranian director, also did A Separation)

Wouldn't you think it would be more or less midway between Austin and SA? Like Arlington, between Dallas and Fort Worth? Of course, that would create naming issues...since "Texas" already taken by the Rangers. Hopefully nothing to do with the Alamo.

https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/spider-man-no-way-home-review-tom-holland-1235132550/ This is the offending review referenced earlier....read at your own risk, roughly 2/3rd's of the way in.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32860460/college-football-top-10-bottom-10-moments-2021

King Richard…..errr, Fernando, Sr. But seriously, Ball’s dad wasn’t all that far off in his predictions, he was just far too obnoxious and starstruck and greedy…and simply jumped the gun and lost all credibility.

"Had a nice chat with Tatis Sr recently in STL. He told me Elijah is a natural, one day he decided to pick up baseball and did, he has better tools than Tatis Jr. While Fernando works harder to get better, Elijah plays better at this age than Jr did." How could he be their highest upside teenager in half a decade if almost nobody believes that he (Tatis, Jr.) was much of anything back in 2015 due to his paltry signing bonus? Or it's simply saying we have hardly signed ANY teenagers during that time...for whatever reason (although it has been long speculated about around here.)

https://twitter.com/poloascencio/status/1146063751918960643?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1146063751918960643|twgr^|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flarrybrownsports.com%2Fbaseball%2Ffernando-tatis-sr-son-elijah-better-tools-jr%2F502976

Jhan Mariñez and Osvaldo Martínez.

https://www.dodgersnation.com/dodgers-offer-to-max-scherzer-revealed-exploring-options-to-replace-mad-max/2021/12/10/ And so were the Dodgers…on their own guy. Will be interesting if LA ends up with Rodon, Montas and L.Castillo also being discussed as trade options.

Just says they’re assigned to the DSL. Hard to find any info.

Wouldn’t it be much wiser to double or triple the contracts for all those identifying and developing the young Cleveland pitchers and recruit them to the White Sox organization?

Almost equally important was flipping another higher pick, Daz Cameron and pieces, for Verlander. And then how they got their hands on Yordan Alvarez, yet another huge piece of the puzzle.

Yes, you are...

OK, Boomer...

Yes, the inevitable Vaughn/Burger at second nonsense again...

Well, we can all hope that Chris Getz wouldn't be so off in an evaluation...especially as the gritty/grindy type who never possessed any of the physical talent easily accessible from the Luis Robert Tool Chest. For example, Ben Sheets' future power scouting numbers from 2-3 years ago would be pretty interesting to look back at in retrospect.

Sure, if we didn’t have 4-8 week mandatory quarantines upon returning to China. Also, International flights still down 97.8% from two years ago, so ticket prices are through the roof…even for Korea.